BEARDSTOWN, Ill. – An equipment failure delayed harvesting activities at a Cargill plant in Beardstown, Ill. The plant typically harvests 19,500 hogs daily and employs 2,000 people.

Mike Martin, Cargill spokesman, said a sprocket gear broke and harvesting was stopped for three hours.


"The line’s back up and running," Martin said. "We’ll make up the lost harvest tomorrow."

He added that no meat fabrication work was impacted, so there was no impact to customer orders.