Meat+Poultry - March 2022 - 63

Gobbling
up
TECHNOLOGY
Turkey processors peck away at
improving efficiency and yields
BY KEITH LORIA | meatpoult r y@sosland.com
I
t's no secret that turkey processing and
production has been challenged over the last
couple of years due to the impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
" The last two years have been all about the
COVID-19 pandemic, " said Allison Attaway,
marketing manager of poultry for Marel, with
US offices in Lenexa, Kan. " People have been
eating out less and at home more. Family
gatherings at major events like Thanksgiving
have been necessarily smaller. Food price
inflation, the worst in 30 years, has also played
its role in changing eating patterns. "
Labor challenges due to the pandemic
have contributed to decreased production
and declining inventories of frozen and fresh
turkeys while demand for whole birds and
cut up meat and trims has remained steady.
This has translated into rising prices for whole
turkeys and turkey meat.
" While labor and supply remain constrained,
there will always be a tremendous focus on
yield to maximize every bit of product that
goes through processing, " said Stephen Chung,
vice president of product management for
Cantrell-Gainco Group Inc., Gainesville, Ga.
" Our company's YieldPlus debone and trim
management systems provide active real-time
reporting for production performance and
operator accountability. "
The YieldPlus is a modular multiworkstation
system that controls the
distribution of product to trim operators
while tracking individual performance leading
to yield increases as high as 5% along with
increased operator productivity.
Eric Nolten, vice president of sales for
Meyn America, Ball Ground, Ga., noted
the quest for automation is always there,
especially with a tight labor pool.
" Automation in evisceration is what we
specialize in, where our fully automatic
eviscerator is mainly our driver for the unique
value proposition in combination with our
rehanger, " he said. " Even though the turkey
industry is specialized, we have maintained our
technical capability on the evisceration side,
making sure we can deliver the best solution in
the industry. "
Butterball, the Garner, NC-based turkey
producer, believes automation and innovations
to improve efficiency will be the name of the
game in 2022 and beyond as manufacturing
companies are learning how to do more
with less.
" There is a significant responsibility that
comes with being a big piece of the turkey
supply in America, and Butterball works hard
to make sure we can maintain the integrity
of that supply, whether through process
improvements, innovations, or being a top
employer in our local communities, among
others, " a spokesperson for the company said.
SUPPLY ISSUES
The industry is facing numerous challenges,
chief among them being supply issues. There's
been an incredible focus around the security
and reliability of supply, which has been
underscored by the challenges over the past
two years.
The disruptions to the supply chain and
labor challenges that companies across many
industries have experienced in the past two
years have accelerated the need for operations
to run more efficiently, while also being more
agile and less susceptible to factors that would
have triggered downtime in the past.
www.meatpoultry.com | 03.22 | MEAT+POULTRY
63
" Automation
of the most
physically
demanding
jobs means
that operatives
can be moved
to lighter work
resulting in
lower staff
turnover. "
- ALLISON ATTAWAY
http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - March 2022

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