Another egg farm files for permits

SALEM, Ohio – Permit applications have been filed with the Ohio Department of Agriculture that may allow a 6 million hen poultry farm to be built in Union County.
That operation, called Hi-Q Egg Products, would be the largest poultry farm in the state to be operated under one permit, according to Bill Schwaderer, spokesman with the department of agriculture.
Another farm in the state, Ohio Fresh Eggs, has about 14.8 million hens and pullets at 12 sites, but operates through 16 permits, Schwaderer said.
New Day, another egg farm based in Union and Logan counties and previously known as Daylay, has permits for a total 3.3 million hens and pullets.
Hi-Q permits were filed with the state Nov. 2.
Those applications list Jeffry Henning and Steven George as co-managers for the business. George is also listed as a managing partner of Fremont Farms of Iowa, LLP, and as CEO of Poweshiek County Pullets, also in Malcolm, Iowa. The Fremont Farms business produces liquid egg product.
First of its kind. Hi-Q plans to sell a liquid egg product that’s pasteurized and used in bakeries, restaurants and institutions, according to Tom Menke of Menke Consulting, who prepared the permit applications.
The farm would include 15 barns, a feed mill, wastewater treatment, and a facility where fresh eggs would be washed and broken to make the liquid egg product.
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first integrated production and egg breaking facility in Ohio,” Menke said.
Menke said planners anticipate construction of the farm to begin in spring 2008.
Facilities. Permitting paperwork filed with ODA indicates Hi-Q would build 15 barns to house up to 400,000 hens each.
Operators also plan to build three covered dry stack manure storage buildings, with the longest being 795 feet long; an earthen manure storage pond, and two earthen manure treatment lagoons.
Permitting forms also indicate the facility will use 360,000 gallons of water daily, or 131.4 million gallons per year, for drinking water for the hens and in the egg processing plant. Permit forms say the water will come from on-site wells.
Schwaderer said the department of agriculture has no definite date as to when the permits may be approved.
(Reporter Andrea Zippay welcomes feedback by phone at 800-837-3419 or by e-mail at azippay@farmanddairy.com.)