A History of Poultry Production in Arkansas
by Keith Sutton
s the largest industry in Arkansas, it is no surprise agriculture contributes more than $19 billion to the state economy every year. What might be surprising is that poultry is the largest sector of Arkansas agriculture.
More than 1 billion domestic chickens are raised in Arkansas each year. That’s billion with a B — an astounding number when you consider there were hardly any chickens in Arkansas at the beginning of the 20th century. Fast forward to today and those 1 billion birds make Arkansas the No. 3 producer of broilers (chickens raised for meat) in the nation. The state also produces about 31 million turkeys annually, ranking No. 2 in turkeys raised and No. 4 in turkey meat production. The Natural State is no slouch when it comes to eggs either. Arkansas is ranked No. 4 in the nation in egg production value, supplying about 3.8 billion eggs annually. More than 6,500 farms in the state produce some type of poultry. Benton is the No. 1 poultry-producing county, followed by Washington, Madison, Carroll, Yell, Hempstead, Howard, Sevier and Logan. But how did Arkansas go from producing almost no poultry at all in the late 1800s and early 1900s to being one of the world’s leading producers? Here’s the history. 10
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