Bird flu has led to a jump in egg prices at the supermarket, but Cargill's spokesman said the avian influenza has "subsided some as weather warms up." Hormel also recently told analysts at its Investor Day conference that the outbreak has slowed in key states, particularly Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Meanwhile, Cargill has a significant presence in the beef market and owns feed lots and cattle processing plants in areas affected by severe drought in recent years, including California, the Great Plains and Texas. The company's processing plant in Fresno, California, has its own water supply from wells, but Cargill's spokesman said the conditions given the continued drought mean "that's a tough business for ag in general."  Read MoreThe losers—and winners—of the bird flu outbreak  The company's Fresno plant is the largest beef processing facility in the Golden State and has a daily operating capacity to process about 1,700 head of cattle a day, according to Steve Kay, editor and publisher of California-based Cattle Buyers Weekly.  "It's inevitable that both the beef cow herd in California and the dairy herd in the state will continue to decline, because feed costs will continue to be under pressure because of the drought," said Kay.  Cargill has larger beef facilities in Texas, Kansas and Nebraska—and analysts say those operations have a strong outlook, given continued high beef prices, reduced feed costs, and a series of storms starting last month that have eased the five-year drought.  That said, the storms led to flooding in parts of Texas, and now there's a fear that fungal problems in the soils could threaten planted crops that went underwater, particularly corn.  Elsewhere, flooding on the Illinois River impacted grain shipping last week, according to Reuters. Companies such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland ship corn and soy along the river. The situation prompted the CME Group to declare force majeure Wednesday for all the affected corn and soybean shipping stations, which serve as delivery points for crops traded on CME's Chicago Board of Trade.
Despite contending with drought, bird flu and flooding in the last year, agribusiness giant Cargill is seen weathering the storm.