American Poultry Farmer Magazine Issue No.2 Summer 2021

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Poul try Farmer

Issu e No.2 Su m m er 2021

E-Edit ion

Commerci al Poul try Farmi ng New s & Li f estyl e M agazi ne

In t h is issu e: -

Pou lt r y Far m er Spot ligh t Fait h , Fam ily, Far m in g , an d Fu n . Lif e-st yle M at t er s!

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Tech n ology: Feed Logist ics Will Never be t h e Sam e

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Cu st om er Ser vice Rein ven t ed Pou lt r y Far m Com pan y

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LVI's St or y of Com m it m en t t o Qu alit y 1

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Pou l t r y

Fa r m er American Poultry Farmer Magazine c/o American Poultry Co

Tel: 601-300-5320 AmericanPoultryFarmer.com

Got a product or service the poultry industry needs to know more about? Maybe you have some beautiful pictures of your operation or a great story to tell?

We are always looking for poultry stories and information to share with farmers across America.

Submit your information today!

General Inquiries info@americanpoultryfarmer.com 2

Why We Pr int the M agazine After much discussion, American Poultry Company made the decision to produce a magazine that would address news and changes impacting our industry. As a farm brokerage, we have a unique view on poultry farming. Our average year puts us in contact with hundreds of farmers all over our great country and we get to see what makes farming more efficient for each of them. Our goal is to share the stories and information we see with other farmers helping to improve the industry, from a farmers prospective.

Neel Gibson, Chief Executive Officer American Poultry Company

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Poul try Farmer Presents Farmer Spot light : From Banking to Broilers, Farmer Shares the Lifestyle He Loves page 6 Technology: How Two Entrepreneurs Landed a Partnership with Cargill in Feed Logistics page 12 Ask t he Expert s: Farmers Using IRS 1031 Exchanges to Mitigate Taxes page 16 Poult ry Equipment : The Story of LVI and Their Commitment to Quality page 20 #APC_FarmLife: A Top Ten List from our Photo Contest page 23 Poult ry Services: A Young Man's Journey to Reinvent Customer Service page 30 5

F A R M E R

Spot l i ght :

From Banking toBroilers.

Lee DeBerry Tells hisStory

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By Clay Russell

?Faith, Family, Farming and Fun. Life-style Matters!?

For many people, retirement from a job means sleeping late and taking up a new hobby. But for Lee DeBerry, of Independence County, Ark., retirement at age 50 was merely a word, and a transition from one career to another.

A lifelong Arkansan, and a proud University of Arkansas Razorback, DeBerry left his home state only long enough to earn a graduate banking degree at Louisiana State University.

It was in commercial banking that he built a career? his first one, at

least? and where he learned what made businesses work, and what didn?t.

Most of DeBerry?s work in commercial banking was with the agricultural community, much of it the financing of poultry operations. And he came to understand that poultry farming was like any other business. ?It?s management. If you take care of business, it works,?he explains.

He moved to Batesville, Ark., a decade ago to run a bank, just as two poultry companies were expanding

in the area. And having seen many clients succeed in poultry, he was ready for what he now characterizes as a ?trial run?in farming.

He built a four-house broiler farm, running it for Peco Foods, with hired labor, as a sideline to his banking work. ?It worked really well and I was happy with it,?he recalls. And so his second career was officially launched.

In time DeBerry sold that first farm and traded up. He built a 10-house operation, after which there was no

DeBerry's photos taken by followell fotography

The DeBerry brothers operate 24 broiler houses and utilize their litter to reduce their input cost on their row-crop operation.

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looking back. And only a year later, he added to his holdings with a six-house farm.

Ready to devote himself to his new and thriving vocation, he left the banking world after 26 productive years. ?I haven?t regretted it,?he says. ?Not one second.?

Preferring the management side of the poultry business, DeBerry leaves the day-to-day routine to a handful of trusted staffers who keep the wheels turning. ?I love ?em to death,?he explains. ?I try to take care of them, and they take care of me.?

But it isn?t as if DeBerry is a distant boss.

He set up an office on the farm, where he also does a bit of consulting. ?I always enjoyed dealing with my Ag customers,? he says, recalling the banking world, and this way he stays connected.

Lee DeBerry?s experience in finance provided lessons he draws from every day, and which guide him as a poultry 8

farmer. ?The people I saw be successful,?he recalls, ?were the people who treated it as a business.?This meant going into an endeavor for the right reasons, and then managing their money carefully.

He identified two main areas where good intentions can go awry. First are the people whose determination to begin farming or to buy a particular farm can cloud their judgment about potential sources of trouble, much like the car shopper who falls for the shiny paint job but doesn?t look under the hood. ?They?ll say they?re going to buy a farm no matter what. It might be an older farm that needs a lot of work, or they?re going to pay too high a price. They?re not thinking about business.?

The other potential minefield for poultry farmers is money. ?I don?t get a weekly paycheck,?DeBerry says. ?A farmer gets a large sum of money, but that has to last DeBerry's photos taken by followell fotography

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three months,?referring to the 60-some-day turnaround for his broiler flocks. The ability to look forward and manage cash flow can confound younger or newer growers, another lesson learned from years financing other people?s farms.

Not content with his 16 poultry houses, DeBerry recently embarked on yet another expansion, this time in northeastern Arkansas. In mid-May, American Poultry Company helped him close on an eight-house farm in partnership with his brother, who runs a row-crop operation. A unique and mutually beneficial aspect of the partnership will be the use of litter from the poultry houses as fertilizer for Lee?s brother?s farm.

The DeBerry brothers?new houses will be with Ozark Mountain Poultry, which is owned by George?s Poultry. It is

unusual for one farmer to raise birds for two companies, and there were hurdles to clear before both Ozark Mountain and Peco signed off on the arrangement. But the deal came together, and the brothers were, as the saying goes, in business. ?I?m an Ag guy from an Ag family,?Lee says. He and his wife, Gina, have two kids, also University of Arkansas Razorbacks. One is studying animal science, and the other is active in student ministry. ?We say he?s cultivating souls,?

Lee explains with a laugh.

Lee DeBerry has been retired for six years, but he is anything but idle. He describes his life now as one of faith, family, farming and fun. And in all areas of life, he abides by the credo of legendary University of Arkansas football coach Lou Holtz: Just do the right thing. Because in life, as well as the poultry business, that works....

Confident ial Farm Sales Before you commit to listing your farm for sale, give us a call to learn more about our process.

We have the largest list of bank approved buyers looking for poultry farms.

Call or Text 601-300-5320 Professional Farm Brokers You won't find our team at the open-house eating cake!

215 State St McComb, MS 39648

American Poultry Company sells poultry farms in LA, AR, MS, AL, and GA. Our marketing is second to none when it comes to selling farms. Due to our singular focus, we have more qualified buyers than sellers. If you own a farm and would consider selling it, we would like to talk with you.

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Fr om a K i t ch en Tabl e I d ea t o Par t n er sh i p w i t h Car gi l l , Feed L ogi st i cs i s Ch an gi n g Writ t en by: Connor Raborn

Years of experience tinkering and an offhand comment started Randall Schwartzentruber on the path to solving one of the major challenges of poultry farming.

As co-founder and CEO of BinSentry, Schwartzentruber is pioneering a device that lets farmers know how much feed remains in their feed bins and when to schedule a feed delivery.

A few years ago, when he was working as an automation programmer, Schwartzentruber was on assignment at a feed mill, when the mill owner commented on a universal issue of bin monitoring.

?He told me that every single feed mill around the world has the same challenge,?

Schwartzentruber said. ?Once they produce and transport feed to farms and put it into the feed bins, they have no idea how much feed remains in those bins at any given time.?

Oftentimes farmers will try to gauge the fullness of their bins by throwing rocks at the side of the bins or by hitting them with a rubber mallet. A solid sound?the bin?s still full there. A hollow sound?the feed level has fallen at least below that level.

The difficulty in pinpointing when customers need more feed makes things harder for mills too, which are forced to be reactive to customers?needs instead of proactive. ?When you?re collecting that kind of data, coming in via phone calls from hundreds or thousands of customers, it?s impossible to operate your mill effectively,?

Schwartzentruber said. ?They?re constantly having to wait for data to come in?bad data, at that sometimes.?

At first, he couldn?t believe that there wasn?t already an available product like the one he?d started mentally building, one that could monitor feed levels from inside the bin. Hours of research showed him there was indeed a gap in the market.

The solution started with Schwartzentruber at his kitchen table, studying hundreds of sensors he?d ordered from all over the world.

BinSentry was officially founded in May 2017, and what was initially just Schwartzentruber and his idea has become 28 employees.

The sensor itself, still in its first generation for now, uses the same type of technology

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as the sensor in a self-driving car, Schwartzentruber explains. From an inner wall of the bin, the solar-powered sensor shines a beam of light to read the space around it every few hours and uses the information to create a 3D model which farmers can access online through BinSentry?s app.

pieces of information, like feed levels, and distances.

Once a farmer knows what level of feed they?re working with, they know exactly when they?re going to need more to keep their animals fed.

?Here we are four years later, and BinSentry is essentially the market leader in this space,? he said.

?The data we produce to the mills is way more actionable?what day exactly and what hour on what day is my feed bin going to be empty if my flock continues to feed at x rate for x days,? Schwartzentruber said.

The sensor is internet-connected but is on a type of wireless network that only requires enough bandwidth to send specific, small

That?s particularly useful for farmers in rural areas, since the wireless system doesn?t require high-speed internet access to work.

That emerging technology was the opening Schwartzentruber saw for his sensors.

He credits a combination of factors to BinSentry?s success. Besides the need for the product and the forward-moving wireless capabilities, the company?s location has played a key role.

BinSentry is based in Kitchener-Waterloo, a city in Ontario, Canada, about an hour from Toronto. It?s a tech hot spot that?s home to many startups but is also close to farmland, 13

something that helped Schwartzentruber ensure that the people who?d be most served

by BinSentry?s sensor also had input in its creation and testing. ?The first and most important thing was proximity to our customers,?

Schwartzentruber said. ?You stay close to the customers and include them in the development process to ensure that if you?re going to fail, you fail early and you fail well. If you?re able to learn from those failures as quickly as possible, you?re going to be able to build something that actually appeals to the customers a lot sooner.?

Sustainability is another benefit of BinSentry?s product, which cut down on transportation, one of the biggest costs and one of the biggest sources of pollution in the feed industry. ?There?s a healthy amount of skepticism out there,? he said. ?I think a lot of our customers never really thought they?d see the day where this problem was solved. We often launch a pilot program with our customers.?

That allows them to test the product and see its effectiveness for themselves.

He also credits the openness of the tech industry in Kitchener-Waterloo, a place which Silicon Valley frequently taps for its resources in hardware and software development. A collaborative spirit between tech companies helped advise BinSentry, and a plethora of tech educational programs meant the company didn?t have to look far to recruit high quality talent onto its staff.

However, BinSentry?s product was destined for bins far beyond those in Canada and the U.S. The company?s reach is expanding by the day, especially since making food corporation Cargill the company?s primary distributor last summer.

While the focus is still North America, BinSentry has sensors already operating in Europe, Latin America, Australia and soon in Asia.

Also on the horizon is BinSentry?s second generation sensor, which will exponentially increase the accuracy of the 3D model by reading 9,000 data points in the bin.

Looking even further ahead, Schwartzentruber hopes to innovate feed tracing by developing technology that makes sure the correct feed goes to the correct bins to be fed to the correct animals.

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For more information on BinSentry and how to try their sensors, visit www.binsentry.com.

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Ask the Exper ts Can I A v oi d Tax es Wh en Sel l i ng my Farm ?

The Basics of 1031 Tax Exchanges One of the most frequently asked questions from farmers is - ?Can I avoid taxes when selling my poultry farm??

My answer is always the same - ?You can defer the tax on the sale and most of the time it makes financial sense.?

We asked our friends at First American Exchange Company to break down the process for us.

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The pr ocess can be br ok en dow n into six par ts.

1. Scope of the 1031exchange Selling a poultry farm, like selling any business, often involves real estate and equipment. Farm owners interested in exchanging a poultry farm in a tax-deferred exchange under Internal Revenue Code §1031 need to focus on the particular property being bought or sold in order to maximize the amount of gain that they will be able to defer.

2. Exchangeabl e Assets The first and most important step when exchanging a poultry farm is to itemize the various assets and determine which of those assets are exchangeable. Since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, only real property can be exchanged under Internal Revenue Code §1031. The IRS defines real estate as ?Real property, also called real estate, is land and generally anything built on or attached to it.?A tractor is not real estate. Other

assets such as personal property, goodwill, and inventory are not exchangeable. It?s important to work with a tax advisor to determine the portion of the sale price allocated to the real property being sold, which is the amount on which the exchange can be completed. In order to accomplish a fully tax-deferred exchange on the real property, you will need to acquire like-kind real property of an equal or greater value and use all of the real property cash proceeds for the purchase.

3. Exchanging Real Pr oper ty Assets Real Estate and Buildings: The real estate assets of a poultry farm include the land and any improvements attached to the land, such as a house or a barn. If a house on the farm is occupied by a tenant, worker, or caretaker on the property, it is considered investment property or property used in a trade or business and is exchangeable under §1031. On the other hand, if the owner lives in a house on the property and it is considered the owner?s primary residence, there are advantageous tax strategies that can be implemented in conjunction with the 1031 exchange. W hen a property is held partially for personal use and partially for investment, such as a poultry farm with an owner-occupied home, a portion of the gain from the sale of the personal residence is exempt from tax under IRC §121 (provided the owner has lived there for two out of the five years preceding the sale), and the remaining tax can be deferred under §1031. Revenue Procedure 2005-14 clarifies how Sections 121 and 1031 can be used at the same time in connection with the disposition of the same property.

4. Lik e-k ind pr oper ty Per §1031(a)(1), the properties on both sides of the exchange must be "held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment.?Further, §1031 allows for the deferral of capital gain tax if such property is exchanged solely for property of "like kind." Contrary to what many people believe, "like kind" does not mean that an investor must, for example, exchange land for land, or a duplex for a duplex. In the context of real estate, like-kind exchanges are valid between and among several different types of investment property, including raw land, commercial property, industrial buildings, retail stores, apartments, duplexes--even leasehold interests exceeding 30 years and certain oil and gas interests. The liberal definition of "like kind?in real property exchanges means significant advantages for the investor who elects to perform a 1031 exchange. For example, when raw land is traded for a small

retail center, capital gain taxes can be avoided, and the investor will also reap the benefits of owning a property that will generate increased cash flow. Another advantage in this example is that depreciation can be taken on the retail center, an option that was not available when the investor held raw land.

5. Identification W hen identifying replacement property, you may identify up to three replacement properties no matter what their value (the ?three property rule?), or if more than three are identified, the total fair market value of the property identified cannot be greater than twice the total fair market value of the property sold (the ?200% rule?).

Identification must be in writing and should include a complete address or legal description. If you are acquiring less than 100%of a property as a tenant in common interest, you must indicate the percentage being acquired on the identification form.

The purchase of identified property must be completed by the earlier of (1) 180 days from the sale of the relinquished property, or (2) the due date for filing the tax return for the year in which the relinquished property was sold. However, you can file an extension for filing the tax return in order to take advantage of the full 180-day exchange period.

6. Concl usion The sale of a poultry farm typically involves several asset types. It is important for an investor to analyze the types of property being sold and pre-plan their exchange by consulting with a tax advisor to maximize their tax deferral. The professionals at First American Exchange are available to assist you with the tax-deferral process.

References: Revenue Procedure 2005-14. IRC §1231(b)(4).

Neel Gibson CEO/ Broker American Poultry Company

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Partial List of American PoultryCompany'sInventory of FinancallyApprovedBuyers Amer ican Poul tr y Co. 215 State Str eet McComb, MS39648 (601)300-5320

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SELLWITHUS WHYMOREFARMERS TRUSTUSTHANANY OTHERBROKERAGE

DON'TBOTHERWITHLONG-TERMLISTINGS...

Poultry farms are expensive complicated transactions. You should never entrust a multi-million dollar transaction to anyone that isn?t a specialist. Any local real estate agent can quote you a price and say they have a buyer. It takes an expert to make sure you price the farm accurately and actually close the transaction.

- Farm Sales are Private - Fully Funded Buyers - Accurate Farm Values - Poultry Industry Experts

Our team of professionals didn' t become an industry leader by attempting to be an expert in every type of real estate. Our company has a single focus - w e sell commercial poultry farms. We do not require long-term listings, and the entire transaction can be private so as not to alarm farm help or the integrator during negotiations. All of our buyers are required to be prequalified, and our team is extensively experienced in pricing, negotiating, and selling poultry operations. It?s all w e do, and w e are w ithout a doubt, the best in the business.

OURPROCESS 1. Tell us some details on your farming operation.

2. We tell you the maximum amount your farm should be listed.

3. You sign a letter of intent that allow s us to show it to our clients.

4. We sell the farm and handle all steps from contract to closing.

American Poultry Company 601-300-5320 215 State St., M cComb, M S 39648 Licensed in: AR, LA, M S, AL, & GA w w w .AmericanPoultryCompany.com

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Humbl e Begi nni ngs LVI's commitment to quality was by no accident Writ t en by: Caleb McCluskey

LVI Manufacturing was founded in 1946, as a tractor repair shop in Richland, PA. Since then, the company has spread its wings, buying a 9,000 square foot warehouse in 1971 and a 9,100 square foot service department space. Fifteen years ago, the company added an additional 3,800 square feet to its operations to begin fabricating, welding, and more repair work.

In 2008, the company moved to manufacturing litter processors with the goal of developing strong machines with a bang for their buck to meet the industry?s growing litter conditioning and composting demands. ?Basically LVI was a farm equipment dealership and was working with a local poultry grower that came to us with a composting product that was not working well at all,? Manufacturing National Sales Manager Jay Zimmerman says. ?He asked if we could do something to make this work, and after looking at it, our design fellow in 20

our shop said, ?Hey I can build you something from scratch that would work better than what you had.?That is where it all started." ?It worked so well that other farmers started asking for it. We got so many requests we started putting it into production.?

LVI Manufacturing, which started as Lebanon Valley Implement but has since been bought out by a larger company that kept the acronym for the product line, is named for its county of origin and has a variety of products. Each of their products are designed, engineered, and built in the United States. Models include the Kompost King, the Deluxe Litter processor and the

SL-84, the Rooster Thunder Sweeper Blower, Litter Level Hydraulic Box Blade and the PuLVImaster 96. Almost all of the equipment is designed to easily attach with standard 3pt attachments except for the Rooster Thunder Sweeper Blower, which is designed to attach to the front of a skid loader or tractor.

Zimmerman says LVI Manufacturing is committed to careful selection of quality materials and American craftsmanship. He also noted all equipment includes a protective coat of TGIC polyester powder finish to assure long-lasting rust prevention which creates an overall well finished product. ?There are other products on the market. Of course ours are probably the top of the line when it comes to quality building and engineering, but we are probably the most expensive out there too,? Zimmerman says. ?People know LVI and will ask for us by name.?

Bedding costs will only continue to rise, but there is a cheaper and more effective

alternative that not only benefits your wallet but also your farm as a whole, according to Zimmerman, who has been around poultry for most of his life. The windrower uses a natural process of sterilizing the unwanted litter that involves an aerobic composting technique to heat and disinfect the litter within three to four days.

of chicks,? Zimmerman says. ?This process is a way to grow and produce healthier birds. While small amounts of bacteria remain in the bedding, it is a small amount that does not compromise their immune system. It is an inoculant, almost like a vaccine, to protect them. The healthier the bird the better, so it pays back pretty quick.?

?A lot of people are letting the bedding material sit up to a year or more and they recondition it, but with the windrowing process you actually take the bedding material into a heat process which lowers the pathogen count and provides a healthier overall bedding for the next batch

Integrators across the nation, such as Tyson and Sanderson Farms, are moving toward windrowing and LVI is an accepted brand for farmers working with integrators as grow out facilities.

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Zimmerman has been selling LVI products for about 12 years. He says his career, along with the LVI Manufacturing, has grown exponentially. The company still has a bright future to go along with its humble beginnings. ?The Compost Commander is our newest, latest model. One of the biggest benefits is that you have the equipment in front of the machine in the direction you are going,? he says. ?All the other models do great, but they are behind the tractor, and you are constantly looking back. It is a great machine, but it requires a machine that has front power take off. No one else in the industry has anything like it, so it is really exciting.? Specifications for the Compost Commander will soon be available on LVI's website.

Zimmerman says he is passionate about the products he sells and is proud to see innovative techniques and equipment come from his company to the industry as a whole.

LVI Manufacturing has dealerships available across the Eastern United States and those interested in learning more can visit LVI?s website at https://www.lvimfg.com to find information on products and dealership locator.

The company website also includes guidelines on compositing poultry litter as well as tips on when, how and why to compost litter.

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For addit ional inform at ion please cont act : Jay Zim m erm an -LVI Represent at ive Em ail: jay.zim m erm an@binkleyhurst .com Phone: (888) 414-7518 Ext . 3099

Congratulations!

OUR PHOTO CON TEST W IN N ER

Shannon Parham

#APC_Far mLife 23

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GIVEAWAY Toenter theYETI giveawayvisit our facebookpage.

Facebook.com/ AmericanPoultryCompany

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Granny's Famous Strawberry Cake SERVES 8 Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Cake Ingredients: -

1 box white cake mix 1 6oz strawberry Jello mix 1 cup oil 1 cup chopped strawberries 1/ 2 cup milk 4 eggs

Mix the cake and Jello mixes together. Add the other ingredients in order, adding one egg at a time. Divide batter into three equal round pans. We use 9" pans.

Bake at 350° until toothpick comes out clean (about 20 minutes). Let cool completely.

Icing Ingredients: - 1.5 sticks butter - 24oz confectioner's sugar - 1 cup drained and chopped strawberries (may need to use some juice)

To prepare the icing, mix the butter and confectioner's sugar together. Add strawberries. If the icing is thick, add a bit of strawberry juice until the right consistency. Chill icing.

Granny made sure there was plenty of icing between each layer before icing the rest of the cake.

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By Mack Spencer Jacob Perez has 12 years of experience working in the poultry industry. The 25-year-old decided to put his experience to work in 2017 by starting his own poultry farm set-up and cleaning business.

And yes, those numbers are all correct, so the result of doing the math does point to a very early start in the working world. ?I?ve done work on poultry farms since I was 13,? Perez said. ?It?s the only kind of job I?ve ever had.?

He struck out on his own after a former boss and mentor that he often set up and cleaned chicken houses with, suggested that he could help more than the five to ten farmers in the Cullman, Ala., area that they worked for together. ?He said I could help farmers everywhere, not just here,? Perez said. ?I did what he told me and trusted in myself and quit to pursue the business.?

Thus was born Perez Set-Up Crew, which soon became Poultry Farm Company. ?I changed the name and kept it simple,? he said. ?It took off after about a year.?

Jacob Perez Poultry Farm Company 256-708-2711 For basic set-up, clients who hire the company can expect: 28

Leveling of all water and feed lines.

Rolling out paper as necessary.

Building box lids.

Placing box lids and feed pans.

Installing migration boards, fencing and tubes.

Installing hoppers.

Readying all equipment for chickens to be placed in the houses.

Placing chickens in the houses.

Poultry Farm Company offers house set-up, bird placement and cleaning services for clients large and small, whether the farms concentrate on egg production or growing broilers.

Cleaning is a dry process which involves blowing and brushing dust and litter off of the ceilings, walls, brooders, and tube heaters.

but most of the cleaning work hinges on brushes and ?backpack blowers? that remove dust and litter either dry or caked in place on the ceilings, walls and floors.

A full-service visit combines many of those set-up and cleaning services. After a flock of chickens grows out of the houses and is shipped, Perez and his crew of five can move in and clean the house before releveling food and water lines, rolling more paper and adjusting or replacing migration fences and hoppers.

Perez said avoiding the use of water for most of the cleaning process gives a lot of positives.

?We?ll do anything the farmer needs,? Perez said. ?We?ll do pretty much anything but run feed.?

According to the University of Florida?s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, some moisture is expected in chicken houses, but should be minimized to facilitate removal and inhibit disease.

Perez?s crew does carry a pressure washer, to clean fan blades and other components inside and outside the building,

?If you use water, you can leave a mess, and you want the litter to be dry,? he said. ?If you get water in the feed, you have to pour it out. It can cause electrical problems ? if you get water in the motors, they won?t function properly.?

?If litter moisture is not kept at an acceptable level, very high bacterial loads and unsanitary growing conditions may result, producing odors (including ammonia), insect problems (particularly flies), soiled feathers, footpad lesions and breast bruises or blisters,? professor Gary D. Butcher of the university?s College of Veterinary Medicine and avian disease expert for the university?s extension service. ?Expect carcass downgrading at the processing plant when birds are reared under such poor conditions. In a well-managed broiler house, litter moisture normally averages between 25 to 35 percent. Litter that is managed correctly with the moisture content kept within the acceptable range can be reused if no disease 29

or other production problems occur. On the other hand, caked litter must be removed between flocks and replaced with new litter.?

So, keeping the amount of water in cleaning to a minimum prevents the addition of moisture to the environment, adding another positive point to the practice.

Keeping the dust and litter drier also makes for a faster cleaning. ?It allows us to make a quicker turnaround,? Perez said. ?We can do any size buildings on any size farm in one day.?

Servicing farms in one day is a goal Perez holds for his company, not just as a boost to business and revenue, but to health and safety. ?If we do one farm a day, we can assure there?s no cross-contamination,? he said. ?It allows us time to clean and disinfect everything after the day is done.?

Perez said most farmers like to clean and sweep out their chicken houses once a year, though some farmers opt for cleanings twice a year, often at the beginning of the year and mid-year.

Cleanings are usually targeted to times right after a flock of chickens grows out and is shipped, and five to seven days before new chickens are placed, he added.

The farmers who engage Poultry Farm Company, meanwhile, are not expected to do anything connected to the cleaning. ?We want to allow the farmers to just sit back and let us do everything,? Perez said. ?They can take the break they deserve, at least for a day. There are usually quick turnarounds between shipping chickens out and putting new chicks in, and they just never catch a break.?

Still based in Cullman, Ala., Poultry Farm Company has developed a decent reach with its services, adding on clients not just all over Alabama, but westward to Mississippi and Arkansas, northward into Tennessee, and eastward to farms in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. ?Whoever needs help, we?ll try to figure out how to go,? Perez said. ?No matter the distance. I guess the furthest we could go is California.?

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Going into the future, Perez said he wants to be the obvious go-to guy to call for cleaning services. ?I want to be that one call, where you don?t need anybody else,? he said. ?For cleaning out litter, for fan washing, whatever. It?s all about who needs help. I grew chickens, and I know what it?s like to need help and not be able to find it. So I want to work quickly and bring value to the farmers.?

Get a quot e Today!

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