LA Times: Disease May Spoil Dairy, Meat Profits

On a typical day, beef broker Rod Bolcao of Chino collects as much as 60 cents a pound for the 300 to 400 dairy cows he moves to slaughterhouses around the West. Wednesday was anything but typical.

The best deal he could wrangle was for 30 cents, and he was stuck holding more than 60 head of cattle. Suddenly, Bolcao lamented, "there is no market."

With investigators still trying to piece together just what happened at a farm in Mabton, Wash., meatpackers in California said they were wary of buying much in the way of supplies, and middlemen such as Bolcao were holding off cutting deals with cattle farmers because they didn't want to end up stuck with a bunch of beef they couldn't move.

"People," Bolcao said, "are just shutting their doors for now."...