Cattle Feedyard Workers in Rural Nebraska: Safety, Health, and Precarity

abstract:Cattle feedyards, or feedlots, are a common feature of the Great Plains. These animal feeding operations shape the region’s landscape, economy, and social fabric and form an integral part of the American beef industry. They also rely on the labor of thousands of workers, many of whom are migrants, immigrants, and refugees, who often perform dirty, dangerous, and demanding jobs in challenging conditions with high risk of injury. To improve the safety and health of feedyard workers, a multidisciplinary team of researchers and industry stakeholders are collaborating to produce a voluntary, module-based safety and health training program that addresses many of the top hazards on feedyards. This article presents key insights and recommendations emerging from ongoing ethnographic research that informs this project by exploring the perspectives, experiences, and needs of feedyard workers and other stakeholders. Our findings suggest that this program has the potential and opportunity to help meet the needs of feedyard managers, address gaps in limited training, and improve the safety and health of workers. These efforts and other initiatives that address the well-being of feedyard workers may benefit by considering their precarity, along with the broader context of their lives and rural change in the Great Plains.