Overview

The core of the co-op is its broiler production. Our members own 50 broiler farms. About half of the members raise and market their birds without antibiotics. ​The growers are supplied with one-day old chicks by the co-op owned hatchery with a total capacity of four million eggs. The hatching eggs are produced on 24 breeder farms. The broiler breeder farms are in turn supplied by eight breeder replacement farms. ​In addition, members of the co-op operate three farms raising meat turkeys and two small farms with laying hens. The co-op also owns a feed mill that produces high quality feed for all farms according to their needs and specifications.

​All parts of live operations follow the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). The co-op provides technical and veterinary services to their members by employing a team of Poultry Health and Welfare Officers under the supervision of a board-certified poultry veterinarian.

 

Broiler Farms

The broiler farms have four to six houses with 25,000 to 40,000 square feet. The stocking density adheres to industry standards with approximately 1 square foot per bird. The houses are closed houses and use tunnel ventilation. The birds are fed a standard three-phase diet. Feed- and water consumption are monitored constantly and mortality is recorded daily. The birds are processed at 42 weeks of age. Downtime between flocks is between one week in conventional flocks and two weeks in antibiotic free flocks.

JJO and Stag Creek broiler farms

 

Breeder Replacement Farms and Breeder Farms

On our breeder replacement farm, the breeders are raised to 20 weeks of life before being transferred to one of the breeder farms. On the breeder farms, the hens are in production between the 25th and 60th week of life. All houses on the breeder and breeder replacement farms are fully environmentally controlled.

 

Blue Hills and Tall Oaks broiler breeder farms

 

Turkey Farms

The turkey farms buy their one-day-old poults from a commercial hatchery. The birds are raised to an age of about six weeks in the brooder house and then moved to the grower houses. The turkey farms each have one to two controlled environment brooder house and two to four curtain-sided grower houses with a capacity of 1,000 to 7,000 turkeys each. The hens are sold for processing when 16 weeks old, the toms when 20 weeks old.

 

Horseshoe and DRZ meat turkey farms

 

​Layer Farms

Our layer farms obtain either one-day-old chicks from commercial hatcheries. Each layer farm has three houses for hens in lay and one house in which replacement pullets are raised. The laying hens are kept in modern multi-tier aviaries. The farms work in a one-cycle system. Pullets are moved from the replacement house to one of the aviary houses at 19 weeks of age and kept in production until 80 weeks of age or until their rate of lay falls below 65%.

 

Kangaroo Valley and Flying Dutchman layer farms

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