3 Kansas sites considered for Tyson poultry complex

Three Kansas communities have been identified as possible sites for a new Tyson Foods broiler complex that was originally planned for the Leavenworth County community of Tonganoxie, in the northeastern part of the state.

Roy Graber Headshot
(Andrea Gantz)
(Andrea Gantz)

Three Kansas communities have been identified as possible sites for a new Tyson Foods broiler complex that was originally planned for the Leavenworth County community of Tonganoxie, in the northeastern part of the state.

Those communities have been identified by regional media outlets as Cloud County, in north-central Kansas; Sedgwick County, in south-central Kansas; and Montgomery County, in southeastern Kansas.

Tyson Foods on September 5 announced that it would build a $320 million facility in Tonganoxie that would include a poultry processing plant with a capacity to process 1.25 million birds per week, a feed mill and a hatchery.

Those plans got put on hold after a September 15 public forum revealed public sentiment that the community did not want the complex, which resulted in a withdrawal of support from Tonganoxie-area state legislators and the Leavenworth County Commission.

After the county commission’s vote to rescind a resolution of intent in which the county would issue as much as $500 million in industrial revenue bonds to assist the project, Tyson Foods wrote an open letter to the Leavenworth County community, saying it is putting its plans in Leavenworth County on hold, and that it would prioritize other locations in Kansas and in other states.

Tyson Foods spokesman Worth Sparkman, in an October 19 email, reiterated that the company is evaluating options in Kansas and other states that have expressed support.

Narrowing the search for potential Kansas sites

Once options beyond Leavenworth County started being considered, Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) assisted with the process of identifying other sites.

KDA, according to Sparkman, helped Tyson “narrow the search to a few communities that offer the infrastructure, labor pool, farmer interest and land required for this investment."

Heather Landsdowne, KDA director of communications, said that as soon as word spread that Tonganoxie residents did not want the Tyson Foods complex, the agency “got an influx of calls from communities that said, ‘if they’re not interested, we’re interested.'”

Between 35 and 40 communities inquired about the project, and from there 16 provided KDA with a proposal.

“We took all of them, and determined three finalists,” Landsdowne said.

Landsdowne estimates it will be several months before any decisions concerning a new poultry complex are announced.

Kansas and a future in the poultry industry

Currently, there are no broiler plants and only limited poultry production in Kansas. Landsdowne believes that could change.

“We have not had a strong poultry industry, and that’s kind of what started this whole process,” Landsdowne said.

KDA has helped coordinate a statewide growth strategy project, which is a product of a lot of industry groups working together, including the poultry industry.

“The poultry sector meetings really identified that there’s a lot of opportunity for growth there. There’s a lot of pieces of what they look for in the poultry industry that exist in Kansas. When word got out that Kansas was interested in growth in the poultry industry, that’s when we were contacted about this opportunity, and started looking at specific locations,” she said.

Kansas has the space and land needed for broiler production, and it also has the grain for poultry feed, Landsdowne said. She also identified that the state has a need for poultry litter, and its central location is an added benefit to the poultry industry.

“We’re extremely supportive of anything that’s going to give farmers and ranchers an opportunity to diversify or give grain farmers opportunities to have additional sales,” she said. 

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