ABSTRACT
The upheaval wrought on the U.S. beef industry by the global COVID-19 pandemic carried with it several lessons that might help improve resiliency should there be a reoccurrence. First, the futures market for fed cattle fell well before cash prices, which sent a signal to market cattle early, and those who did so benefited. Second, the decline in futures anticipated the closure of slaughter plants and provided an opportunity to purchase and store beef primals in anticipation of future scarcity. Third, the beef industry has ways of slowing or stopping the pipeline of animals destined for feed yards and can "store" these animals in background feeding facilities or on pasture or rangeland. Producers who waited to sell feeder cattle benefited from higher feeder cattle prices once the processing facilities reopened. Fourth, cow slaughter plants responded to the pandemic and subsequent scarcity of labor much better than large fed-cattle plants. Cow plants are not as sophisticated and complex as fed-cattle plants. This relative simplicity may help explain the superior performance of these plants during the crisis. Sixth, the academic work on the value of building smaller plants as a response against concentration provides mixed results-these plants require more labor per animal and can be even more susceptible to labor scarcity. Seventh, the observed increase in boxed beef prices, even as fed cattle prices fell, demonstrates the risk-mitigating impact of producer ownership of downstream activities in the value chain.
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Objective: To examine the impact of the outbreak of novel Coronavirus disease (COVlD-19) upon public health-related knowledge. belief and practice among the public in China for providing references to public health decision-making.
ABSTRACT
The impact of COVID-19 epidemic on China's pig. industry was analyzed from pig production. pork consumption and pig prices. The results showed that the epidemic led to the poor circulation of feed and livestock products. the increase of operating costs of breeding enterprises, the difficulty of starting work of feed enterprises and slaughtering enterprises etc., which significantly hindered the. recovery process of pig production capacity, and affect the realization of the goal of pig production capacity recovery throughout the year;the total consumption and outdoor consumption of pork decreased significantly, but the proportion of pork consumption added indirectly With the consumption of poultry meal and eggs increased, the price of pigs increased in general and the regional price gap widened. In the shun term. [he pig industry would face the problems of the situation that prevention of Africa swine fever was still severe and the support policies fall into the "difficulties of grass-roots implementation", and so on. Based on this. policy suggestions were put forward.
ABSTRACT
The American Rescue Funds Program seeks improvements to infrastructure, capacity, and diversification in meat and poultry processing, with clear prioritization of increased competition via small- and medium-sized processing facilities. The need to euthanize animals at a time when retailers were rationing meat sales was one of several examples of market failures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the disruptions to agricultural meat, poultry, and egg production at $15 billion based on CFAP and CFAP2 payments. Marani et al. (2021) estimate the probability of a repeat event at 1% to 2% per year, justifying the use of these public funds to add surplus capacity and infrastructure to mitigate disruptions in case of recurrence. Economics of scale are modest beyond slaughter of more than 125 head per hour in beef plants and 2,000 head per day in pork plants (Duewer and Nelson, 1991;Ollinger, MacDonald, and Madison, 2005). Dozens of such "medium-sized" U.S. pork and beef processing plants have survived since 2000, typically relying upon niche market connections. Given historic processing plant construction costs for medium-sized plants (Aherin, 333333 2021) and an assumed 20% USDA grant to incentivize construction, a $100 million expenditure on each of the beef and pork plants creates an opportunity to add as much as 5% additional capacity for each species, easing current capacity as the industries prepare for local and export growth. Whether producer-ownership of capacity can generate stability and additional benefits in the supply chains is of key interest. Models of producer ownership-including cooperatives and carefully structured LLCs-allow livestock producers to capture processing margins and remove some of the price uncertainty around live animal prices to the plant and producer. It follows, too, that producer-ownership can therefore reduce the ability of existing larger plants to poach supply from medium-sized plants during the crucial startup phase and ensure that plants run at optimum capacity. A significant portion of the additional capacity added to the pork industry in the last 15 years exhibited some form of producer ownership. Anecdotally, the pork and beef sectors may be moving away from commodity production and into systems that maintain animal identity from farm to consumer. Producers have an opportunity to capitalize on this shift by collectively investing in medium-sized plants with the ability to preserve identity and be more responsive to evolving consumer preferences. An overarching concern is of the need to maintain capacity into the future and the potential of existing packers to acquire this subsidized capacity should medium sized processing fail.
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Exotic pest and disease investigations are managed and reported by the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI's) Diagnostic and Surveillance Directorate. This article presents a summary of investigations of suspect exotic and emerging pests and diseases in New Zealand during the period from July to September 2021.
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Meat shortages in many of the largest retail chains during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of U.S. consumers. In addition, wait times for custom slaughter of meat animals increased from days to weeks to upwards of 14 mon. Interruptions in livestock slaughter and meat supplies have renewed the emphasis on medium, small, and very small meat slaughters/processors. Numerous states are investing in slaughter/processing plant construction, renovation of existing plants, and establishing or reestablishing state inspection programs. It is conceivable that this reinvestment may alleviate some of the meat supply limitations;yet, there are a number of factors these plants need to address for economic sustainability, including (but are not limited to): consistency of local and regional livestock supply;availability of trained, experienced workforce;plant holding pens and slaughter floor design;pre-slaughter animal welfare training and compliance;development and implementation of food safety programs;fresh and frozen storage capacities;local and regional marketing channels and modes of distribution;and by-products markets and offal disposal. Regardless of plant size, the ultimate goal of all meat packers/processors is the production of consistent, readily available and affordable, high-quality meat and meat products;however, the traditional driving forces of price and taste are being slowly supplanted by consumers’ concerns about production practices and animal management, perceived nutritional benefits, animal welfare concerns, food locality, and conveniences. This presentation will attempt to amalgamate the challenges facing medium, small, and very small meat processors with consumers’ preferences in relation to the sustainability of these revitalized segments of the livestock and meats industry.
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According to physics principles, any action produces a reaction and generates consequences. Under this premise, it is essential to reflect on the actions we have in our relationships with other animals in current times. Our actions always bring implications, in many cases, affecting the welfare of animals, humans, or the planet. A unique virus, COVID-19, caused a pandemic, with more than 50 million cases in 188 countries as of November 2020. Evidence indicates its spread was a consequence of the human relationship with wild animals used for marketing and consumption, generating radical changes in social and economic dynamics, and significantly impacting animals. The lockdowns slowed down daily life, forced stop using vehicles, and reduce our excessive consumption of things. In just a few months, nature has shown that fauna can return to places where it had not been present for decades, the water cleared, the air cleaned, and a kind of natural balance returned. During the forced human quarantine, the outlook for production animals showed the fragility and low resilience of high-density industrialized systems. The excess of animals in contrast to the low number of processing plants (large in size, and therefore fragile when facing a problem like this) resulted in the emergency slaughter of millions of animals on farms. In the case of companion animals, they have suffered collateral damage due to conscious or involuntary relinquishment due to cities' surprise closures;additionally, humans' constant presence at home has generated multiple behavioral problems. For animals in zoos, the situation is also difficult, as visitors' absence reduced incomes;it has put many zoos around the world at risk of closure. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on animal, environmental, and human welfare is clear. Hence, the objective is to analyze the impact of the pandemic on global welfare.
ABSTRACT
This paper uses data from a variety of sources to describe the changes to meat and poultry supply chains in 2020. At the beginning of 2020, cattle and hog slaughter rates were higher than in 2019, but they began to decline in April, reaching a low the week ending May 2, 2020, when slaughter for cattle and hogs was only 65 percent of that week's 2019 slaughter. Slaughter rates rebounded by June, although a backlog of animals still needed to be processed. From mid-April to mid-June 2020, the fall in slaughter rates combined with an increase in retail demand drove a large margin between wholesale meat and livestock prices. Retail purchases of meat at grocery stores surged the week ending March 15, 2020, to 75 percent above that week's 2019 meat sales. At the same time, food purchases at restaurants and other food-service establishments plummeted. High cold storage stocks of meat in early 2020 may have helped grocery retailers maintain high levels of sales during the supply disruptions in April and May 2020. Retail purchases remained higher for most remaining weeks of 2020 compared to 2019.
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This working paper describes how COVID-19 affected the pork packing industry, gives an overview of this industry, and measures changes in regional slaughter volumes in 2020. We find different effects of COVID-19 across regions. Some regions experienced a prolonged decline in hog slaughter compared with 2019, while in other regions sharp declines only lasted a few weeks. Slaughter counts in the major pork-producing regions declined for three weeks at the end of April and early May but recovered to 2019 levels by June 2020. Minor processing regions had mixed reactions to the pandemic. For instance, Region 2 (New Jersey and New York) experienced a large decline in slaughter, but, unlike major processing regions, the shock persisted throughout the year-slaughter rates were lower than 2019 levels. Overall, most regions in 2020 had increases in total slaughter compared with 2019, suggesting the industry suffered at the beginning of the pandemic but adjusted production and at least partially recovered.