Deals
US Chicken Merger Spells End to ‘Abusive’ Pay System for Farmers
- Wayne-Sanderson Farms eschews tournament system in settlement
- Biden Administration officials optimistic about future reforms
A Lohmann Brown chicken at a poultry farm in Sheffield, Illinois.
Photographer: Daniel AckerThis article is for subscribers only.
A merger of two US chicken companies may transform how American poultry farmers get paid, as it does away with a compensation system criticized as unfair and abusive.
As part of the conditions US government officials set for the combination, Wayne-Sanderson Farms -- the merger of the sixth- and third-largest American chicken producers -- won’t be able to use a so-called tournament system to pay growers.