From where I sit writing I can look out the window and watch about 300 broiler chickens searching through the grass for anything good to eat. We raised broilers formerly for some years, but quit because we had to haul them too far for processing. We couldn't spare labor enough to do it ourselves, so we began buying farm raised chickens to sell in our meats business.
What has changed is that we now have local processing available again and so we refurbished the old equipment in April and bought in the chicks. This is an opportunity we created for ourselves, without withholding any credit from the people who have started the processing here. This is so because since the pandemic, our family, including Josh and Cindy as well as LeeAnn and I have been active in urging development of processing here and throughout the state using both state and federal funds set up to help rural communities through the worst effects of the pandemic.
So we spent endless hours on zoom and in person meetings, lobbying the legislature and making personal contacts with people likely to succeed at a processing business. We, of course, have a vested interest in the success of the new processing businesses. We very much appreciate the nerve and courage it takes to start a new venture in these trying times. And we think that you, our customers, need to be aware of what is happening too.
We will eat better because of these new businesses and our communities will benefit.
