Meat Shortages Have Shoppers Buying Whole Cows

(Waco, TX) — To deal with meat shortages caused by coronavirus outbreaks at meat packing plants, some families are buying entire cows from ranchers.

Russell Boening, head of the Texas Farm Bureau, says the trend is on the rise. Boening says two or three families sometimes pool their resources to buy a cow. He says small meat processors have months-long waiting lists because they have more business than they’re accustomed to.

But he says they’re helping to ease the burden for large processors, which are suffering the impact of the virus.