Front Porch Magazine | A History of Poultry Production in Arkansas

s the largest industry in Arkansas, it is no surprise agriculture contributes more than $19 billion to the state economy every year. What might be surprising is that poultry is the largest sector of Arkansas agriculture.

More than 1 billion domestic chickens are raised in Arkansas each year. That’s billion with a B — an astounding number when you consider there were hardly any chickens in Arkansas at the beginning of the 20th century. Fast forward to today and those 1 billion birds make Arkansas the No. 3 producer of broilers (chickens raised for meat) in the nation. The state also produces about 31 million turkeys annually, ranking No. 2 in turkeys raised and No. 4 in turkey meat production. The Natural State is no slouch when it comes to eggs either. Arkansas is ranked No. 4 in the nation in egg production value, supplying about 3.8 billion eggs annually.

More than 6,500 farms in the state produce some type of poultry. Benton is the No. 1 poultry-producing county, followed by Washington, Madison, Carroll, Yell, Hempstead, Howard, Sevier and Logan. But how did Arkansas go from producing almost no poultry at all in the late 1800s and early 1900s to being one of the world’s leading producers?

From Apples to Chickens

When people started settling Arkansas, they quickly learned that poor soils in the mountains of northern and western Arkansas weren’t good for growing cotton, rice and many other crops. Consequently, nineteenth-century farmers in northwestern counties had to make their living from more suitable crops such as timber and fruit. From around 1880 to 1920, the apple industry boomed in that part of the state, with newly built railroads providing access to markets as far away as Maine and Saskatchewan.

By 1910, the number of apple trees in Benton and Washington counties alone had grown from a few thousand to a combined total of two million — more than any other counties in the United States. As a result, the commercial apple industry became the largest employer in northwest Arkansas. Supporting industries quickly grew, too, including apple drying, juice and cider making, packing sheds and ice-making plants. Unfortunately, the apple boom didn’t last long.

From a record crop of over 5 million bushels in 1919, production declined steadily to less than 2 million bushels in 1935 to crops of less than 250,000 bushels by the 1960s. Farmers attributed their poor harvests to the spread of diseases coupled with drought, wind and extreme heat or cold. But environmental factors such as these weren’t to blame as much as the aging of orchards, use of poor fruit varieties, mixed varieties in shipments to markets and general problems associated withthe crop.

Chickens going to market in a G.A. Stroud Produce truck, Cave Springs, circa 1930. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Erline Littrell & Pat Simpson Collection (S-87-11-2)

Even as the apple industry continued growing, farmers were looking for other ways to put their land and skills to work. Most families already kept a few hens to supply eggs for daily use at home. But by the late 1800s, some had begun raising broilers, too, thus supplementing the practice of supplying meat markets with culls or worn-out laying hens. The 1910 agricultural census revealed that the average farm had 80 chickens, and, overall, there were six million chickens in Arkansas.

Arkansas Roots

Springdale native Millard Berry was one of the first Arkansans to start raising chickens on an extensive scale. In 1893, he purchased an incubator that would accommodate 200 eggs or chicks — probably the first here. Four years later, he was a founding member of the Arkansas Poultry Association, which helped kickstart the poultry industry in the state.

Stephen Strausberg in his 1994 book “From Hills and Hollers: The Rise of the Poultry Industry in Arkansas,” says the creation of the modern poultry industry in Arkansas started in 1908 when W.S. Jacobs, an assistant agriculturalist at the University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in Fayetteville, began a demonstration project with a hen yard, brooder house and incubators to show proper methods of poultry husbandry. “Jacobs estimated that a chicken house could be built for an expenditure of $12 to $15,” wrote Strausberg. “In order to have a commercially viable flock, he emphasized the importance of selecting high-quality fowls such as Plymouth Rocks or Wyandottes.” Jacobs also stressed proper location of chicken houses and advised that starting a successful commercial operation required a minimum of 200 birds and an incubator. But even as the state’s farmers became better educated about poultry, raising chickens remained a supplemental economic activity for most and not a prime source of income. By the time the Great Depression hit in 1929, however, the nascent poultry industry had really started taking off.

The 1920s Through 1960s

In 1927, a severe drought devastated northwest Arkansas’ apple industry, prompting more farmers to begin raising chickens. Shelby Ford of Springdale, known locally as “The Chicken Banker,” extended credit to people who needed capital to purchase chicks and feed. Another important figure was Jeff Brown, also of Springdale. A pioneer in the field of chicken feed, he started the Springdale Hatchery in 1929 and became one of the first to raise chickens on a large scale. He later developed additional hatcheries in the area. Herman Greathouse of

Washington County followed suit. He built 19 chicken houses and was shipping more than 8,000 broilers per year by 1938.

From 1935 to 1940, Arkansas witnessed a 500 percent increase in the number of chicken producers. The industry got an additional boost during World War II, as poultry escaped government rationing. Beef, pork, lamb, veal and other meats were available in limited amounts each week, but families could eat all the chicken and turkey they wanted.

As poultry businesses took off, others saw opportunities in trucking, feed mills, equipment supply and hatcheries. By 1930, Charles George, a commercial hauler who made frequent trips from northwest Arkansas to St. Louis, started a hatchery to supply eggs to neighboring producers. Willis Shaw of Elm Springs (Washington and Benton counties) formed a trucking business (now Willis Shaw Logistics) in 1938 that brought broilers to markets in the Midwest. Shaw, along with J.B. Hunt of Lowell (Benton County), would become a leader in the commercial trucking business. Indeed, the rise of Arkansas’ trucking firms coincided with, and reinforced, the developing poultry industry. continued on page 14>>

Shipping poultry to New York from Burt Snow Produce, Carroll County, 1910s. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Carroll County Heritage Society Collection

Ozark Poultry and Egg, Fayetteville, late 1910s. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Ann Sugg Collection (S-93-18-16)

One-of-a-Kind Poultry Science Center

The Center of Excellence for Poultry Science opened at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 1995 with a goal of developing comprehensive programs in research, teaching and extension dedicated to improving the lives of Arkansans associated with all components of the poultry industry. The center is manned by a staff of fulltime poultry science faculty members, USDA/ARS Poultry Research Group faculty members, graduate assistants, adjunct faculty and poultry science departmental staff. The Department of Poultry Science and the research group are housed in the John W. Tyson Building, a 112,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art laboratory and office complex on the UA campus. Additional facilities include an FDA-licensed feed mill; a 10,000-square-foot processing plant used for teaching processing techniques and for ongoing food safety research projects; the 12,000-squarefoot John Kirkpatrick Skeeles Poultry Health Laboratory, which holds the highest bio-safety rating in the country; a poultry research farm facility that includes a hatchery, genetics unit, pullet-rearing facility, battery brooder, caged layer house, broiler breeder houses and turkey houses; four full-sized broiler houses equipped with computerized environmental control and data collection systems capable of commercial-type production research; and a broiler breeder research facility that includes two full-size broiler breeder houses, a pullet-rearing facility and a quality assurance building with offices, classroom and egg-holding capacity.

Chickens of Tomorrow

In the Spring/Summer 2004 issue of “Arkansas Land & Life” magazine, Howell Medders wrote about one of the most celebrated events in 1951 at the University of Arkansas. The national Chicken of Tomorrow contest featured 45 contestants from 25 states vying for the coveted first-place award. Each contestant, the winner of a state contest, shipped 720 eggs to an Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station hatchery, for a total of 32,400 eggs. Chicks were hatched, and each flock was evaluated for a 12-week grow-out.

“Some 30,000 people attended festivities that included a rodeo, street dance, barbecue, queen’s coronation and a three-mile parade,” wrote Medders. “The awards ceremony at Razorback Stadium drew 8,000 to see United States Vice President Alben Barkley present the first-place trophy and $5,000 to Charles Vantress of Live Oak, Calif., for his Cornish-New Hampshire crossbred entry.”

Chicken of Tomorrow contests from 1946 to 1951 helped spawn many broiler breeding companies.

Chicken farm in Springdale, 1940s. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Gene H. Thompson Collection (S-96-56-28)

Arkansas Broiler Hatchery float in the National Chickenof-Tomorrow Contest parade, Fayetteville, June 15, 1951. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/ J. Dickson Black Collection (S-92-142-15)

Inspecting eggs housed in an incubator at Tyson’s Feed and Hatchery, Springdale, June 1961. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History (S-94-179-118)

Processing line at Springdale Farms, Springdale, 1958. Guy Loyd, photographer. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/June Loyd Collection (S-2009-31-165)

Across the state in Independence County, Batesville also was home to trucking firms that developed as a direct result of the poultry industry. One of these was owned by J.K. Southerland who hauled his and his neighbors’ birds to markets in Memphis. His growing business stimulated local economies as he established feed mills, chicken houses, hatcheries and processing plants in Batesville, Melbourne, Mountain View and Clinton from 1935 until 1969. He became a major force in the creation of the contract poultry industry, working with growers to guarantee them a year-round income that was not tied to seasonal market swings and fluctuations. Through vertical integration (the strategy of owning or controlling all aspects of a business in-house), he was able to trim costs and manage the supply chain, which not only increased the price per pound of chicken that growers received, but also decreased the cost per pound required to raise a chicken to maturity and reduced the time necessary to grow them off.

Trucker John Tyson, who settled in Springdale in 1931, also was instrumental in this process. He began his business with a single truck, driving from his home in Missouri to northwest Arkansas to buy produce. By 1936, he was hauling broilers to Kansas City and Chicago. Soon after this, he started raising his own chickens and shipping them himself. This enabled him to quickly emerge as a leader in the state’s rapidly growing poultry industry.

Turkeys in Arkansas

Turkeys didn’t become an important commodity in Arkansas until the 1950s and later. Prior to that time, most turkeys roamed about the farm with little care. They were fed only occasionally and pretty much forgotten until it was time to prepare one for the holiday dinner table. They were only on the menu in larger hotels and restaurants.

In 1934, the United States Research Center in Beltsville, Md., purchased the original breeding stock to develop a small, white, broad-breasted turkey that would be preferred by consumers. Shortly after that, Dr. J.N. Thompson of Pottsville (Pope County) began what would be a lifelong project to produce a better meat bird. His Thompson Broadwhite Turkey, introduced in 1953, grew quicker and showed better feed conversion, making it a favorite of growers. But it would still be several years before production ramped up in Arkansas.

In his 1994 book, “From Hills and Hollers: The Rise of the Poultry Industry in Arkansas,” Stephen Strausberg said Harold Dodgen of Ozark was considered the father of the Arkansas turkey industry. “Dodgen established the Ozark Creamery with his father in 1928,” Strausberg wrote. “In 1947, George Trollope asked Dodgen to process 35 turkeys for the dining cars of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad. In the wake of this successful sale, Dodgen increased production to 750 per day by 1955. In 1957, he built a new processing plant and increased to 2,500 head per day.”

Another early grower was Monroe Schwarzlose in Kingsland who established his own plant in 1957, processing 700-800 turkeys a day for the Little Rock market. Fox DeLux Foods in Springdale, Maplecrest Hatchery in Hot Springs and Swanson Hatchery in Fayetteville also were involved in the nascent turkey business here.

It was Berryville that became known as the Turkey Capital of Arkansas, though. By 1955, the Carroll County community had numerous turkey farms and was home to the state’s largest turkey hatchery and the Ocoma Processing Co., which employed over 400 people. Turkeys were a $3.5 million business there.

Today, Cargill, Inc. in Springdale is the largest turkey processing facility in the state. The 360,000-square foot facility employs 1,100 and produces approximately 300 million pounds of finished goods per year. They process 50,000 birds each day that are supplied by 150 independent growers.

George’s Poultry Industry turkey farm near Springdale, 1960s. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/ LeAnn Ritter Underwood Collection (S-2012-31-77)

During the late 1940s, major food producers such as Armour, Swift and Campbell’s Soup also began locating poultry-processing plants in northwest Arkansas. By 1950, 19 plants were in Springdale alone. Chickens were raised and slaughtered locally, packed in ice and then shipped to markets.

When the mid-1950s rolled around, poultry had become the state’s second-largest source of agricultural income, trailing only cotton. Leading the way was the Tyson firm, which by the early 1960s was fully integrated, controlling virtually every aspect of production, from hatching eggs to the retail sale of broilers. John Tyson’s son Don, who would eventually lead the firm during its most expansive period, left his college studies in the early 1950s to learn the business firsthand.

The company built its first processing plant in 1958, and in 1963, Tyson made an initial public offering of its stock and changed its name to Tyson’s Foods. Later that year, the company made its first major acquisition, buying Garrett Poultry of Rogers. Don was named president in 1966, and under his leadership, Tyson continued buying competing firms and greatly expanded its product line, eventually becoming one of the largest businesses in the world.

The history of Arkansas poultry stretches far beyond the state borders. Cobb-Vantress, Inc. is renowned for its innovation in the poultry industry, from their humble beginnings, to planting roots in the Natural State, and launching global facilities, the endeavors of the Cobb family became one of the foundational pieces for the success of Arkansas poultry.

The making of the world’s oldest breeding company was no small feat. Cobbs Pedigreed Chicks was formed in Massachusetts in 1916, and by 1935 the business had grown immensely, and 1 million breeders were produced. In 1959 Cobb began efforts to launch worldwide starting in Europe and in 1961 opened a hatchery in Siloam Springs (Benton County.) Between 1961 and 1986 Cobb continued to grow, including acquiring the Vantress breeding lines and forming Arkansas Breeders, which then became a joint venture between Tyson Foods, Inc. and the UpJohn Company. This venture moved the company from Concord, Massachusetts to Siloam Springs and positioned them as an international leader in poultry breeding.

Now, fully partnered with Tyson Foods, Inc., with over 100 years of research and development, Cobb-Vantress is still headquartered in Siloam Springs and has more than 20 international endeavors. Its growth has led to Arkansas being a key player in the production and availability of poultry on a global scale.

1970s to the Present

During the 1970s, poultry prices varied greatly due to high domestic production and increased international competition. Even so, the 1980s witnessed persistent growth in Arkansas’ poultry industry, even as the overall industry was undergoing dramatic changes. Major producers continued to consolidate and merge, and as a result, independent poultry farmers found their negotiating power with large firms gradually diminishing. Attempts to increase their leverage by forming associations and co-ops did not develop, and many farmers saw their profit margins, already small, continuing to decline. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of independent poultry farms in Arkansas decreased from 6,000 to 1,200.

John Tyson (left) and his son Don Tyson with prize-winning broilers at the Northwest Poultry and Livestock Show, Springdale, 1955. V.D. McRoberts, photographer. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Tyson Foods Collection (S-77-80-2).

Quality Feed Store and Hatchery, Rogers, mid-1950s. Hubert L. Musteen, photographer. Photo courtesy of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/LeAnn Ritter Underwood Collection (S-2012-31-61).

All of this expansion led to an increase in labor from outside the state and the country, which stressed infrastructure in some small communities, but also contributed to a steady growth in Arkansas’ poultry industry and the jobs it provided. By the end of the 20th century, poultry production had become an essential component of Arkansas’ economy. Over the years, poultry became a boon for both Arkansas and the nation, with poultry companies such as Simmons Foods, George’s Inc., OK Foods, Butterball, Cargill and Keith Smith Co., setting up shop in the Natural State. Arkansas poultry has been successful overseas, too — steadily growing into a major part of international commerce. •