With many meat processing plants operating at reduced capacity, it’s estimated that millions of pigs will have to be euthanized to conserve space on farms — another blow to an already shaken food supply chain.
Farmers try everything they can to avoid euthanizing the pigs they have cared for over many months, including reducing the animals’ calorie intake to slow their growth, raising the temperature of the barn to reduce their appetite or — where possible — hiring or borrowing additional barn space.
To make a difficult situation even harder, the bottleneck comes at a time when consumer demand for meat in grocery stores is at record levels as people hunker down and cook at home. According to data released by the market research company IRI, dollar sales of meat were up for the year through May 3 by 23.3 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
. However, he’s still left with hundreds of pigs nearing 350 lbs. each and the nearby Smithfield plant at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, operating at just 60 percent capacity. The ordeal isn’t over once the animals are euthanized. Farmers then have to find a way to transport and dispose of those 350 lb. carcasses. Disposal alone can cost between $20 and $80 depending on the method and size of the animal, although the United States Department of Agriculture created aPatterson’s cooperative was able to pay to process the animals at a rendering plant, which breaks down the carcasses into industrial fats and oils and other products, such as bone meal and dog food.
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