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Beef bottlenecks expected to carry into 2022

Many custom meat processors in Michigan are booked up through the of the year as the beef industry struggles to keep pace with ongoing pandemic delays.

“All across the industry we need more processing capacity.”

George Quackenbush with the Michigan Beef Industry Commission tells Brownfield not only has the cattle herd grown in recent years, major processors have slowed production throughout the last year to provide employees with safer work environments and reduce the spread of COVID-19 which in turn has slowed the supply chain.

“We saw consumers go to the grocery store and for a few days find empty meat cases and that hasn’t happened in a few generations,” he says.  “I think it makes a lasting impact on consumers and creates and opportunity because we’ve seen that demand for locally produced product really, really increase.”

Michigan’s beef industry includes a mix of seed stock animals, cow/calf producers, and a large population of fed Holstein cattle from the state’s dairy industry.

“We have about three dairy cows for every beef cow here in the state of Michigan,” he explains.

Quackenbush says the Plainwell JBS processing plant specializes in Holstein processing but beef breeds will travel out of state or go to a regional or custom processor to be harvested, all of which are backlogged.

“That’s a real challenge for our beef producers who are trying to market their product and have to book an animal before it’s anywhere near ready to be harvested,” he explains.

To improve the situation, Quackenbush says throughput needs to increase, infrastructure needs to grow, and federal certifications need to expand.  He says that’s an area Michigan is focusing on to help custom processors move toward USDA inspected which would allow them to have a larger market and meet consumer demand for locally grown and processed.

Hear from George in our May Beef Month interview on these concerns and more.

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