He'd already tried sellers in the traditional producing areas of the U.S. such as Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, only to find they were mostly sold out. Soon, in a bid to connect his customers with a feed mill still willing to sell, he changed strategy and tried to pull feed from the Delta region, hundreds of miles away — again without luck.

Just as virus-spooked consumers have rushed to grocery stores to stockpile everything from toilet paper to pasta, farmers raising America's cattle, hogs, and chickens have filled their bins with feed, fearing the spread of the coronavirus would disrupt their supply chains. "I've had some calls from customers of mine looking for feed because the mills are out," says the Fayetteville, Ark.-based Beaver. "There's a rush to buy just because of the uncertainty in the market. They just don't want to be caught without."

Keeping America's 95 million cows, 77 million pigs, and 9 billion chickens fed isn't as simple as it may seem. Farmers are worried their feed mills could close as employees get sick or that their slaughterhouses could slow production, forcing them to keep animals for longer. They're also concerned that a shortage of trucks, which are being waylaid to supply supermarkets, could make it harder for farm supplies to reach them.

Even the plunge in gasoline demand affects the feed supply. As ethanol plants shut down — because the fuel additive isn't needed when gas isn't selling — the animal feed market is being starved of an important ingredient called dried distillers grains (DDGs) that are a byproduct of ethanol production. Distillers grain is a key ingredient in rations for beef cattle and dairy cows.