Final Two Brooder Barns Near Completion After Tornado Rebuild

It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come since the tornado last June that devastated so many of our structures. Today, we’re excited to share an update that the final two brooder barns damaged in the storm, Barns 8 and 9, are nearly finished.

We sat down with our Brooder Farm Manager, Brian Davis, for a behind-the-scenes look at how the last few weeks have progressed as the team balanced their regular brooding duties with the final phases of barn setup.

Progress Through the Busy Season

As Brian shared, “It’s been a busy last couple of weeks.” While the rebuild is top of mind, the season has continued as usual. The pheasants in Barn 6 are already well into their cycle, and ensuring their care remains the top priority.

Each day, the brooder team has been balancing their workload by splitting efforts across bird care, sanitation, and the final renovation tasks in Barns 8 and 9. To prevent burnout for the team, they have focused on small tasks each day to work toward completing the renovation. Brian said. “That way, we’re always making progress, even when the days are full.”

Repairing, Reusing, and Moving Forward

Unlike Barn 6, which was a full rebuild from the ground up, Barns 8 and 9 have included more equipment salvaging and reuse. While this has extended the setup timeline slightly, it’s part of our effort to be efficient and sustainable with materials. “We’re piecing together what we can, which takes more time than starting with all brand-new equipment,” Brian explained.

Barns 8 and 9 Damaged After Tornado

In Barn 8, we are installing new brooders while reusing other systems, such as the feed and nipple lines, wherever possible. Barn 9 will operate entirely with reused equipment.

New A Room Setup

That said, the end is in sight. The A-Rooms in both barns are now complete and we have brought in the first group of birds. We now have a three-week window to complete the B-Rooms and finalize everything.

What’s Next for the Brooder Farm

With Barns 8 and 9 nearly fully operational, we’re already looking toward the next step. Later this year, we plan to renovate our former white bird barns and repurpose them into additional brooder barns. This transition will enable us to relocate operations currently based in Jefferson to our main site, streamlining efficiency, reducing travel time, and keeping everything closer together.

We’re incredibly proud of the hard work our teams have put into this rebuilding process. Stay tuned for more updates to come.