Commensality, ritual, and reciprocity: Cattle feedyard managers’ perspectives on safety culture

Abstract

This article focuses on how cattle feedyard managers think about the idea of “safety culture” and why it might matter for the well-being of feedyard operations and their workforce. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic research in the Great Plains of the United States, it describes strategies used by managers to cultivate a sense of community, belonging, and kinship among employees, which some managers believed to be key features of feedyard cultures that foster safety. The findings suggest that efforts to improve the safety and health of cattle feedyard workers may benefit from considering how safety initiatives are shaped by the social and cultural dimensions of feedyards, the structural context of these animal feeding operations, and the everyday lives, experiences, and interactions of people who work on them.