Paltry Facilities For Poultry

HOME ON THE RANGE: Nancy Smith puts down a board to hold the netting sides of a portable chicken shelter for free-range chickens they just moved into new position in a pasture on Thursday afternoon at Snafu Acres Dairy Farm in Monmouth. The Smiths will bring in a mobile poultry processing facility they hope to begin operating in September.

Rep. Nancy Smith, D-Monmouth, who operates the farm with her husband, Ivan, will have a mobile poultry processing unit at the farm this fall.

Smith said Wednesday she is working with an agriculture cooperative -- a handful of farmers -- to run the processing unit at her farm.

"We're working on getting it up and running and licensed," Smith said. "We will be inviting others to join and letting small-scale producers know about it."

She anticipates handling mostly organic or natural -- also known as free-range -- chickens and turkeys.

"There are so many millions of details to work out," Smith said. "We anticipate it will run probably just one day a week."

Smith said the processing -- which results in market-ready birds -- will run September through Thanksgiving.

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