Jefferson County ranchers have struggled for the past five years with falling prices and rising expenses, but the COVID-19 crisis has exposed another crack in the system — a supply chain backup, leading to uncertainty for producers planning to sell their stock in the fall.
“We are in a race right now to increase the volume of cattle that can be slaughtered so we can reduce the bottleneck and backlog of cattle in the industry,” said Bill Bullard CEO of R-CALF USA, (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America) a membership-based organization that represents U.S. cattle and sheep producers.
Bullard is referring to the closure and slowdown of beef meatpacking plants due to COVID-19 infections among workers — an industry that is dominated by four national and multinational corporations. That domination — estimated at about 80 percent of the market — has led to lawsuits and investigations into alleged market manipulation and calls for legislation, such as country of origin labeling, to remedy the situation. Bullard said media attention due to COVID-19-related meatpacking plant closures has accelerated those efforts — and added more complexity — to an ongoing problem.
