Residents of Lexington, Nebraska, are facing uncertainty after the town’s largest employer announced it will close early next year.

The news, reported Friday by MS NOW, comes from Lexington, the seat of Dawson County, which Donald Trump carried with more than 74 percent of the vote in last year’s election.

Tyson, a meatpacking company, currently employs 3,200 people in Lexington. All of these workers are expected to lose their jobs by January 20, when the plant officially shuts down.

“Have you ever been in a place where you can just feel the pain and the anxiety? That’s what it feels like being here in Lexington, Nebraska,” MS NOW reporter Rosa Flores said. “… People have described to me what’s happening here by using the words ‘catastrophe,’ ‘crisis,’ the feeling of being ‘collateral damage,’ ‘hurt,’ ‘anxiety,’ ‘agony.'”

Local business owners told Flores that sales started to plummet the moment Tyson announced it was closing the plant. Many business owners are immigrants who made the money to launch their businesses by working at the Tyson plant.

“There’s another business here to my left, down the street. That woman says that people have gone into her store sobbing,” Flores said. “Her sales immediately dropped 10 to 20 percent right after the announcement.”

Reuters reported earlier this month that Tyson was closing the Lexington plant due to cattle supplies hitting a 75-year low in 2025.

A small supply of cattle increases production costs for hamburgers and steaks. Cattle ranchers have seen dwindling herds due to drought reducing the supply of land capable of feeding cattle.

Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn, who is running against Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) next year as an independent, accused Tyson of manipulating the market by shuttering the plant.

Officials warn that the closure of the Lexington plant could have a huge impact on the nation’s beef supply. One executive emphasized that Tyson is effectively “destroying five percent of America’s beef processing capacity,” considering the massive amount of cattle processed at the facility each year.