Local lockers adapting to changing needs
The year 2020 has brought about many unexpected changes in day-to-day lives. This has also had an effect on businesses including our area meat processors. From a surge in people looking to stock their freezers and an uptick in consumers wanting to buy locally grown and processed meat, area lockers have made a few changes. They have also seen some changes made by the rendering company that picks up carcasses adding to the mix of things to deal with.
American Butchers in Beaver City is currently booked out through 2021 and just opened up bookings into 2022. They are requiring a deposit on the 2022 bookings, something they have never done before. Calvin of American Butchers says he has never seen this before. “Pre-Covid we would see bookings out three weeks,” he said. He also said they do not see this trend ending anytime soon, if anything it is anticipated to ramp up even more with people wanting to know where their food comes from. The locker is receiving calls from as far away as Oklahoma, Colorado, South Dakota and Iowa requesting processing.
“We are doing what we can,” he says. But they run short of employees just like everyone else. He did say they have a little “wiggle room” in 2021 and can squeeze in a couple things in case of emergency. As for 2020, they have processed more this year than all of last year. Just September was up 40%. “The business has changed a lot. For every animal we take, we have to turn probably five away.”
Harlan County Meat Processors in Orleans has added more staff to get meat processed and to customers in a more timely manner. They are also booked far out into 2021. The Oxford Locker was also booked out into 2021. They are hoping to be up to processing 20 beef per week to avoid such long backlogs.
Due to the amount of bookings, some lockers are not taking game this year. The locker in Beaver City does not process deer anyway. But Harlan County Meat Processors is not taking any deer. Oxford Locker is taking deer but has capped the number they are accepting at 500. They will not be taking any after Thanksgiving.
Area lockers are also dealing with a change made by the rendering company that picks up carcasses. There have been some changes over the years by the company. Previously the company would pay for hides picked up. They now charge the lockers to pick up the hides along with the fees they pay to have the company come. This has added as much as $1500 to the bill. The latest change though has caused some more difficulty. They are now requiring that hides be cut into onefoot squares. American Butchers in Beaver City has taken on the considerable investment to put in an incinerator. They had to get several permits in order to do this and hope to have it up and going by December. Oxford Locker has considered an incinerator in the past, but has not made the decision to add one.
With all of the changes, area lockers are doing their best to meet the needs of their customers and learning to manage the business of increased demand for the product they offer.
