The good news is: There’s enough capacity statewide to process the 14,000 head of beef cattle finished in Virginia annually.

The bad news is: Long travel distances and labor shortages, plus an ongoing processing backlog, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have created industry challenges as consumers increasingly clamor for locally sourced foods.

Nationwide, rising market prices are driven by sustained demand and a dip in inventory.

“Cattle prices are at or around record highs, so revenue is up for producers,” said Tony Banks, senior assistant director of agriculture, development and innovation at Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “But their inputs are more expensive with market-wide inflation, so profit is not increasing proportionally.”

When grocery meat cases emptied during COVID-19, a swell of interest in locally raised beef was curbed by processing backlogs.

Caroline County cow-calf operators Peggy and David Spicer of Willow Hill Farms & Beef went from a thre...