LONGMONT — Another 265 jobs will be eliminated at the Butterball turkey plant in Colorado, bringing the total number of positions cut to about 490 since June.
Executives for Raleigh, N.C.-based Butterball LLC announced the cuts Monday, blaming ethanol demand for driving up the cost of corn, soybean meal and other feed ingredients. Job cuts announced in June were blamed on the same factors.
The company says turkey slaughtering and some other operations will cease at the Longmont plant. It will continue some processing operations using meat from other Butterball plants.
John Cody, president of the Longmont Area Economic Council, said he expects the plant to announce additional layoffs later in the year.
The latest cuts won’t have a big impact on the city’s overall economy, Cody said, “but these are jobs available to those in the lower skill set, and there are not many jobs for them after this.”
The city’s social-services providers will likely see increased demand for services if laid-off plant workers can’t find other jobs, Cody predicted.
