How backed up are small meat processors these days?
Well, Rex Turner at Olpe Locker is full until at least next summer — and he’s not as packed as others across Kansas.
Other processors are booked solid until at least early 2022.
Coronavirus hit the meatpacking industry hard in March and April, forcing a lot of people to go to smaller processors after short-term shutdowns and slowdowns for larger facilities. It’s now to the point where Turner has stopped processing hogs altogether and he will only take 250 deer on a first-come, first-served basis so he can concentrate on cattle.
Turner says expansion is not currently an option because of his plans to retire soon. Even if it was for the future, Turner says a lot of longtime customers are “in a bad place” now because of the situation. He expects the supply issues to ripple well into 2022.
Turner says prospective customers are now forced to take their animals to sale barns or they have to butcher the animals themselves, possibly in the heat of summer if they can wait that long. Customers wanting to have the animals processed now can’t keep feeding them another 10 months or longer because that may harm the animals.
