Pictured are Steve Rockcastle, left, and Ryan Hoitink of Green Heron Growers as they farm cattle. The coronavirus pandemic has caused some grocery stores to limit purchases of some meat products. Submitted photo

The COVID-19 crisis has caused disruptions at major meatpacking plants across the U.S., with some grocery stores beginning to limit purchases of popular products as production slows.

As national processing plants struggle with staffing issues related to the outbreak, some local producers have seen increased demand for meat.

“I haven’t had to call customers and try and drum up appointments, they have been calling me,” said Paul Spas of Spas Farms in Ashville, which specializes in grass-fed beef. “Ground beef orders have been out of this world. People want 50-pound boxes, 100-pounds of ground beef. They want to stock up.”

During the spring and summer months, Spas schedules appointments with butchers and orders with customers. Unlike in the past, there has been no need to reach out to find customers.

“The way it is with the butchering out here, Stevens Brothers in Panama is USDA-inspected. Before this coronavirus thing happened we were still making our appointments a year ahead of time because they are so busy,” Spas said. “In a normal year I’m making phone calls trying to get my customers to fill in my slots for June and July. Some of the people that have called me are people who have known me my whole life and have never contacted me before. They are almost apologetic about it, saying ‘we’d like to make a meat order but we should have done this a long time ago but we never did.’ That kind of thing.”

Pictured are Steve Rockcastle, left, and Ryan Hoitink of Green Heron Growers as they farm cattle. The coronavirus pandemic has caused some grocery stores to limit purchases of some meat products. Submitted photo

Increased demand was felt during the first weeks of the outbreak by Steve Rockcastle of Green Heron Growers in Sherman as well.

“It’s a rude awakening when something like this hits and then you go to the grocery store and you are used to buying stuff at the grocery store,” Rockcastle said. “That is where you depend on the local food industry because we’re there for you, and that is how we make a living. Hopefully what will spur out of this is more local people coming to buy our products.”

Local shoppers may be reaching out to farmers after they see empty grocery store shelves, but it is not easy to increase capacity at the drop of a hat.

Butchering for clients across Western New York, Stevens Brothers can only take so much business.

“Overall we are just at a point that we can’t get any more in because we are booked solid,” owner Randy Canfield said. “For the last four or five years it’s been on the rise. Just more and more people are going back to the farms and buying from the local farmers. I probably have 300 different farms that I work with.” Stevens Brothers works with clients in Warren, Erie, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties. Moving forward, it is possible that the coronavirus outbreak could effect 4-H farmers who raise animals that are usually sold at local fairs and festivals. Should those events be postponed or canceled, young farmers will still have animals that need to make it to market.

“We’ve got fairs coming up and who knows what is going to happen to these kids,” Canfield said. “If they don’t have a fair, there are still 100 kids out there that have these animals that have to go to market. Now they have to find a buyer for it without having a big auction like they normally do. I’ve been taking all the names and numbers that I can just to try and help them if that time does come.”

Canfield estimated that 250 4-H farmers could be impacted in the area.