Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 5/27/20

Business is booming for butchers and local meat processing operations who haven’t faced the same coronavirus outbreaks and subsequent shutdowns as massive slaughterhouses across the country, Business Insider reports.

“I could run this thing around the clock,” said Jacob Wingebach, owner of a meatpacking plant in the Nebraska Sandhills. “Feedlots in this country are full, and ranchers and feeders cannot find anywhere to get this stuff processed.”

Wingebach said his operation is now processing more than twice as many cows as it did before the pandemic started. He’s hired four new employees and said he would bring on dozens more if only there was adequate housing nearby.

The sudden demand for local meat processors comes after a long period of decline, with many smaller businesses squeezed out by larger chains. Four meatpackers currently control 85 percent of the beef market, fueling antitrust probes and bipartisan backlash in Congress — especially now that the pandemic has further widened the gap between the prices of live cattle and retail beef.