Country Roads

As people prepared for their Memorial Weekend cook outs shopping for steaks, ground beef and ribs to BBQ, they found out beef was either in short supply or had almost doubled in price. Some shoppers found the meat shelves almost empty and asked the same question that an 81-year-old woman asked in 1984, in a television ad, “Where’s the beef?”

Thanks to the COVID-19 virus that forced some packing plants to close and because of consolidation and centralization in the meat processing industry, the meat supply system has been stressed. Not only are consumers feeling the bite but also the cattle pro...