As is the case with much around the coronavirus, this shift created winners and losers. Small, independent slaughterhouses found themselves booked through the spring of 2021.

Business picked up so dramatically at these small operations that they turned away farmers and rationed sales.

“People are going mad trying to fill their freezers,” said Tom Keller, who owns a processing operation in Litchfield, Ohio, where they have limited sales of ground meat to five pounds per person.

In March, Keller’s plant slaughtered 104 cattle, twice the rate a year earlier.

In Alberta, Canada, farmers and consumers are reacting to reduced production at plants owned by Cargill and JBS SA. Feedlots are being turned away by the big plants, which have a backlog of cattle.

The development has led to a more-than-doubling of the number of pigs processed at least one smaller operation in Alberta in March and April.

Source: Reuters

“Let’s be clear: The out-of-state environmental lobbying groups rallying opposition against our family farmers in Nebraska are anti-agriculture,” Ricketts said. “Left unchecked, they would destroy our way of life. This attempt to stop livestock development in Nebraska is a part of the ‘meat is murder’ movement led by radical groups who want to end livestock production around the globe. I urge Nebraskans in our local communities to rise up and protect family farms and stand with our livestock producers across our state.”

Wellman said this: “Agriculture is the backbone of Nebraska’s economy, and it is extremely disheartening to learn that there are groups of citizens in our own state that are working to essentially eliminate the livestock industry. As the director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, I strongly support all aspects of Nebraska agriculture and the farmers and ranchers that work tirelessly contributing to Nebraska’s economic well-being through livestock production.”