In a normal business environment, Micro Summit Processors’ slaughter services are booked out about three weeks in advance. That suits owner Patrick Robinette just fine. He founded the USDA-inspected operation, located in Micro, N.C., to process beef for his own business, Harris-Robinette Beef, as well as for local producers. But we are not in a normal time, not with the Coronavirus still raging through the country and throwing the meat processing industry into disarray. What is the wait time for slaughtering now?
“We are literally booking for animals who aren’t alive yet, in some cases,” Robinette says.