Fresno County declares emergency as cow carcasses pile up. Plant to temporarily close
A large rendering plant in Fresno County — known to dispose of cattle and other carcasses — has a problem with some of its equipment, leading to what county officials described as a “local emergency” Tuesday.
Baker Commodities in Kerman notified the county Friday that a boiler was leaking, causing it to work inefficiently and leading to a backlog in carcasses at its rendering plant, according to Dave Pomaville, director of Fresno County Public Health.
The rendering plant, which is the only one of its size in the central San Joaquin Valley, must shutdown for about a week to fix the equipment. While it’s down, cattle that die on farms will not be picked up or rendered, officials said.
“This presents a problem for local livestock owners (who) don’t have a means to dispose of their dead animals,” Pomaville said.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors declared the pileup of dead animals an emergency Tuesday, freeing up officials to work with the state Water Resources Board, state Department of Food and Agriculture and CalRecycle to allow on-site composting and burial of the carcasses for dairy owners.
Baker Commodities is in the process of expanding the Kerman plant and has recently been inundated with cattle that died because of temperature swings, according to Jimmy Andreoli II, the assistant vice preisdent of public relations.
Supervisor Brian Pacheco, who owns a dairy, said the board didn’t have much of a choice but to declare the emergency.
“This is the only game in town from Bakersfield to Stockton and they just went offline,” he said. “This is a major, major issue in the livestock industry, but it’s not just Fresno County. It’s the entire Valley.”
Past delays at the rendering plant have spelled difficult times for dairies. A large number of cattle died during a heat wave in 2017 that sent so many carcasses to the plant that staff could not keep up.
The plant could be back to operation by the weekend, officials said.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 3:11 PM.
