A Fairfax, Minnesota-based poultry company, Pure Prairie Poultry, closed its doors last week. Bankruptcy forced the closure of the company’s processing plant in Charles City, Iowa, impacting dozens of contract growers and 1.3 million birds. These contractors are located in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. “It’s a lot of stress, especially for the farmers, as they try to figure out what to do with the chickens,” said Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. “We were able to get feed to help them limp along for a few days, which was important, but we’re nearing the end of the line for some of these birds.” Hard at work for the past two weeks, Petersen says finding solutions has not been easy. “It’s a difficult situation because there’s also liens on the chickens by several companies that have frankly held up some of the solutions that may have been there for those birds so the department continues to work on trying to find homes for these chickens.”
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