A lockout of workers at the Cargill meatpacking facility in Fort Morgan, Colorado, is threatening to make a looming shortage of processed beef worse.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. beef prices have skyrocketed lately due to low cattle supply, high demand and things like evolving tariffs and disease. 

The Fort Morgan plant has the capacity to process more than 4,500 head of cattle per day. Prior to the shutdown it was processing 2,500. The U.S. processes around 100,000 head of cattle per day in total, making the cessation of operations a significant loss of capacity.

“Any disruption and any impact on prices is going to take some time (to see) because of the way the industry is structured, which creates a bit of a buffer for many supply chain shocks,” Jennifer Martin, quality and meat extension specialist at Colorado State University, told the Colorado Sun.

Earlier in May, Reuters reported that the Trump administration said it was "fine-tuning" potential presidential executive orders aimed at reducing domestic beef prices and allowing increased beef imports into the U.S., along with additional government support to help ranchers rebuild the American cattle herd that has dwindled to its lowest level in 75 years.

According to the Colorado Sun, Cargill officials say they barred the doors because a contract dispute with workers could have resulted in a worker walkout that would have jeopardized food safety, animal welfare and millions of pounds of beef cut from the 2,500 cattle they process there daily. 

But the Teamsters Local 455 union, which represents Cargill workers who turn cattle into flank steaks, sirloins, T-bones and other cuts, says Cargill at first only said they were reducing inventory, but then stopped bringing cattle to the facility just days after a “pretty contentious day of negotiations” on April 20.

The multinational food producer paid the 1,700 workers while they were off the job and negotiated a new contract with the union, but 90% of union workers rejected that deal on May 20. Now, a meeting for additional bargaining is set for May 27.