COVID-19 increases demand for local meat

Image
  • Pictured above, Dustin South stands in front of beef carcasses. Photo/Kendra Johnson.
    Pictured above, Dustin South stands in front of beef carcasses. Photo/Kendra Johnson.
Body

Rising beef prices in stores has plagued Lincoln County residents over the past months.

While nationwide, the meat processing industry has seen shortages due to COVID-19 concerns, this has created more business at the local meat processing level such as for Midlothian Custom Processing.

“Up until the last, just, like two months ago I was staying three months booked out,” Midlothian Custom Processing’s owner Dustin South said, “and right now I’m booking the end of Aug. of next year.”

He said that many individuals prefer to know where their meat comes from.

“There’s a lot of people that are concerned with the meat shortage,” he said, “and not only that, you don’t know what you’re getting when you buy it from the store as far as if they’ve had hormones or antibiotics or all that. They can say what they want, they’re not with that calf from day one, from the time it was born until the time it was butchered, so they cannot guarantee that it hasn’t had some kind of antibiotic or hormones.”

Concerns over COVID-19 seems to have increased this desire.

“There’s a lot of people that are trying to buy from local farmers and ranchers so that they know where it’s coming from, what it’s been fed, that kind of stuff,” he said.

Additionally, for those who can afford the substantial upfront investments, the cost is cheaper per pound on average, according to South, than purchasing the meat in stores.

As a one-man operation that can store approximately 15 carcasses at a time, Midlothian Custom Processing handles orders within about 30 miles of its location.

“When all this [COVID-19] started taking place I started getting phone calls from all over the state,” South said.

“I’ve had people from Texas wanting me to come get them down there [...] it’s just not feasible.”

His operation is considered customexempt, meaning that a USDA inspector is not required to be on site during slaughters for instance, however, the facility must still undergo randomized USDA inspections. Because of this, it cannot process meat for retail sales.

“All of the products that come out of my facility are stamped ‘not for sale,’” South said.

“It’s going to be stuff that’s owned by local farmers and ranchers.”

South said that new meat processing plants may help reduce meat scarcities.

“There’s some new plants that are opening up as far as big places,” he said.

“You know, [...] there’s supposed to be I think four big one thousand head plants that are supposed to be opening up and that’ll help a lot as far as the shortage.”

Experiences during the shortages may encourage some people to remain buying local.

“I think you’re going to see that now that once they go this route, they’re going to stick to this a lot more,” South said.