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

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bendixsen CG ; Klataske RT
• Description:
  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. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Cattle Emigration And Immigration Farmers Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Cattle Cattle Industry Ethnography Farm Workers Feedlots Feedyards Health Immigrant Workers Livestock Foods Migrant Workers Precarity Safety Worker Health Workers Worker Safety

  More +
• ISSN:
  1052-5165
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Nebraska ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  159-176
• Volume:
  32
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067680
• Citation:
  Great Plains Res 2022 Fall; 32(2):159-176
• Contact Point Address:
  Ryan T. Klataske, Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
• Email:
  rklataske@gmail.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of Nebraska Medical Center - Omaha
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20110901
• Source Full Name:
  Great Plains Research
• End Date:
  20270831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1b5f636f3e00d0c47113a47a945c53cf1a1bf0d6a47af10e7e66d688444070bcd68b30e57117b865a184e70e432a1f3b18b6c4d9aaa1b9f475e019c22184155c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/229948/cdc_229948_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 190.20 KB ]