{"id":89329,"date":"2020-04-14T14:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T20:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/during-pandemic-shoppers-increasingly-purchase-food-directly-from-ranchers\/"},"modified":"2020-04-14T14:27:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T20:27:00","slug":"during-pandemic-shoppers-increasingly-purchase-food-directly-from-ranchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/during-pandemic-shoppers-increasingly-purchase-food-directly-from-ranchers\/","title":{"rendered":"During pandemic, shoppers increasingly purchase food directly from ranchers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Market
Market prices for cattle have dropped by about 25%, but more people are reaching out to buy meat directly from ranchers in Southwest Colorado. Ranchers say they are waiting to see how the coronavirus pandemic plays out to know exactly how much of a financial hit they may take. In this 2013 file photo, Jerry McCaw works his ranch south of Durango during calving season.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For Montezuma County rancher Drew Gordanier, self-isolation has mostly felt like a normal early spring season. He\u2019s sold some yearlings, but at a lower price, and will be moving cattle to the high country soon.<\/p>\n

At this time of year, ranchers and farmers in Southwest Colorado are tucked away calving and planting. The industry had been struggling for years before the COVID-19 outbreak, and farmers and ranchers tend to be independent people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been hurting us for a while,\u201d Gordanier said, so COVID-19 hasn\u2019t felt much different.<\/p>\n

While local farmers and ranchers haven\u2019t yet felt the effects of COVID-19, if the market continues the way it is going, a lot of them will be in more economic trouble. Cattle prices have dropped by 25%, despite the fact that prices have stayed the same or gone up in grocery stores.<\/p>\n

Wayne Rogers with the Southwestern Colorado Livestock Association said if the economy is down in the fall, buyers \u201cwon\u2019t want to give top dollar for cattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are going to skyrocket or drop dead on their feet\u201d for cattle ranchers, Rogers said. Ranchers like Gordanier and Rogers were starting to get nervous about what lies ahead.<\/p>\n

But recently, locals have been calling Gordanier to buy half or a piece of an animal to store in their freezer. To support local family ranchers and farmers in the area, people who can afford it are buying farm-to-consumer.<\/p>\n

In a normal year, Gordanier sells 15 to 20 animals. Since the outbreak began, he said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting calls from customers we haven\u2019t had in a while, asking for farm-raised beef. It\u2019s definitely on the increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Szilagyi, director of policy communications at the Colorado Farm Bureau, said the organization has noticed Coloradans are interested in buying direct because they can buy more at once.<\/p>\n

And ranchers are looking at how to ramp it up in the future to counter the general downturn in the industry. This trend could \u201copen up different markets that the smaller guys don\u2019t normally have access to,\u201d Szilagyi said.<\/p>\n

\"Market
Market prices for cattle have dropped by about 25%, but at the same time, more people are reaching out to buy meat directly from ranchers in Southwest Colorado. Ranchers say they are waiting to see how the coronavirus pandemic plays out to know how much of a financial hit they may take.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But she said she is urging producers, even if they are small, to take extra precautions. Farmers and ranchers may feel isolated if they are working in fields planting or calving, but \u201cthis pandemic is not going to pass over them,\u201d Szilagyi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we want is for small producers to get sick,\u201d Szilagyi said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner requested last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture take additional steps to provide economic relief to farmers to ensure the food supply chain is stable in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven before the coronavirus pandemic hit Colorado, farmers across our state have been pushed to the edge by a trade war they didn\u2019t ask for, low commodity prices and challenges with weather and labor,\u201d Bennet said in a statement. \u201cCOVID-19 has only added to the uncertainty and instability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmers and ranchers have been deemed an essential service during the COVID-19 outbreak to provide grocery stores with food. But Gardner told The Durango Herald<\/em> in a brief phone interview that farmers and ranchers should have greater access to credit and loans, especially if there is a COVID-19 case at one of the meat processing plants.<\/p>\n

\"A
A young calf calls out for its mother in this 2013 photo taken at Jerry McCaw\u2019s ranch south of Durango.<\/span>Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Workers are taking social-distancing precautions. But if an outbreak were to happen, it would have a major impact on the ranchers in the state, Gardner said.<\/p>\n

Keeping agriculture healthy is a matter of national security, Gardner said, because the U.S. relies on its farmers and ranchers for 80% of the food supply.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Farm Bureau has created an website of health and economic resources for farmers and ranchers in the state at agisopen.com<\/a>. The website also has a job board to connect farmers and ranchers who are out of work with farmers and ranchers who help.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe people will respect the local farmer and rancher a little more,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers and ranchers are the people that feed America,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Emily Hayes is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

coronavirus will affect revenue still unanswered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,21,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89329"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}