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Officials in three states contending with Pure Prairie Poultry’s chickens

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Officials in three states are dealing with the aftermath of the Charles City Pure Prairie Poultry processing plant closing on Oct. 2, leaving more than 2 million chickens that growers were raising for the company but that Pure Prairie could no longer afford to feed.

Although Iowa officials are trying to find processors to purchase the chickens at reduced costs – or even take them for free rather than waste the meat – many of them may end up being “depopulated” – killed and disposed of.

In Iowa, a district court had issued an order on the day the Pure Prairie Poultry plant closed, seizing about 1.3 million chickens owned by Pure Prairie and located at 13 different grower barns in Iowa.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) had filed an emergency petition in Sioux County District Court, saying the 1.3 million broiler chickens “are either out of feed or soon will be out of feed,” and that Pure Prairie Chief Financial Officer George Peichel had told the state veterinarian that Pure Prairie had no more money to buy feed for the chickens.

The chickens belong to Pure Prairie Poultry even though they are housed in the growers’ barns, and the company paid for their feed and care.

Since the state took control of the birds on Oct. 2, it has been trying to find a way to market them to prevent them from having to be destroyed.

In an interim report to the court last week, IDALS said there were also about 400,000 chickens in Minnesota and 400,000 in Wisconsin with Pure Prairie growers, but those states do not have rescue and disposition laws for livestock like Iowa does.

Pilgrim’s Pride in Minnesota was going to accept some of the chickens for processing, but backed off because some of the parties with interest in the chickens, including companies that may have liens on them such as for unpaid feed bills, were not willing to sign off.

“In Wisconsin, some of the birds are starving and have resorted to cannibalism,” the IDALS report to the court said, but the chickens in at least one barn had been scheduled to be removed on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Articles from Minnesota and Wisconsin news sources report some of the growers have turned to social media to try and give their birds away so they can be butchered for meat, rather than see them starve.

In Wisconsin, Dr. Darlene Konkle, the state veterinarian, said that because the birds are legally owned by Pure Prairie, they are not even sure where all the barns are located.

“We are concerned for the welfare of the poultry, and the welfare of the company’s contracted growers in Wisconsin,” she wrote in a letter to Pure Prairie Poultry’s CFO Peichel.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection “does not have statutory authority to assume control of birds in a situation unrelated to an animal disease response, nor any funding source to provide feed or other resources for the flocks,” Konkle said.

One of the growers in Wisconsin said the the idea of going to social media to give away the birds had come from some Pure Prairie Poultry growers in Minnesota who had done the same thing and were able to get rid of most of their chickens.

Even if they solve the problem of what to do with the chickens, growers say they are still owed tens of thousands of dollars or more each by Pure Prairie.

Greg Marten, a poultry producer near Mondovi, Wisconsin, told Wisconsin Public Radio that the company owes him at least $90,000 in rent and other expenses.

Marten said he hopes he can give away all of the birds he has to people who can use them, but he doubts he will ever be repaid what he’s owed for raising them, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

In Iowa, “IDALS staff contacted the feed mills that had been previously supplying feed to the contract grower sites listed … and got feed ordered to be delivered by the end of the day on Oct. 2,” the Iowa department said in its Oct. 8 report to the court.

IDALS contacted several chicken processors to see if they were interested in harvesting the birds, the court report said, including Tyson Foods, Lincoln Premium, Petersburg Poultry, AgriStar and Miller Poultry.

Only Tyson Foods showed interest, saying it would purchase birds for 50 cents each once they reached market rate.

But then Tyson declined the deal after several other interested parties indicated they would not give up their lien rights on the chickens so that Tyson could be given a “clean title.”

“This caused Tyson to reconsider the agreement for fear of future litigation,” IDALS wrote.

At a Sioux County District Court hearing on Oct. 8, several parties asked for additional time to try and find a resolution for the Iowa chickens, and the hearing was continued to Friday, Oct. 11.

At that hearing, IDALS entered another report, saying that on Oct. 10 it had received an offer from David Pitman of Pitman Farms, to purchase the birds for 50 cents per bird, and Pitman would take over the care and feeding of the chickens.

There’s a touch of irony in that offer, as Pitman Farms owned Simply Essentials, the previous operator of the Charles City chicken processing facility that closed the plant in 2019. Pure Prairie Poultry (then Pure Prairie Farms) purchased the Simply Essentials assets in bankruptcy court in 2021.

The Pitman offer “contained a number of contingencies, including, but not limited to, a bankruptcy filing by PPP,” the IDALS report said.

Pure Prairie had initially filed for Chapter 11 reorganizational bankruptcy in Minnesota, where the company is incorporated, but had the bankruptcy court quickly close the case after creditors could not agree on a plan for interim financing to keep operating.

“The state had multiple back-and-forths with representatives for Pitman Farms and determined that, while the offer may present an opportunity in the future, given the contingencies it did not present a sufficiently concrete offer that warranted a continuance of the hearing on Oct. 11, 2024, or the state’s plans for depopulation,” the IDALS report to the court said.

“The state still remains open to consideration of Pitman Farms’ proposed offer, or others for that matter,” IDALS said.

“IDALS has continued its efforts to plan for the orderly and expeditious depopulation of the chickens in the event it was unable to successfully market them,” the report said. “IDALS is optimistic that through various methods the depopulation process can be accomplished in 1-2 weeks. IDALS is also working on disposal options for the chickens once they have been depopulated.”

Including the costs so far, and continued expenses until the birds are killed and then disposed of, IDALS estimates the cost to the state will be $1.5 million or more.

“While IDALS believes depopulation should be a last resort, given the lack of processing capacity and willing buyers for the chickens, combined with the ever-increasing feed and yardage costs for the chickens with no end-market, depopulation provides the state, and everyone, with finality to this unfortunate circumstance and limits the costs to the citizens of Iowa,” IDALS wrote.

“In addition, while the proposed offer from Pitman Farms presents an opportunity, further delays to IDALS’ depopulation plans will result in additional feed and yardage costs, as well as taxing staff resources and time managing the chickens. Moreover, some of the chickens are already approaching or exceeding marketable weight for a processor.”

The report concluded, “As one of the agencies heavily involved in regulating Iowa’s livestock production industry and ensuring critical livestock products and protein sources are available to people all over Iowa, the United States, and even the world, IDALS is very troubled and concerned about having to euthanize healthy broilers that could be harvested for food and how the situation reached this point.”

Chief District Court Judge Patrick Tott ruled that IDALS is authorized to pursue the depopulation and disposal of all chickens, “with the efforts to initially be focused on the larger nonmarketable chickens first and only proceeding to the smaller chickens once all of the larger nonmarketable chickens have been depopulated.”

Tott authorized IDALS to continue efforts to market the chickens, including providing them for free to a processor if that is the most cost-effective and efficient way to dispose of the chickens.

“Such a disposition shall not occur, however, earlier than Thursday, Oct. 17, to allow the interested parties additional time through Wednesday, Oct. 16, to enter an agreement with another grower or processor and present the same to the court for approval,” Tott ordered.

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