RELIEF AND RESURGENCE?

Local farmers see aid trickle in, as lockers thrive despite meat processing bottleneck

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series focusing on COVID-19’s effect on local livestock producers and the importance of that particular industry within Calhoun County. Part two of this series follows up on “Hog Mild?” that was featured in the May 20 edition of The Graphic-Advocate.

The temperature and the humidity of the day have begun to rise, enticing row crops such as corn and soybeans to sprout up from the lush black soil. For farmers, it is the time to spray and protect these fledgling green spouts from the danger of insects and undesirable weeds.

It has been better compared to the past several years, but another vital industry had been directly and indirectly struck by what has been going on around the state of Iowa, the United States and the world. It is a situation that has spread its tentacles of sickness and death, and while this latest strain has never been encountered, it is an enemy that is as old as time itself.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to turn ill, organizations to either cancel, postpone or downsize events and has turned life upside down for nearly everyone.

2020, if looked upon years later by historians, would be linked with the likes of 1918 – when the Spanish flu ran its course to spread death and misery throughout the world. Buzzwords such as “the new normal,” “social distancing” and “quarantine” are now part of the American common lexicon, while state governors and the U.S. Government scramble to find solutions to the multitude of problems caused by the ripple effects of a disruptive sickness.

As cases of the novel coronavirus began to rise in nearby places such as Storm Lake, home to the Tyson Foods pork processing plant, several livestock producers are beginning to see some relief in sight.

Slowly, but surely, there are indications of a recovery, compared to when pork production dropped by 44 percent on May 2.

This has been a favorable development for Jason Folsom, a farmer who tends to crops and hogs northeast of Rockwell City. Folsom is on the Calhoun County Farm Bureau board, which is volunteer-led and driven, as well as part of the Calhoun County Pork Producers and Corn Growers organizations.  

“Fortunately, it’s starting to feel a lot more normal than it has been,” Folsom said. “We’ve had a lot of big hogs backed up, which has made loading them a little tough. But, we haven’t had to do any euthanasia or anything like that, which is good. It’s probably not for everybody right now, but it seems like the light at the end of the tunnel is there.”

Due to the bottleneck of the meat processing plants, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Farm Service Agency has introduced new directives such as the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) and Farmers to Families Food Box program.

The CFAP would provide up to $16 billion in direct payments to farmers, while the Farmers to Families Food Box would purchase $3 billion in produce, dairy and meat before delivering boxes to Americans in need. According to a May 19 release by the USDA, the latter would partner with regional and local distributors to help those affected by the closures of restaurants, hotels and other food service entities.

Starting on June 3, the USDA issued $545 million in CFAP payments to farmers. More than 9,000 applications related to livestock received more than $6 million to help alleviate their current situations.

In case euthanasia has to be implemented, the USDA has created programs to help reimburse producers for their efforts. However, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig had stressed on May 28 that euthanizing livestock is “always the last resort.”

“There’s programs from the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act that are starting to come in,” Folsom said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the magic wand, but it’s a start. It’s put a band aid on the situation, but there’s more work to be done.”

“The best thing that can happen is to get back to normal and get this economy going,” Folsom added. “That would solve more problems than any program will.”

From rising costs of meat in supermarkets and meat packing plants operating under capacity to livestock producers feeling the pinch created by the spread of COVID-19, urbanites are waking up to how important the farmers, livestock producers, trucking and processing facilities are to America’s food supply chain.

“There has to be more awareness out there,” Folsom said. “I’ve heard the saying that with food production, ‘you’re nine meals away from a riot.’ It’s been so good for so long, that people have taken it for granted. Then, the reality check came in a hurry. It also speaks volumes to how good our food production is in this country. It could have gotten a lot worse, but now, we’re talking about getting back online, compared to a few weeks ago.”

While livestock producers are getting back on track, local meat lockers are experiencing a large boom in their services. Calhoun County’s three meat lockers – located in Lake City, Lohrville and Yetter – have been booked up through February of 2021, at the latest.

Jason Ludwig, who has owned and operated Yetter Locker and Catering for more than 15 years, has witnessed his business “triple before his eyes.”

“It’s been extremely busy for us,” Ludwig said. “We have our slowest times of the year around April and May, and we can get you in within a couple of weeks.”

In 2017, Ludwig and Trent Blair, a prominent farmer and livestock producer residing north of Lake City, started a cooperative agreement to sell and process hogs. Since then, the number has grown, but none more than fantastic than this year – with more than 200 hogs set to be processed when everything is said and done.

“Because of the coronavirus, we agreed to extend the sale,” Ludwig said. “It has exploded. I still have 27 more hogs to do before I’m done, and we’ve processing 15 pigs a week. That’s just been Trent.”

It’s an informal agreement, but an act of cooperation between small farmer and small meat processor.

“It’s pushed a lot of hogs through on us, but it’s helped Trent out on the other end to help him stay current with his pigs,” said Ludwig. “It’s also a big bang for the consumer’s buck.”

Along with forming an agreement with Blair, Ludwig had established ties to other area producers in moving beef and pork from the farm to the dinner plate.

“It’s kind of like the wild west, right now,” Ludwig said. “I’ve had plenty of people call us for quarters and halves, and I’ve kept four or five of us busy here at the shop. We do have freedom, and use up vacation time, but we have been doing nine and a half to 10 hour days.”

Within the heart of the city with everything but a lake is the Lake City Locker, who is co-owned by Chad Stokes and Chris Terry. To Stokes, the retail side has not been good, but the butchering side has been fully booked.

“We have a big, five door glass freezer full of meat for retail, and that’s all sold out,” Stokes said. “It’s tripled, and it sucks. As far as custom butchering, I’m currently booking the second and third week of next February. We’ve been processing anywhere from five to 15 animals per week.”

“Between (Chris and I), the butchering is really not the problem,” Stokes continued. “It’s getting the animal cut up. May, June and July are usually our slow times. So, it’s been pretty crazy.”

The Lake City Locker has kept its doors closed to the public, but has enacted a curbside service to customers. Stokes also said that the business also offers storage lockers to store beef and pork for a small monthly fee.

For more than a quarter of a century, the Lohrville Locker has seen its fair share of highs and lows. The current situation has been frenetic, but taking care of the locker’s clientele has been on the minds of co-owners Mark and Carmen Hood. The Hoods, who reside on an acreage barely within Lohrville’s city limits, also tend to more than 100 head of Charolais cattle.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” Hood said. “You always want to keep the people who have helped you pay your bills and seen for more than 25 years happy. When we’re seeing a rush like this, we usually get people booked in early. We’ve been doing so for the past eight years or so.”

According to Mark Hood, the Lohrville Locker assembles a will call list and even helps producers in contacting other butcher shops in the area.

“We’re very proactive, and it’s been our policy for a decade,” Hood said. “Some years are worse than others, and this year started in March, rather than August. People have thanked us for being honest with them. We want people to have a good experience, no matter where they go.”

“It’s been a little amplified this year, and it’s nine months of crazy compared to five,” Mark added.

Should things return to normal, all three lockers are optimistic that the new customers they have gained will keep coming back.

According to Ludwig, he has had several people from Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas reach out to him for meat. Stokes noted that he has conducted business with clients he had never seen before.

“We have gained a ton of brand new customers, several of which have never butchered before,” Stokes said. “I think it’s going to be a good thing. I believe that we’ll have some repeat customers out of this, especially on beef. There’s a huge difference between aged beef and store bought beef, especially when you’re biting into a steak or burger.”

Hood echoed his fellow owners’ words, as well as touching on the importance of the livestock producer.

“People know what’s going on, which is nice,” Hood said. “It’s not the grocery store that’s making a killing, and we know that it’s not the farmer. I believe people are starting to realize that they need to start supporting their local farmers and if they start doing that, maybe we won’t have another problem where we don’t have meat in the store.”

If anything, cooperation between producers and the local lockers could serve as an alternative to a manipulation of the meat market by big processors.

“I can see this prolong, because it was a rude awakening for everybody,” said Hood. “It was a rude awakening for us. We have cattle and we have hogs, so my family and I know how both sides work. It’s here to stay, for the short term, especially if the big packers keep trying to make a lot of money between the farmer and the retailer.”

“Those packers are filling their freezers right now, and for the next six months, they will be able to keep that ribeye price up and make a lot of money,” continued Hood. “Sometime, it has to end. With the cost of cattle and pigs, feed and keeping authorities happy, producing livestock is a very expensive business to be in. It’s not for the faint of heart.”