Tyson reports on sustainability

Tyson Foods Inc., parent company of Tyson Mexican Original, Portland, is issuing its first comprehensive sustainability report since its acquisition of the Hillshire Brands Company in 2014.
The report will be issued in segments over the next five weeks.
This week’s segment focuses on the company’s “animal well-being” efforts.
Other segments will cover environmental stewardship, workforce, product development, and corporate giving policies.
The animal well-being segment features more detailed information on the Tyson FarmCheck program, which involves on-farm, third party animal well-being audits.
“Fiscal 2015 was a year of progress for Tyson Foods but was not without challenges,” said Dr. Christine Daugherty, vice president of Sustainable Food Production for Tyson Foods, in a prepared statement. “We’re humble enough to admit we’re not perfect and are working every day to strengthen our commitment to making sure the animals we depend on are treated properly.”
The company said it is continuing to do its part to address global concerns about antibiotic resistance.
Tyson also said is making progress toward its goal of eliminating the use of human antibiotics in its broiler chicken flocks by the end of September 2017.
The sustainability report details the company’s limited use of human antibiotics in its chicken business during the company’s last fiscal year.
“We believe that through continued improvement in such areas as housing, sanitation and the use of probiotics, we can continue to improve bird health and reduce the need for human antibiotics,” said Daugherty.
The company also plans to offer additional annual training for farmers who raise broiler chickens for Tyson.

Sale complete
The planned acquisition of an 18-hole golf course has gone through, The Daily Standard reported.
Rod Ashman, director of golf operations at Golf Club of the Limberlost in Geneva, has joined with unnamed Celina-area businessmen to purchase the former Fox’s Den course.
The courses, which initially opened in 1996, has been renamed Celina Lynx.
“I’m the primary owner and I’m also the manager,” Ashman told the Celina newspaper.
Assistant managers will be Aaron Daniels, Portland, and Don VanderHorst, Celina.
Fox’s Den had been involved in a foreclosure since Dec. 30, 2013.
Milk plant planned
Wal-Mart announced plans Friday to build a multi-million dollar milk processing plant on land south of Fort Wayne International Airport, a move which is expected to create more than 200 new jobs.
Work on constructing the 250,000-square-foot plant is scheduled to begin this summer.
The plant will supply white and chocolate milk to more than 600 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Illinois.

New dean
Ball State University has named Jennifer Bott as the new dean of Miller College of Business.
Bott has bee a full professor since 2015. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and communications from DePauw University in 1998, her master’s in industrial and organizational psychology from University of Akron in 2001, and her doctorate in the same field from Akron in 2004.
She joined the Ball State faculty in 2004 as an assistant professor of management and was granted tenure in 2011. In 2009, she received Ball State’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.

Consolidating
Lutheran Health Network plans to close two medical offices in Wells County as part of a consolidation effort.
An office on Horton Street in Bluffton and one in Warren will be closed. Patients who had used those offices will be treated at existing offices in Markle, Bluffton, and Ossian.
A spokesman for Lutheran Health Network, which operates the Bluffton Medical Group, declined to say how many positions will be eliminated by the closings.

Tied for lowest
Mercer County’s unemployment rate in January was 4.0 percent, up from 3.1 percent in December, but still low enough to tie for the lowest jobless rate in the state of Ohio. Ohio’s Delaware County also had a 4.0 percent unemployment rate.
Darke County’s jobless rate was 5.2 percent in January. Ohio’s rate was 4.9 percent.

Interrupted
Work at Celina Aluminum Precision Technology (CAPT) was briefly interrupted earlier this month as a result of a fire which triggered the sprinkler system at the Celina, Ohio, plant.
The fire was quickly contained, and operations resumed the next day.

Nearly gone
Demolition of the former Dunbar Furniture plant in Berne is nearly complete.
Berne Mayor Bill McKean said this week that clean-up of the property is nearly complete.
In its hey-day Dunbar was a nationally-known manufacturer of high-end business and office furnishings.