Empty Tulare dairy to house 2.2 million cage-free hens
100 Jobs Expected
July 13,2018-
The now vacant Triple V Dairy at 6305 Ave 176, southwest of the City of Tulare, will house 2.2 million cage-free egg laying hens according to a permit being processed by Tulare County.
Property owner Kevin Kruse of Western Milling foreclosed on the 640-acre dairy some years back but was until recently, leasing it out to Triple V Dairy.
Goshen-based Western Milling sells feed to dairies and other livestock operations including poultry. Triple V Dairy was owned by several of the Valadao brothers, including Congressman David Valadao, but their operation was foreclosed on by Rabobank.
The farm’s assets was seized by Rabobank after the family failed to pay back $8.3 million in loans. The cattle were auctioned to pay off the debt.The congressman blamed that” burdensome government regulations made it impossible for the operation to remain open.”
Now the empty dairy property will be converted into a large multi barn egg ranch housing 2.2 million layers producing 2 million eggs a day says Kruse. He is already in the egg business as a partner in a large poultry ranch in Wasco, Central Valley Eggs,LLC.
Kruse expects the new Tulare ranch could employ 100 in good paying jobs.
Their approach offers “cage free” hen housing considered to be a more humane environment designed to decrease poultry stress levels, increase feed consumption and improve survival rates. Central Valley Eggs, LLC, has a 36 million eggs per month facility in the Wasco area and about 3.5 million layers.
That partnership is a three-way deal with Arizona-based Hickman Farms,Opal Foods and Western Milling.
Kruse says California needs about 40 million eggs a day(in-state we produce only a fraction of that, about 15 million eggs) and expects in the future they will be cage-free unless a new controversial US Farm Bill amendment is approved.
“Most of the eggs Californians eat are trucked in to the state” he says.
The nations’ largest producer is Iowa and a Senator from that state has sponsored an amendment folded into the House version of the Farm Bill to restrict cage- free operations.
A recent LA Times article describes the situation.
“US. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), whose district includes the most egg-laying hens in the country, has authored an amendment in the House version of the Farm Bill that would prohibit any state from imposing a condition on the production or manufacture of an agricultural product sold in interstate commerce if the regulation is more stringent than federal law or standards set by other states. Dubbed the Protect Interstate Commerce Act of 2018, King’s proposal is similar to a measure he persuaded the House to add to its version of the 2014 farm bill, only to be blocked by the Senate.
King argues that Iowa should not be “held hostage to the demands of California’s vegan lobby and California’s regulatory agencies.”
The Times continues in an editorial. “It’s worth remembering that the initial California measure that banned battery cages, Proposition 2, was passed by 63.5% of the voters. It’s unlikely they were all vegans. And California isn’t alone on this issue. Currently, four states require eggs from out-of-state farmers to be produced according to the same humane standards they’ve imposed on eggs from their in-state farmers.”
Kruse is hopeful this Kings amendment will be rejected again by the Senate and will not become law.
If it does happen “that could slow us down” admits Kruse.
Few impacts expected
County economic development official Mike Washam says the permit for renovation of the former dairy to poultry will not require a major environmental report since the impacts of the egg operation are considered less than the existing dairy permit. He expects the matter will come to the planning commission July 25.
Low margins in the dairy business has led to a drop across the US in the number of milk operations by half since 2000, from more than 83,000 to about 40,000, according to USDA.
While dairy operations here appears to be on a slow decline in Tulare County, the nation’s number-one dairy county, the poultry biz is on the upswing here.
Sanger-based Pitman Family Farms – completed the first 5 of 48 poultry barns, each of which are capable of growing 150,000 chickens each year. At full buildout the new state-of-the-art poultry barns will increase the capacity of poultry production in Tulare County by 30% ($19.2 million) says Washam.
Pitman has been expanding their network of new cage-free as well as some barns with no outside access, in Fresno,Kings and Tulare counties with ranches near, Hanford Pixley and near Dinuba recently. They have a big feed mill in Hanford the can receive unit trains of corn.
Also,Foster Farms has constructed an organic feed mill at its Traver facility with additional expansion plans in the near future ($7.5 million).
Kruse’s Western Milling facility also receives 100 car unit trains for their animal feed operations and have recently expanded into the pet food business- Perfection Pet Foods. Kruse says they hope to break ground on the new egg ranch early next year.
New ballot measure
As more cage-free operations get permits California voters will have another chance to decide whether to approve a new cage-free egg initiative at the ballot box this coming November. The vote will follow some nine years after state voters passed Proposition 2 that increased the amount of space an egg-laying hen must have to 116 square inches. If passed, the new ballot measure will increase the minimum to 144 square inches.
caption for CV egg flyer: Flyer for Wasco operation