Egg Industry - July 2017 - 15
Mid-States Specialty Eggs produces pastureraised hens using the cooperative effort of Mennonite families in Missouri and Arkansas. free barn employing a floor, or nest-and-slat, housing system. Eggs are collected by a belt system, packed in crates on-site, refrigerated and collected by Mid-States to be packaged for retailers. Every hen can go outside, by way of doors on the side of the barn, into a fenced-off pasture area. All birds are antibiotic free and fed a vegetarian diet supplemented with probiotics and other organic feed additives. The families managing the layer houses use the egg business as their primary income source. Hostetler and Shrock estimated a family of four to eight puts in about four or five hours of work daily to manage the birds and collect the eggs. In total, Hostetler estimated, about 900 people - the contract egg farmers and their families - are involved with the egg business. July 2017 ❙ www.WATTAgNet.com Courtesy of Eggs "R" Us Inc. EggIndustry ❙ 15 Bill Schroeder, Eggs "R" Us president, worked in the commodity egg industry for decades before moving into the specialty egg business. He said he believes in the organic product and the animal welfare practices behind it.
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