PICTURED LEFT TO RIGHT: Dustin and Austin Stanton on the farm.
Although the brothers split the work equally, Austin is the hands-on, manuallabor man who prefers production. Dustin is better at sales and marketing. Because of this, Austin always tries to out-produce what Dustin can sell, and vice versa. The brothers say keeping up the family farm gives them their sense of purpose; it’s what drives them to maintain the long hours, to balance school, life and their workloads. They agree that their shared dream is to always be on the farm. More eggs in the Basket The brothers are frugal and repurpose whatever they can to put back into the business. Dustin says they started the business with a used chicken coop and grew it into a hog building and an old cattle barn. At the farmers’ market, regulars drop off foot-tall stacks of recycled blue egg cartons that the brothers use to redistribute eggs. “We hate waste,” Dustin says. In 2010, Dustin bought the materials for a 60-by-60-by-20-foot building. And in the summer of 2014, they expanded the space 58
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to include an 8,000-square-foot climatecontrolled chicken house to raise 4,000 more birds – although it can hold up to 7,200. To maintain their work in the spring through the fall, they go to bed at 1am and get up no later than 5am every day.
know your producers. Even if the brothers diversify and grow their operations as they plan, their chickens will still have freedom to roam where they please.
Austin is particularly excited about expanding into the potato business. “It’s just the lifestyle,” Dustin says of the Instead of buying himself a truck he’s long hours. As the main coffee-drinker in had his eye on – a common dream for any his family, he says that if he still has a cup teenager – he spent all of his earnings of coffee glued to his hand after noon, he on potato-farming equipment. The idea asks his family take it away from him. started when Dustin began studying the financial production of potatoes for an The Hy-Line Brown and Bovans Brown agricultural-business class. Inspired, chickens raised on the farm are open range Austin delved into research of his own, and as opposed to free range. The birds are the future project is now his baby. Austin allowed to explore the whole 1,200-acre would also like to move into the “pop milo” property. Andrew jokes: “Why does the market – which is a lot like popcorn, only chicken cross the road? Because it goes the feed is smaller, sweeter and doesn’t wherever it wants.” get stuck in one’s teeth. Dustin explains that chicken labeling allows for lots of gray areas. The Department of Agriculture suggests free range means the birds are allowed access to the outside. But, he says free range can mean birds are free to roam really tight outdoor cage quarters. The Stantons advise that the only way you can really know the chicken conditions is if you
“It’s good for little kids,” he says. In addition to potatoes, pop milo, ice cream and eggs, the brothers hope to begin selling chicken meat in 2015. “As long as they stick together, they can grow the business up,” their father says with pride.
good eggs No one at the farmers’ market asks why the Stantons’ eggs are brown and speckled as opposed to lily white. It means they aren’t bleached like mass-produced eggs. And in fact, Dustin says it’s the earlobe that determines the brown shade of the egg: Chickens with red earlobes commonly lay brown eggs, and chickens with white earlobes commonly lay white eggs. Customers also no longer ask how many roosters they have (because, of course, roosters don’t lay eggs). Dustin thinks this is because they’ve helped educate their regulars – and there are a lot of them. In fact, on several recent trips to Staples to buy office supplies, the brothers have been recognized as “the egg guys.” One of their regulars, a man with a wife and toddler, comes up to the booth to buy eggs. Dustin says he’s seen customers go through college, get married and have kids – there are a few regulars like that. “I do enjoy that,” Dustin says. “They’ve seen us grow up, and we’ve seen them.” Stanton Brothers Eggs, 573.682.2842