Cargill

Farm Tour:

There are 180 contract farms with Cargill which equals 22,000,000 billion turkeys. The barns are 63 ft. x 704 ft. and each barn holds 25,500 birds in each house. To make each pound of turkey it takes 2 pounds of feed. When the birds are first brought in they are placed in conventional ring systems and there is 400 birds per ring. All of the houses are equipped with automatic waters and feeders. The birds are given the entire house to roam at 6 weeks old and considered mature at 13 weeks. They use generators as back up electricity. They run heat, lights, circulation fans, and the automatic waters and feeders. They keep the humidity below 60%. Every house has an alarm system that goes off if the temperature gets too low or too high or if there is a power outage. Each building cost $550,000 to compete and the farmers are set up on a 15 year plan. The temperature decreases as the turkeys age and with tom turkeys they bring the temperature in the house down much faster. There is 5 inches of litter put down in the house at the start of the cycle and before entering the house everyone must step in a powered for of bleach that works better than the liquid. The turkeys are started on a 30% protein feed and are given their vaccinations at the hatchery and then further vaccinated through the water. The toms are sold to a company in North Carolina. The hens will kill a tom if they are mis-sexed at the hatchery. They get 4 hours of darkeness a day. There are shock wires above the feeders and waters that keep the turkeys from roosting on them. They compost the litter at the open end while the turkeys are contained to half of the barn during the first 5 weeks and all new litter is placed at the brood end of the barn. They use pine shavings and peanut hulls for bedding. Every 6 cycles the litter is replaced completely. There is a 95% survival rate and there are only 4 antibiotics that they are allowed to use on the turkeys. All employees and growers have to go through welfare training. On average the babies are $1.30 each from the hatchery.

Processing Plant:

There are two main brands made at this processing plant (P18), Shady Brook and Honey Suckle White. The plant is 70 years old and the plant manager has been with the company for 39 years. There are 800 farms that the plant receives birds from and the furthest one is in North Carolina. The plant processes 20,000 toms a day and the target live weight is 40 pounds. They process 10,000 heavy hens a day and that target live weight is 23 pounds. They process 50,000-60,000 small hens a day and the target live weight is 15 pounds. There are 19 different languages spoken at the plant and people from 52 different countries. There are USDA officials on site along with a doctor for all emergencies. The hens are killed with a 49 volt shock and the toms are given a CO2 stun.

This was one of my favorite tours of the entire e-term. Everyone always makes it seem as though processing plants and poultry barns are cruel facilities but that was not the case. The workers were all professional and made the process very humane. I liked being able to see the entire process first hand and not having to go off of the assumptions. It was also reassuring to know that anyone harassing a bird (alive or dead) was terminated immediately.