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  • Blue state farmer says his 61,000 chickens were euthanized as demand fo

    From CNN Swirling Down The Toilet@21:1/5 to All on Wed Apr 22 07:13:18 2020
    XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics, mn.general
    XPost: alt.food.fast-food

    A Minnesota contract egg farmer said 61,000 of his chickens were
    euthanized amid falling demand for eggs.

    Closures of schools, restaurants and caterers has trickled down
    to farming, affecting egg producers as well as demand for milk
    and ripe lettuce. Kerry Mergen, who works near Albany Minn.,
    told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Daybreak Foods, which
    owned and paid to feed the chickens, made the decision after a
    fluid egg plant in Big Lake temporarily shut down last week and
    laid off 300 workers.

    Mergen told the Star-Tribune a crew of about 15 workers arrived
    in the early hours of April 9 with carbon dioxide to euthanize
    the birds.

    "They come in with carts, put them all in carts, wheel them up
    to the end, put a hose in that cart and gas them, then dump them
    over the edge into a conveyor and convey them up into semis and
    the semis haul them out," he said.

    "I was in there for quite a while and the longer I was there the
    more disgusted and disappointed I was knowing that I'm not going
    to see anything put back in my checkbook again, so after a while
    I just simply left,” he added.

    "It is important to note that food-service orders have not
    stopped, but with the decline in food-service orders, Cargill
    and its egg suppliers are working diligently to rebalance supply
    to match these consumer and customer shifts," Cargill said in a
    statement, according to the newspaper.

    Mergen said four other egg farms saw chickens euthanized in the
    state in recent weeks, saying the other four were larger than
    his. An official at the state Board of Animal Health told the
    newspaper livestock producers are not required to report
    euthanizing animals in large numbers.

    Mergen’s wife Barb, a food service worker in St. Cloud, said the
    income represented by the chickens would hurt more than the
    killings.

    "Don't sugarcoat it. It is what it is," she told the Star-
    Tribune. "It's painless for the birds. I don't have a thing
    against that, but it's just that someone can come in so quickly
    and when they euthanized the birds, that was our paycheck
    euthanized."

    The Hill has reached out to Daybreak for comment.

    https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/494027-farmer- says-his-61000-chickens-were-euthanized-as-demand-for

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From BeamMeUpScotty@21:1/5 to CNN Swirling Down The Toilet on Wed Apr 22 18:00:08 2020
    XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics, mn.general
    XPost: alt.food.fast-food

    On 4/22/20 1:13 AM, CNN Swirling Down The Toilet wrote:
    A Minnesota contract egg farmer said 61,000 of his chickens were
    euthanized amid falling demand for eggs.

    Closures of schools, restaurants and caterers has trickled down
    to farming, affecting egg producers as well as demand for milk
    and ripe lettuce. Kerry Mergen, who works near Albany Minn.,
    told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Daybreak Foods, which
    owned and paid to feed the chickens, made the decision after a
    fluid egg plant in Big Lake temporarily shut down last week and
    laid off 300 workers.

    Mergen told the Star-Tribune a crew of about 15 workers arrived
    in the early hours of April 9 with carbon dioxide to euthanize
    the birds.

    "They come in with carts, put them all in carts, wheel them up
    to the end, put a hose in that cart and gas them, then dump them
    over the edge into a conveyor and convey them up into semis and
    the semis haul them out," he said.

    "I was in there for quite a while and the longer I was there the
    more disgusted and disappointed I was knowing that I'm not going
    to see anything put back in my checkbook again, so after a while
    I just simply left,” he added.

    "It is important to note that food-service orders have not
    stopped, but with the decline in food-service orders, Cargill
    and its egg suppliers are working diligently to rebalance supply
    to match these consumer and customer shifts," Cargill said in a
    statement, according to the newspaper.

    Mergen said four other egg farms saw chickens euthanized in the
    state in recent weeks, saying the other four were larger than
    his. An official at the state Board of Animal Health told the
    newspaper livestock producers are not required to report
    euthanizing animals in large numbers.

    Mergen’s wife Barb, a food service worker in St. Cloud, said the
    income represented by the chickens would hurt more than the
    killings.

    "Don't sugarcoat it. It is what it is," she told the Star-
    Tribune. "It's painless for the birds. I don't have a thing
    against that, but it's just that someone can come in so quickly
    and when they euthanized the birds, that was our paycheck
    euthanized."

    They didn't work very hard to get a paycheck if all they could do was
    watch the BIRDS die.


    The Hill has reached out to Daybreak for comment.

    https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/494027-farmer- says-his-61000-chickens-were-euthanized-as-demand-for

    And why didn't they either sell the eggs to different buyers, or BUY a commercial FREEZE drying set up and FREEZE DRY the eggs and then sell
    them to nations that are starving because their Ag has fallen apart.

    Or sell it as an ingredient for dog food or fish food.... the dumbest
    thing I've ever heard was to kill 60,000 birds with no way to use them
    and, for no reason other than you can't sell the eggs as first quality
    human food to a long term contract. If you can sell the Birds to a
    chicken processor then maybe... but?

    I can see culling the older or the sick birds and anything that you
    might were going to cull over the next 2 or three months but to just
    wholesale kill 60,000 just seems lazy and stupid. Could they NOT get
    chicken feed or do they NOT have a months worth of food on hand to keep
    them fed?

    Milk producers can sell the milk to the powdered milk producers or buy a
    freeze DRYER and do it themselves as a back up and sell it for feeding
    calves that are bottle fed.... or as a feed additive, possibly to
    their own NON milking heifers and calves...

    It's time to think out of the BOX, those that do will survive and those
    that don't will be out of business.


    --
    That's Karma

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