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Questions remain following Pure Prairie Poultry closure

Iowa’s Ag Secretary Mike Naig says questions remain following the Pure Prairie Poultry bankruptcy and the closure of their Iowa processing plant.

“We’re asking what happened? How did it happen? How did we get here? What actions did the owners and managers of Pure Prairie take that they shouldn’t have and how did we get in this situation?”

The Minnesota-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-September and the company’s plant in Iowa stopped operations in early October. The closure left contract growers in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin without feed or processing access for 2 million birds. 

He says with a court order, the State of Iowa was able to provide feed for affected farmers, but it was difficult to find a processor.

“We had a processor willing to take the birds and process them. Unfortunately, that deal fell apart. What it forced us then to do, unfortunately, was euthanize those birds because we couldn’t find a place to market them.”

Naig says the state also helped farmers fund bird depopulation and disposal. He says there are always lessons to be learned in an unfortunate situation.

“We need to look at Iowa’s laws. We were able to step in, but was that adequate and are there things we need to do to streamline our process?”

Naig says he’s also interested in any additional information lawmakers can obtain from USDA, because there are still many unanswered questions. Hear the interview.