By Andi Anderson
Farmers in Minnesota are facing a crisis after a local poultry company, Pure Prairie Poultry, ran out of money, leaving them responsible for the care of over a million chickens across Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
The company, which filed for bankruptcy, closed its chicken processing plant in Charles City, Iowa, leaving farmers scrambling to manage the situation.
According to Thom Petersen, Minnesota’s Agriculture Commissioner, the state has been working with six affected chicken farms to help feed, sell, or give away the birds.
However, many of the chickens may have to be culled due to the company’s financial troubles.
“I want to be really clear that this is not a neglect case on the part of the farmers,” said Petersen. “The farmers are trying to do what’s right for the birds before it becomes a neglect-type situation.”
Pure Prairie Poultry had only been operating in Charles City for less than two years, but it is the latest in a series of poultry companies that have struggled to remain in business at that location.
The USDA had provided the company with substantial financial support, including a $39 million loan guarantee and a $7 billion grant to support its operations.
Petersen met with USDA officials earlier in the week and noted that the agency plans to launch an investigation into the company’s bankruptcy.
“USDA put a large grant to them and so you assume that things are looking good,” said Petersen. “Margins are tight sometimes, and a lot of different things, but I would say unfortunately, yes it came out of the blue … it was a surprise that it was in this bad of condition.”
Since the closure of the Charles City plant, there has been no place to process the mature chickens.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has stepped in to feed and manage approximately 300,000 of the birds, while also working to sell or give away some before the plant shut down.
“We did see this in 2020 when we had processing plants close and we did have to euthanize millions of chickens at that time and hundreds of thousands of turkeys and hogs … so we have gone through this before,” said Petersen. “Minnesota is prepared for this type of emergency, unfortunately.”
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture continues to assess the situation and explore ways to recover some of the costs incurred during the crisis.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-wikoski
Categories: Iowa, Livestock, Poultry