Colorado’s Cattle Ranchers Fear Future As Meat Plant Closes

The closure of the JBS meat processing plant in Greeley has hit especially hard at a feed yard in Wiggins. There are 30,000 head of cattle, all dressed up with nowhere to go, and they don’t just sit and wait. They eat, and that costs money. The Magnum feed yard has been run by Case Gabel and his family for 26 years. Now it faces a crisis. “We’ve got to feed them every day. They need to be fed and watered. We check them for their health,” he told CBS4’s Rick Sallinger. They employ some 30 people who are also dependent on getting the cattle to the slaughterhouse. “JBS has really made an effort to facilitate some cattle movement,” Gabel said. The animals are fine. It’s the workers at the meat processing facility who have become ill causing this assembly line to shut down. The impact goes far beyond this feed yard and JBS. The ranchers who raise the cattle for now have a difficult time selling it. Gabel believes it could possibly lead to a shortage. “I think going forward the meat supplies to the grocery stores are going to be tighter than people realize.” As it stands now he is now taking a $300 loss on each of the 30,000 animals. If the JBS plant fails to gradually reopen by April 24th as planned, it could make an already difficult situation even worse for Colorado’s beef industry. CBSDenver

See video report at the link provided.