2.5 million cage-free chickens proposed for Parker

The Sioux Falls company behind a 500,000-chicken egg operation near Parker wants to expand its proposal to make room for 2.5 million birds in cage-free barns.

Sonstegard Foods earned a permit for the half-million bird facility in February from the Turner County Planning and Zoning Commission. On June 10, it submitted plans to increase the size of the operation to 2.5 million.

The figure is smaller than the 6-million bird proposal that sparked controversy and a lawsuit over county zoning practices in 2015, but far larger than the farm approved this winter.

The farm would be less than three miles from the city of Parker, where a hearing on the company’s permit will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday.

An egg-laying facility of that size would require 10 barns, according to Peter Sonstegard, VP of sales for Sonstegard Foods. That’s less than half the number of barns at the company's Sunrise Farms in Harris, Iowa.

Three feedlots in three months for Turner County

The new proposal also differs from the 2015 version in that the barns will be cage-free. Lights inside the barns would simulate sunset as a cue to roost for the night to the birds, who would roam freely through the buildings during the day.

The shift to cage-free comes in response to industry trends, Sonstegard said, ultimately as a result of consumer demand. Rembrandt Foods of Minnesota recently built cage-free barns for 5.1-million chickens near Lake Preston.

“Consumers are more educated about what they eat, and their demands are changing,” Sonstegard said last week.

The company would need dozens of employees to staff the operation, and others would be needed to oversee its pullet barns, where chicks would be raised prior to their transfer to the main facility.

Ag industry backers have consistently backed Sonstegard plans as a boon to economic development in Turner County, particularly for grain farmers. Farmers would be able to sell feed to the chicken farm and purchase manure for fertilizer during planting season.

Some citizens have pushed back against the placement of an industrial-scale egg facility near the city, however. The original proposal saw a group of neighbors file a lawsuit against the company alleging it colluded with county officials to tilt a zoning ordinance revamp in favor of feedlots. A judge tossed the new zoning ordinance last year, saying the county failed to make proper notice of changes made between approval by the planning commission and the full county commission.

The scaled-down chicken farm drew enough supporters and detractors to fill the Turner County courtroom during its zoning hearing in February.

The latest expansion has drawn less commentary, according to Turner County Zoning Administrator Faye Dubbelde. One of the primary opponents of the project, Katie Overvaag, sold her rural acreage after the zoning board approved the 500,000-chicken permit. Others say they plan to attend Thursday's hearing, but say citizens have come to accept that the larger facility will become a reality.

“I don’t know that I’ll have a whole lot to bring up about it,” said John Chicoine, who's spoken against the permit several times. “The feeling around the community is that they’ll probably just pass it regardless.”

Resident Mark Joffer's worries center largely around past errors at Sunrise Farms. The Iowa Department of Environment and Natural Resources fined the company for a fish kill last year resulting from the discharge of wastewater onto a cornfield. The Iowa Attorney General's Office is still considering whether to take additional action.

"I think the track record says a lot about your operation," Joffer said. "When the argument is 'trust us,' we have new technology, it's pretty difficult to place a lot of trust in the way they run their company."

At the February hearing, Sonstegard lawyer Brian Donahoe characterized the discharge, which took place after Sunrise Farms was stricken with bird flu, as an error the company is working with officials to resolve.

John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog reporter for Argus Leader Media. Contact him with questions and concerns at 605-331-2301, 605-370-8617, twitter.com/ArgusJHult   or  Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog.