How big is too big? Farm families and other rural residents near LaRue, Ohio, have been pondering that question this year with the arrival of new neighbors.
No one in this farming country seems to have any objection to the newcomers as individuals – the problem is that there are more than two and a half million of them.
That’s the number of laying hens at the latest egg facility built by AgriGeneral Inc., a rapidly expanding U.S. food production corporation. The facility is impressive.
Read Also
Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
Within long low green buildings that rest unobtrusively a few hundred metres off a country road, there are countless kilometres of winding conveyors that move slowly past the four-high rows of chicken cages.
Within each cage, six chickens take turns pecking at the flow of feed pellets. Meanwhile, scrapers send their manure production to underground pits, while eggs roll slowly onto belts of rubber fingers.
For some area farmers, the plant is a good additional local market. AgriGeneral calculates it needs production from 18,900 acres of corn and 22,700 acres of soybeans to keep this plant’s chickens fed. There’s no shortage of bidders for the manure – the company recently held an auction for rights to next year’s manure. Officials estimate that the three large farms currently receiving the manure pay $10 U.S. a tonne plus hauling costs and get $56 a tonne in nutrient value. Almost every half hour, another large truck rolls away with a new load.
For Canadian egg producers, perhaps the most worrisome statistic is the daily production of more than two million eggs. As tariffs decline, production from a few plants like this could overwhelm the Canadian market. The plant already exports some eggs to Canada, as well as Mexico, the Middle East, Russia, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands and the Far East.
Local residents, however, have other concerns – a huge increase in truck traffic, the arrival of dozens of unskilled workers, and continuing irritation to humans and livestock from swarms of flies.
Groups opposed to AgriGeneral’s expansion plans are calling on authorities to ensure that such large operations pay the full cost of environmental damage and do not enjoy zoning and property-tax exemptions that were designed for family farms.
If they are successful in their struggle, perhaps Canadian producers will be able to breathe easier for a while.
But Canadian rural communities could find themselves facing the same issue as their Ohio counterparts: is there a limit to how far we go in the name of production efficiency?
