Background of Central North Carolina Poultry Growers
The Central North Carolina Poultry Growers’ Group is a group of contract poultry growers formerly employed by Pilgrim’s Pride and Townsend. These growers reside in twelve counties in central North Carolina. As a result of extremely high feed and energy costs associated with a sluggish economy, both Pilgrim’s Pride and Townsend decided to restructure their company resources. The Pilgrim’s Siler City processing plant, feed mill and hatchery were closed. The Townsend Pittsboro, Siler City and Mocksville processing plants were closed by their parent company, Omtron. There are presently 31 former Pilgrims broiler growers and 148 former Townsend broiler growers without contracts. Between the growers and processing plant layoffs it is estimated that North Carolina will loose approximately 60 Million dollars in taxable income. The estimated debt load of the 179 growers is 90 million dollars, in most cases, the collateral for the building loans are the grower’s homes and generational family farms.
Central North Carolina Poultry Growers’ Group was formed as a result of the void created by Townsend and Pilgrim’s Pride revoking the grower’s contracts. Concerned that no local integrators may be willing to engage these growers because of the overall poor economy, the growers decided to band together to explore new possibilities.
Central North Carolina Poultry Growers’ Group has a steering committee made up of farm families that worked aggressively to represent the 179 former contract poultry growers. The steering committee is presently working with the NC Department of Agriculture, NC Poultry Federation, NC State University, US Department of Agriculture, Cape Fear Farm Credit, Carolina Farm Credit, NC Contract Poultry Growers Association, former Congressman Bob Etheridge, Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), and the NC Cooperative Extension Service.
The primary goals of the Central North Carolina Poultry Growers’ Group are to bring these displaced poultry growers back into the mainstream of poultry production in North Carolina by negotiating new contracts with poultry integrators and to seek an alternative way to salvage their poultry businesses to include the potential of forming a grower-based cooperative.
The Central North Carolina Poultry Growers’ Group Guide may be accessed online at: http://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/content/Poultryindex
Farm Profiles Included in the Guide by County:
Chatham County
- 4M Farm
- B & B Poultry Farm, Inc.
- Bernard Smith Farm
- Bonnie Scott Farm
- C. Craig Bray Farm
- Deep River Farm, LLC
- Family Tradition Farm
- Hadley Farms
- Jackie Rives Farm
- James Sipe Farm
- K W Farm
- Matthews Farm
- Rocky Acres Farm
- Stout’s Poultry Farm
- Todd and Kathy White Farm
- Womble Farms
Cumberland County
Davidson County
Guilford County
Harnett County
- Aaron Johnson, Jr. Farms
- Brock Farms
- Gail Thomas Farms
- Holmes Poultry
- Howell Farms
- Mollie Field Farm
- River Bend Farms
- Rooster Ridge Farm
- Ted and Margaret Thomas Farm
- Teresa Womack Farm
- Tony Currin / Currin Farms
Johnston County
Lee County
- C & C Poultry
- Harrington Brothers Poultry Farm
- Lonnie’s Poultry Farm
Montgomery County
- C & J Farms
Moore County
- Frogtown Farm
- Harris Poultry
- Lynn Harris Farm
- River Forest Farm
Randolph County
- B & P Poultry
- Copper Ridge Farms
- Deep River Farm
- Fox Poultry Farm
- Freda Key Farm
- G. Q. Caviness Farm
- Garner Farm
- J. B. Hicks & Son, Inc.
- Jearldeen Kivett Farm
- Kent Atkinson Farm
- L & P Farm
- Lassiter Farm
- Mark Hayes Farm
- Matt and Kim Canoy Farm
- Mills Farm
- Nance Farms
- P & J Farms, Inc.
- P & M Farm
- Rockin’ B Farm
- Rodney Brown Farm
- Ronald Williams Farm
- Shar-Lane Farms
- Spencer Farm
- Steve Williams Farm
- Stoney Ford Farm
- Tony Reeder Farm
- Williams Farm
Sampson County
- R & T Eldridge Farm
Wake County
- W & F Poultry
Acknowledgments
Steering Committee
John and Dawn Carroll
Mark and Renee Currin
Kay Doby
Randy Gilliland
Terry and Dana Hardy
A.C. Morgan
Dwayne and Jennifer Parrish
Ken and Cecilia Pilkington
Sonya Holmes
Cooperating Agencies
Former Congressman Bob Etheridge and Staff
NC Department of Agriculture Marketing Division – Kim Decker and Annette Dunlap
NC Poultry Federation – Bob Ford
NC State University – Poultry Science Dept.
US Department of Agriculture
Cape Fear Farm Credit
Carolina Farm Credit
Farm Bureau
NC Contract Poultry Grower’s Association
RAFI – Becky Ceartas, Scott Marlow
NC Cooperative Extension – Dan Campeau, Area CES Specialized Agent, Poultry
NC Cooperative Extension Centers
(Chatham, Cumberland, Davidson, Guilford, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Sampson and Wake counties)
Funding Partners
North Carolina Rural Cooperative Development Program
North Carolina Poultry Federation
North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Chatham County Center
Artwork – Naomi Gray (except cover)
Editing – Dan Campeau
Modified Design and Layout – Carla Garvin Thomann
Contact:
Dan Campeau, Area Specialized Agent, Poultry
North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Phone: 919-542-8202
Cell: 919-548-9895
Email: dan_campeau@ncsu.edu
