(Back left to right) Troy Rinnels, Don Lemon, (front left to right) Kevin Becker and Dalton Rinnels cut and sort beef Jan. 20 at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville.
Kevin Becker butchers a beef carcass Jan. 20 at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville.
The retail cases at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville have been popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s all hands on deck behind the retail counter at Orly’s Meat Locker in Clarksville, where owner Troy Rinnels’ joins three staff members butchering a beef carcass on a recent Wednesday. Two other staff members are quickly packaging, weighing and labeling the cuts. The meat will be sold in no time.
“We’ve been fortunate to be busy. Since the pandemic we are extremely busy,” Rinnels said.
Slaughter operations like Orly’s are booming as many large meatpacking plants across the country were closed or drastically slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A soaring demand for beef and a crippled supply chain caused the traditional farm-to-fork cycle to derail.
Farmers and meat-lovers began to find alternatives, leaving meat lockers in Northeast Iowa and across the Midwest overwhelmed and forced to turn away farmers. Rinnels’ schedule is so full he can’t take new beef processing appointments until 2022.
Weakest link Last spring, large meatpacking facilities became hotspots for COVID-19. The virus took advantage of crowded work spaces and employees afraid of losing their jobs. It quickly ravaged workforces, shutting down plants and significantly slowing down others.
Two of the seven largest U.S. facilities — those with the capacity to process 5,000 beef cattle daily — were closed temporarily because of the pandemic, according to the Washington Post.
Iowa Premium plant in Tama, owned by National Beef Packing Co., suspended production for a week and had 177 out of more than 500 workers tested positive for coronavirus.
An order given on April 28 by former President Donald Trump classified meat processors as critical infrastructure and forced workers back to the production line.
By April, temporary plant closures and a hollowed out workforce reduced beef production by more than a third, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Dairy cows have a snack Dec. 16 at New Day Dairy in Clarksville.
Production slowed, creating a bottleneck. Farmers still had a steady supply of animals ready for processing, but nowhere to go with them. Grocers were left with sparse — even bare — meat cases, forcing consumers on the hunt for beef to turn elsewhere.
Where’s the beef? Grocery stores like Hy-Vee and Fareway began to ration beef sales. On May 5, Wendy’s fast food chain had stopped serving beef hamburgers at about 20% of its 5,500 U.S. restaurants. Some Subway restaurants temporarily eliminated beef from their menu.
Management at SingleSpeed Brewing Co. in Waterloo reported their cost for beef also spiked.
Ground beef prices increased by 184% from May 2019 to May 2020, and beef eye round prices shot up 264%.
Upcharges for food with beef products are reported at other area restaurants.
“We didn’t have trouble getting it, but we also were making probably less than 40% of the amount of food we were making the year before,” said General Manager Ana Hanisch.
Customers’ demand for beef sent many straight to the source — farmers. Local farmers began to see double and triple sales of whole, half and quarter cows.
Crystal Blin, co-owner of JJB Cattle Co. in Independence, never thought she’d see a shortage of beef at the grocery store. This is, after all, Iowa.
“It was a supply chain issue, “she said. “There wasn’t a shortage of animals. ... The supply chain that had been built up over the last few decades was disrupted.”
The spike in direct-to-consumer beef sales prompted the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation in August to launch a farm-to-table webinar series to assist farmers.
A variety of beef cuts fill retail cases Jan. 20 at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville.
Dan and Lynn Bolin, owners of New Day Dairy in Clarskville, signed up for the webinar after they began selling retired dairy cows to be processed as ground beef.
“We realized there was a need in our community,” Lynn Bolin said.
At first, the Bolins had no problem getting appointments at Orly’s meat locker to process the cows. In April, Lynn booked an appointment for three weeks away. By May, they discovered Orly’s was booked three months out. Today, the locker’s 2021 calendar is full and booking is a year out.
Dan and Lynn Bolin, owners of New Day Dairy in Clarksville, stand in a barn with their children (from left) Vance, 7, Judah, 3, and Amara, 10, on Dec. 16.
“I have the cow and I have the customer,” Lynn Bolin said, “but there’s an in-between piece that’s missing. There’s not a place that animal can be turned into something they can eat.”
The story is the same at the Elma Meat Locker. Owner Roger Meirick said the locker has been in the family since 1937, and he has never seen such high demand for local beef. Retail business doubled for several months last summer as customers were frantically buying beef and other meat in bulk. Sales spiked and have since leveled off, but are still about 50% higher than usual, he said.
Meirick added a handful of part-time staff to keep up with demand, noting, too, that processing has become more difficult as animals grew overweight while farmers waited for processing appointments.
“We were essential and people needed us,” Meirick said.
Back on the farm The Blins at JJB Cattle in Independence stopped waiting for meat lockers to catch up.
“That part of our business is just not going to happen this year,” Crystal Blin said of farm-to-consumer beef sales. “The demand is there, but we can’t get any spots.”
Because of the bottleneck, the Blins found themselves with extra calves that will likely be sold to a feed lot program. Those programs sell beef to grocery stores and restaurants.
“Whether you buy beef from us directly or you buy beef from the grocery store, you are still supporting farmers,” she said.
Farmers adjust to disrupted food supply chain
Dan and Lynn Bolin, owners of New Day Dairy in Clarksville, stand in a barn with their children (from left) Vance, 7, Judah, 3, and Amara, 10, on Dec. 16.
Dairy cows have a snack Dec. 16 at New Day Dairy in Clarksville.
Kevin Becker butchers a beef carcass Jan. 20 at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville.
(Back left to right) Troy Rinnels, Don Lemon, (front left to right) Kevin Becker and Dalton Rinnels cut and sort beef Jan. 20 at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville.
A variety of beef cuts fill retail cases Jan. 20 at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville.
The retail cases at Orly's Meat Locker in Clarksville have been popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
January 31, 2021 at 07:00PM
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Where's the beef: Meat lockers booked as pandemic derails food chain - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
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