Processing plant closures

So, anyone have any thoughts on what the future will bring with the animal processing plant closures that are going on? 🐖🐄

Ima eat some deer.

I have 2 freezers full of venison, pork and chicken. I’m good for a couple months easily

This is very very bad news for farmers and consumers. Producers can’t just decide not to bring animals to market. They need to go when they need to go. If not they are killed and buried. They have younger animals coming and they need to keep the process going. They can’t just change processors either.

This will have very long term effects in economies.

What else has closed now? I thought it was just the one? I understand it’s a big one, but any others?

Dusty Gesinger wrote:

What else has closed now? I thought it was just the one? I understand it’s a big one, but any others?

Smithfield and multiple others have closed

Where are the “multiple others”? Hopefully spread out a bit?

There is a large beef facility in Colorado closed in addition to Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls.

The American meat supply is not in jeopardy of collapsing. It will take a multitude of large processing plants around the country to disrupt this on a large scale.

There’s a few others for sure

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When my buddy heard Smithfield closed down, he went and stocked up on a reasonable amount of pork.

At first I didn’t think it was a bad idea and thought about doing the same…..then the idea of corona-contaminated-pork chops came to mind….yeah, I’ll pass

We’ll stick to fish and venison for now. There’s something about killing your own meat that makes it that much better

Andrew Pansch wrote:

This is very very bad news for farmers and consumers. Producers can’t just decide not to bring animals to market. They need to go when they need to go. If not they are killed and buried. They have younger animals coming and they need to keep the process going. They can’t just change processors either.

This will have very long term effects in economies.

Are you sure about that!
I remember on the farm when prices went down, putting our cattle and hogs on a diet, waiting for prices to rise.
No you can’t do it forever but you can for a few weeks.

Tom schmitt wrote:

Are you sure about that!
I remember on the farm when prices went down, putting our cattle and hogs on a diet, waiting for prices to rise.
No you can’t do it forever but you can for a few weeks.

I’m thinking when these plants are processing 20K hogs a day, you just don’t put your hogs or any livestock on a diet.

This might work for the guy with a couple of cattle or hogs going to the local market. This will not work for these processing plants.

Coletrain27 wrote:

There’s a few others for sure

One in Pennsylvania also.

I know some people buy whole or half hogs from local butcher shops. I wonder if these prices will come down with the glut of hogs caused by the processing plants closing. Might be worth looking into.

shut em all down…..I’ll rely on my fishing until further notice. me losing 30lbs won’t hurt either since I haven’t exactly been killing it either.

300 infected in one plant , 3700 lost their jobs . Pork pries were already climbing , watch what happens now .

companies are offsetting reduced production with meat that was in cold storage, producers are shifting meat that would have gone to restaurants that are now closed because of the coronavirus to grocery stores. These companies are also having other plants redesignated to cover for the loss.
Not all plants are going to be shut down indefinitely, some will be closed for time to clean the facility and in place screening practices for workers.

The close quarters these workers have/force to work in with little protection is not a big surprise this is happening.
With these shut downs happening is showing how vulnerable our food system is and I hope there will some thought about changing things.

We had a Coronav…, I mean Smithfield, ham for Easter dinner. It was delicious.

I just got a case of baby backs, pork butts, hamburger patties and a case of briskets along with bulk quantities of breakfast sausage patties and frozen breakfast potatoes from the food service company I deal with locally the other day. My friend who works there even delivered it for me as they are keeping all non employees from entering the facility.

He tells me they have a over stock of most things due to restaurants not being opened for other than take out. They had open truckload sales of a lot of their more perishable stuff and close dated stuff a week ago that was open to the public. You sat in your car where they brought you a sheet listing all the things that were available. You filled it out and they brought it to your car.

Processed 150# or venison/pork over the weekend. Freezers full!
Brought 25# into work yesterday and shared the wealth.

We will get our beef and pork from Central America if it comes to that…. there they won’t be as strict about shuttering entire plants, because people got sick. Why does USDA exist if you have to shutter an entire plant because of a virus… what did they do during flu seasons past or H1N1 ? Simple answer. NOTHING.

Don Meier wrote:

300 infected in one plant , 3700 lost their jobs

As of yesterday it was 423, not 300. Also, every single one of the 3700 employees there will be paid for the next 2 weeks while they are shut down.

Andrew Pansch wrote:

This is very very bad news for farmers and consumers. Producers can’t just decide not to bring animals to market. They need to go when they need to go. If not they are killed and buried. They have younger animals coming and they need to keep the process going. They can’t just change processors either.
[/quote I beg to differ... While it is best to ship livestock in their prime, I don't know of anyone digging a hole and burying an animal they couldn't immeadiately ship. I certainly would never even consider it. The only producers that can't change processors are the corporate ones owned or contracted by the packing companies themselves. This will be a boom for small locker plants where a lot of beef and pork in rural areas is already processed for local people. The virus is really changing the way of life we were all used to. Maybe forever. Hope everyone stays safe.]

slowpoke wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Andrew Pansch wrote:</div>

This is very very bad news for farmers and consumers. Producers can’t just decide not to bring animals to market. They need to go when they need to go. If not they are killed and buried. They have younger animals coming and they need to keep the process going. They can’t just change processors either.
[/quote I beg to differ... While it is best to ship livestock in their prime, I don't know of anyone digging a hole and burying an animal they couldn't immeadiately ship. I certainly would never even consider it. The only producers that can't change processors are the corporate ones owned or contracted by the packing companies themselves. This will be a boom for small locker plants where a lot of beef and pork in rural areas is already processed for local people. The virus is really changing the way of life we were all used to. Maybe forever. Hope everyone stays safe.]

Exactly. I remember when small farms were being auctioned away in the 80’s and 90’s, driven out by the larger dairies and feedlots… and my Farmer Uncle saying… “what happens when a large operation is hit by a uncontrollable disease ?” He was talking about the animals themselves, not even the human aspect of it, which is what we have today. Kind of brings to mind the old adage, all your eggs in one basket. Maybe if there was 20 “butcher shops” instead of the 1 big corporate slaughter house, nobody even notices if 3 or 4 go off-line for a virus.

B-man wrote:

then the idea of corona-contaminated-pork chops came to mind….yeah, I’ll pass

Especially when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese!!

A buddy of mine just sent me a big article about how the Chinese acquired Smithfield a number of years ago. The sale had to go through congress… I can’t believe congress let it happen? Lot’s of things we/me are clueless about when it comes to politics.

Smithfield Sold to China

Joe Scegura wrote:

Especially when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese!! A buddy of mine just sent me a big article about how the Chinese acquired Smithfield a number of years ago.

A lot of their pork is also exported to the Chinese market since pork is the number one meat protein item consumed in that country.

Makes a guy wonder why some of them feel the need to eat bats, pangolins, and other questionable wildlife.

Joe Scegura wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
then the idea of corona-contaminated-pork chops came to mind….yeah, I’ll pass

Especially when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese!!

A buddy of mine just sent me a big article about how the Chinese acquired Smithfield a number of years ago. The sale had to go through congress… I can’t believe congress let it happen? Lot’s of things we/me are clueless about when it comes to politics.

Smithfield Sold to China

That’s a really interesting article Joe, thanks for sharing! I have some friends that are hog farmers and some that are butchers. There is a big gap in between for processing that needs to be resolved, as one of the hog farmers has 1500 pigs that he can no longer send to Sioux Falls, and a butcher that would buy them but needs them packed first. I guess South St. Paul and Green Bay aren’t the ultimate packer destinations anymore #punny

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Scegura wrote:</div>
Especially when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese!! A buddy of mine just sent me a big article about how the Chinese acquired Smithfield a number of years ago.

A lot of their pork is also exported to the Chinese market since pork is the number one meat protein item consumed in that country.

Makes a guy wonder why some of them feel the need to eat bats, pangolins, and other questionable wildlife.

You forgot dogs and cats…..
You see they are so brainwashed that they believe if they eat batwings they will fly. Or if they eat monkey brains, they will be smarter. I am sure there are others. people must be really bored over there that they make stuff up to get you to eat weird crap

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Scegura wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
then the idea of corona-contaminated-pork chops came to mind….yeah, I’ll pass

Especially when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese!!

A buddy of mine just sent me a big article about how the Chinese acquired Smithfield a number of years ago. The sale had to go through congress… I can’t believe congress let it happen? Lot’s of things we/me are clueless about when it comes to politics.

Smithfield Sold to China

That’s a really interesting article Joe, thanks for sharing! I have some friends that are hog farmers and some that are butchers. There is a big gap in between for processing that needs to be resolved, as one of the hog farmers has 1500 pigs that he can no longer send to Sioux Falls, and a butcher that would buy them but needs them packed first. I guess South St. Paul and Green Bay aren’t the ultimate packer destinations anymore #punny

Oh come on, just tell your friend to put his 1500 pigs on a diet until things clear up a bit. That’s what grandpappy did back in the day.

eyeguy507 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Scegura wrote:</div>
Especially when Smithfield is owned by the Chinese!! A buddy of mine just sent me a big article about how the Chinese acquired Smithfield a number of years ago.

A lot of their pork is also exported to the Chinese market since pork is the number one meat protein item consumed in that country.

Makes a guy wonder why some of them feel the need to eat bats, pangolins, and other questionable wildlife.

You forgot dogs and cats…..
You see they are so brainwashed that they believe if they eat batwings they will fly. Or if they eat monkey brains, they will be smarter. I am sure there are others. people must be really bored over there that they make stuff up to get you to eat weird crap

And we have brainwashed people here who think that no-talent celebrities like the Kardashians are godly.