6M chickens could come to roost in Turner County
A Sioux Falls-based company hopes to more than double the number of egg-laying hens in South Dakota by opening a massive chicken operation near Parker.
Statewide, there are 3.78 million chickens at state-permitted feeding operations in South Dakota, a tiny fraction of the nearly 60 million birds in Iowa or 10 million in Minnesota.
Sonstegard Foods, which already operates a 4.5-million chicken farm in Iowa and has egg processing facilities in five states, hopes to bring six million birds to South Dakota on a stretch of Turner County property about two and a half miles from Parker.
Ag boosters see the project as a get for southeast South Dakota, boosting grain prices and offering a steady source of quality fertilizer for farmers while employing as many as 150 people after 10 years. For corn producers in particular, the idea of feeding six million birds instead of shipping bushels out of state is appealing.
"We take a significant amount of our corn out of state," said Keith Alverson, President of South Dakota Corn Growers. "Anything that can keep that grain in our state is a good thing."
The path to that future for the potentially massive farm isn't certain. While some local farmers like the idea, others in and around Parker worry about an erosion in quality of life in the sleepy Turner County community if it becomes the state's home base for poultry.
The farm would be about two and a half miles from Parker, near the 8th green at the Par Mar Golf course and the Vermillion River. Residents are concerned about the odor, traffic, insects and the environment.
A petition circulating for more than a month has called on the Turner County Planning and Zoning Board to reject the Sonstegard plan, even though the farm's backers have yet to apply for a conditional use permit.
"I'm speaking out as a citizen because I want to stand up for the quality of life that we have," said John Chicoine, a retired chiropractor in the community of 1,100. "I'm not against this thing, but if they want to build it, they should put it five miles from town."
Massive expansion for Sioux Falls-based company
Sonstegard Foods is a family business, but it does big business.
The company began in 1972, and now operates in five states under several names, selling dry, liquid and shelled eggs to grocery stores, schools, prisons, and manufacturing companies. Expansion of the egg-laying part of the business has become necessary as smaller producers have closed up, making it more difficult for Sonstegard's brands to keep hold of a steady egg supply.
"We've been talking about building another chicken farm for five years," said Peter Sonstegard, the company's vice president of sales. "We've looked at buying some other companies, we've looked at buying some other farms and we've come to the conclusion that we're better building it ourselves."
The expansion in Parker would cost $85 million overall, with 18 months separating the initial groundbreaking from the first shipment of eggs, he said. The facilities would include two barns to start with and 30 to 40 employees. Sonstegard hopes to add a barn a year until the facility reaches six million chickens.
There would be a feed mill, manufacturing facility and two sheds to store dry manure – which would then be sold as fertilizer – on the site at of 274th Street and 451st Avenue.
"It's a Belle Brands-type dairy," Sonstegard said. "Stainless steel, (fiber-reinforced plastic) walling, nice set brick for floors. We're really a food manufacturer that happens to have chickens on site."
The company would need more than just the land near Parker to keep its operation running. Pullet sites would be located between 7 and 15 miles from Parker, where chicks would grow about 16 weeks before being brought to the layer barns.
The property on which the main buildings would be found was selected in August, Sonstegard said. The proximity to Highway 44 and Interstate 29, the nearness to utility lines and the fact that it's within a half hour of the company's longtime corporate headquarters all played into the site's selection.
"We keep looking at home," Sonstegard said. "We want to be close to home."
Neighbors worry about impact
The site is too close to home for many in Parker.
Katie Overvaag, a photographer who lives near the proposed site, has pushed a petition drive to stop the farm.
Overvaag bought land outside Parker three years ago and runs her photography business out of the home.
She doubts her clients will be able to stomach the smell of a 6-million bird chicken operation, but, she said, "my biggest concern is public health."
She's more worried about the odor of the manure and possibility of pollution in the nearby Vermillion River. Drain tiling on the property currently drain into the river, and a manufacturing plant wouldn't help the water quality, she said.
"It's already an impaired waterway," Overvaag said.
There would be too many trucks moving through the area and too much odor for a community full of families, said Kathy Lutter, who lives in Parker.
"You're talking about a crazy amount of traffic," said Lutter.
Lutter's concerned about a lawsuit over flies that was filed against the company's "Sunrise Farms" in the late 1990s. Five families were awarded $45,000 in the legal battle, which forced changes at the farm near Ocheyedan facility.
She and Overvaag drove to that facility this month, she said, and "it was like a town."
"I'm absolutely opposed to (a Parker) location," Lutter said. "It's just too close."
The petition to stop the farm had more than 150 signatures last week.
Company: We want to be good neighbors
Sonstegard says the company wants to be a good neighbor. He's quick to point out that the company fixed the fly problem in Iowa, for example, and says his father gets a Christmas card every year from one of the women who sued.
As far as drain tiling goes, he said "we're going to tear all that out when we move in," he said, so there wouldn't be any drainage issues with the river. The inside of the barns would be dry-cleaned. The manure would be dried in the barns and stored in sheds, cutting down on the smell.
"We'll also set numerous baited traps throughout the complex to mitigate the fly population," Sonstegard said. "Our plans call for a significant amount of trees to be planted as shelter belts around the complex, this helps contain the fly population along with adding to the aesthetic value to the facility."
The trucks, he said, are "already on the roads in Turner County, delivering corn to the ethanol plant in Chancellor or to local grain elevators.
"There's a lot of corn moving through there," Sonstegard said.
There's still more work to do before the company applies for a conditional use permit. The company needs easements from landowners within a mile of the proposed facility, for example. If Sonstegard can't get them, "we don't build," he said.
"We're hopeful that this can happen," Sonstegard said. "We've gotten a lot of feedback. We've gotten some positive feedback. Yes, we've gotten some negative, as well. But we're taking the time to do this right. You don't just jump to do an $85 million project without doing some legwork."