NOTTOWAY COUNTY, Va. – It’s the next step in getting Central Virginia’s chicken farmers back to work and keeping Nottoway County’s poultry industry alive.
This week, for the first time since Tyson Foods closed its Glen Allen processing plant in May of 2023 and ended contracts with dozens of farmers, chickens are back in houses, and a new egg laying operation is set to begin.
"It's exciting," said farmer Matthew Ingram. "I tell you that."
The Ingrams five commercial chicken houses have sat empty for more than a year, but he and his family are preparing to welcome back neary 18,000 hens.
"I'm a little nervous," said Ingram.
That's because the focus of their chicken operation has shifted.
“I've never done anything with eggs before," Ingram noted. "So, I'm all new to it. I'll be doing a whole lot of learning."
For weeks now, the Ingrams and members of the Central Virginia Poultry Cooperative have worked to transform one of the Ingram's chicken houses into a community nest.
"It's been real hectic trying to hurry up and get it done," said the 31-year-old farmer.
Concrete now covers the house’s once dirt floor and feeding lines and conveyor belts stretch down the middle.
"One of the biggest things is you can't see to the other side anymore," explained Ingram. "The nests are completely in the middle of the house. It was all open, but it’s all filled up now."
Egg production is new to most poultry farmers in Nottoway, but it’s the driving force behind the two-month-old co-op, which has acquired a decade long deal with Indiana based Dutch Country Organics.
"A year ago, everybody's gloom and doom," said Pete Watson, a Nottoway farmer and member of the Central Virginia Poultry Co-op. "Well, a bunch of us got together, we pushed, we got Dutch Country involved, now look where we're at. We're putting birds in."
Persistence is in Watson’s blood. He’s one of co-ops founders because he wasn’t going to let his 33-years of poultry farming come to an end when Tyson canceled his contract.
"We want people to understand that there is a way, and all we have to do is look," he explained.
While Watson waits for his own nest equipment to arrive, he’s learning from and helping out the Ingrams.
"You saw me wiring a motor and trying to make sure that's right," laughed Watson.
Because in this rural community, farmers lean on each other.
"We're trying to make the communities better, the counties better," Watson said.
The Ingrams now await thousands of eggs expected to roll down this belt next week. Their fears of the future and losing this farm are slowly slipping away.
"It means everything because that's what we have," Ingram expressed. "Our family's been here for forever, so it'll be nice to keep it that way."
But they have a new temporary concern over their breakfast: omelets or quiche?
"We’re going to have to learn new ways to cook eggs," laughed Ingram. “I'll have to learn how to bake."
For now, Dutch Country trucks will travel to Nottoway from Indiana to transport the eggs to their grading facility, but the co-op says once they get to one million hens, the company plans to open its own facility in Central Virginia.
That’s when Watson and the co-op say they’ll know their livelihoods are secure.
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