When the coronavirus pandemic started disrupting the nation’s meat supply chains this spring, the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s swine program soon found itself among the affected operations. The program, which houses around 1,500 pigs at a time at Arlington Agricultural Research Station, focuses on nutritional studies that support the hog industry in Wisconsin and across the Midwest. When the pigs reach market weight, they are typically sent to harvest at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Waterloo, Iowa. Not this spring, however.
The Tyson plant, dealing with worker shortages and a shut-down due to COVID-19 infections, couldn’t take the university’s hogs. At the same time, the demand for meat products at grocery stores and food pantries was rising.