Source: Ian Taylor, WATAUGA DEMOCRAT, 4/21/21


When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down a meat processing plant in the Midwest in 2020, it caused every farmer to rush to get their livestock processed out of fear. As the lines got longer, the wait times expanded into months, which only compounded the fact that High Country farmers had to take their livestock over an hour away. “If a farmer is having to transport, that’s like a full day with the hours going down, getting your animal, however long it takes there and then driving all the way back,” Watauga Butchery business manager Sydney Phillips said. “That’s time away from whatever other job needs to be done.”

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