We have been processing poultry in our on-farm state exempt facility for over 25 years. Our Illinois state exemption has allowed us to process and sell whole chickens which must be picked up by the customer directly from our farm.
To comply with the state law, we were not allowed to cut up the chickens and sell individual cuts, which customers had been asking us for some time. These requests led us to begin processing a small percentage of our chickens at Central Illinois Poultry Processing in 2019.
Beginning in mid October of 2019, we began offering frozen chicken cuts sold by the pound, but we continued to process the majority of our whole chickens in our on-farm, state exempt facility.
The owners of CIPP have been great to work with. They have been more than happy to give tours, watch the employees at work, take photos, and see every part of their operation. CIPP is super clean and run in an extremely efficient manner.
As we started planning poultry processing for 2024, we had to make some decisions. Diane had been diagnosed with arthritis in her hands, and Elizabeth was hesitant to have poultry processing continue in the barn now that she was selling raw milk.
These factors led us to outsource all of our poultry processing to Central Illinois Poultry Processing. Even with this change, we feel confident that we can still deliver the same high quality chicken to our customers.
One of my favorite quotes about change comes from Socrates:
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
So we’ve decided that we aren’t going to continue fighting for the old way, but we are going to move forward in a new, hopefully better direction.
Yes, it is the end of an era.
Yes, things are changing.
Yet, we are excited about the future.