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A study done early in the pandemic by Oklahoma State
University of countrywide commodity prices indicated
that dairy prices had dropped 26-36 percent; corn
futures, 14 percent; and hog futures, 31 percent. e
study estimated that Covid-19 related losses to calemen
in 2020 will be $9.2 billion.
is figure is indicative of the multiple problems faced
by the Montana beef industry. As consumers stocked
up on meat products, the meat cases in grocery stores
emptied out while at the same time restaurants and
large consumers no longer needed primal cuts that meat
packers routinely prepared. Shiing gears to produce
cuts of meat sold by grocery stores for home use took
time when meat packers also were hit hard by Covid-19
among their workers. Without meat packing plants
working at full capacity, ranchers had no place to sell
their animals. "Consumers are starting to return to a
previous lifestyle, so conditions are beer, but they aren't
quite back to normal," said Fred Wacker, President of the
Montana Stockgrowers Association.
"Furthermore, when the value of meat dropped and
calemen were geing less at the sales barn, the value
of cale that were still on the ranch also decreased,
Employees of Pioneer Meats in Big Timber, Montana work on the cutting floor. Photo: Alexis Bonogofsky
Photo:
Suzanne
Waring
