An ice storm affecting the South Central and Southeast, regions of the broiler industry, resulted in closure of plants on Wednesday, February 1st extending from Texas eastward to Arkansas. In some cases, first shifts were cancelled with production resuming later in the day.
With extensive icing, harvesting of broilers is difficult and in mountainous regions, impossible. Workers have difficulty in accessing plants and decisions to cancel shifts was based on the realities of weather and in the interest of safety.