Lincoln Premium Poultry announced this week that three families will be honored in 2022 as top producers in Nebraska/Iowa, and one family will be recognized with an award for environmental stewardship.
“This is the first year we are giving out awards,” said Jessica Kolterman, director of Administration for Lincoln Premium Poultry. “With the pandemic behind us and with most of our grower partners having several years of experience, we thought this was the opportune time to recognize their work,” said Kolterman. “We hope to give these awards each year going forward.”
The families receiving recognition for 2022 are:
- Oster Family–County Line Growers LLC in Pottawattamie County Iowa for Top Pullet Producer
- Fehlhafer Family–2JF Poultry LLC in Seward County for Top Breeder Producer
- Borchers Family–Borchers Farm LLC in Seward County for Top Broiler Producer.
- The Environmental Award is given to the Schmid Family–RC Chicken Ranch of Nebraska in Butler County.
“We are proud of the work our grower families have done the past few years,” said Mike Ellington, complex manager for Lincoln Premium Poultry. “They have shown great resilience with a steep learning curve, supply chain issues, and weather challenges, all while continuing to produce food to feed American families during an unprecedented time in our world with a global pandemic disrupting the food supply,” said Ellington.
Farm families were selected using varying criteria. Pullet producers were evaluated on the average uniformity of the birds and their farm audits, breeder producers were evaluated on the number of chicks produced per hen and their farm audits, and broiler producers were evaluated on cost per pound of produced product and their farm audits. The environmental award was determined using the best average on farm audits over the course of a year. All farm audits score on measures relating to animal welfare, facility management with an environmental emphasis, biosecurity and overall best practice use on the farm. Lincoln Premium Poultry’s grower network has farms in Butler, Cass, Colfax, Cuming, Dixon, Dodge, Lancaster, Madison, Merrick, Nance, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Seward, Stanton, Washington, and York counties in Nebraska and in Crawford, Harrison, Monona, Pottawattamie and Shelby counties in Iowa. The approximate 100 farm families involved with Lincoln Premium Poultry primarily began operation over the course of 2018 and 2019, with the last grower being added to the grower network in 2022.
