From WATTAgNet:
Commissioners in Dodge County, Nebraska, the same county that will be home to the future Lincoln Premium Poultry plant, approved the first conditional use permit for a farm to raise birds to be processed at the plant.
The commission approved the permit, which would allow a farm near the community of Hooper to have four barns and about 60,000 chickens on 900 acres of land.
While no reports have surfaced about farm permits being approved in other counties, the prospect of contract farms have been discussed by commissioners in nearby Madison County.
Ground was broken in June at the site of the future poultry complex, which will process chickens exclusively for sale at Costco Wholesale Corporation stores. It will be located in the community of Fremont.
The Lincoln Premium Poultry plant is expected to be in operation by April 2019. Once fully operational, the facility should have the capacity to process about 2 million chickens a week and supply a third of the raw and rotisserie chicken products that will be sold at Costco stores across the United States.
An order for the plant’s processing equipment has been placed with Marel Poultry.
Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director Greg Ibach has hailed the Lincoln Premium Poultry project. “This facility will create an opportunity for diversification for farmers in the Greater Fremont area. The producers who choose to build poultry houses will have an opportunity to add another income source to their operation. All row crop farmers will have a new market for corn and soybeans which will be utilized in the poultry rations,” Ibach said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Dodge County approves first Costco-related chicken operation
Dodge County has approved the first chicken houses that will serve the proposed Costco chicken facility south of Fremont.
