Poultry Your Way - Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems ...

MANAGEMENT
ALTERNATIVES
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FARM PROFILE • Industrial: Confinement
The plant was set up to process 4.25 million turkeys a year,
producing boned turkey meat valued at about $72 million. Plans
included adding further-processed, value-added cooked products
under the name “Golden Legacy,” at some point in the future.
Those original goals have been met or exceeded, Lennon said.
Despite some bad years for turkey since 2000, the plant has
sold at least $72 million worth of products each year. Running
one full shift a day, it processes 4.5 million birds a year. It has
captured contracts with the state of Michigan’s Department of
Corrections to provide cooked and raw turkey to state prisons. It
has contracted with other companies to prepare cooked turkey
products valued at about $10 million a year. It has added one
grower member to the original 15, and several growers have
expanded production.
The plant originally hired 215 line employees and 55 in sales and management—many of them experienced
Bil-Mar workers. It now has 400 employees. The facility cost more than $20 million to build. Funding came from
CoBank, part of the Farm Credit System, on condition that the co-op members raise half the money. The 15
grower members contributed most of it, but some came from outside investors. Several of the grower loans were
guaranteed by the USDA’s Rural Development Agency.
Layout of the building complex. Open land is rented
out to a grower of plant nursery stock.
Biosecurity: a warning sign at the entrance reminds
visitors of the need for disease control.
So the story is not just of the growers and the cooperative, but of
a broad base of cooperation from public agencies of all sorts. Joel
Bussis is proud of the role his father played. The Golden Legacy
brand has literal meaning for him.