Keeping more than 130,000 young chicks warm and safe during this winter’s subfreezing temperatures has been costly for poultry producers Spencer and Laura Holder.
The Rising Fawn, Ga., couple don’t expect to make any money this month from the six chicken houses they have operated since 1985.
“The cost of gas eats up nearly all of the money we need to operate,” Mr. Holder said. “This was a pretty good business in the past. But for the past year and a half, we’ve been running on borrowed money.”
Overall, chicken farmers have struggled for the past couple of years. One of the industry’s biggest processors, Pilgrim’s Pride, went bankrupt last year and closed processing plants in Dalton, Gainesville and Douglas, Ga.
But Georgia is No. 1 in the nation in poultry production and chickens are the state’s biggest agricultural industry. Experts say the industry’s got a lot to crow about in the state.