good neighbors. good practices. - microsoft · 2014. 8. 1. · good neighbors. good practices....
TRANSCRIPT
Marvin, Bill and Dick Patmos
“Soybean meal is an essential part of poultry nutrition. I don’t know what we’d do without it.”
—Bill Patmos
©2014 United Soybean Board [32592-MI-EGG PRO-FE-7/08]
www.michigansoybean.org
Marvin, Bill and Dick PatmosMarvin, Bill and Dick Patmos
• Animal agriculture consumes 97 percent of domestically used soybean meal.
• The U.S. poultry industry is the largest consumer of U.S. soybean meal. In 2012, the industry consumed the meal from 560 million bushels of soybeans
• Each year, Michigan hens lay 3.5 billion eggs while consuming 69,000 tons of soybean meal — the meal from more than 3.2 million bushels of soybeans.
• Michigan livestock and poultry producers purchased 422,000 tons of locally grown soybean meal to feed their dairy cows, beef cattle, chickens, turkeys and hogs in 2012. That’s the meal from 17.9 million bushels of soybeans.
• In 2012, animal agriculture provided nearly 31,000 jobs statewide and generated nearly $234 million in tax revenue to Michigan.
Find out more about Sunrise Acres Egg Farm at
www.sunriseacresmi.com
Marvin Patmos never liked milking cows. “But I always liked chickens,” he says.
“We started with 50 birds in an old barn and corn stored in an old school bus. Look where we are now.”
Marvin is the patriarch of Sunrise Acres Egg Farm near Hudsonville, Michigan. And “where he is” is at the top of the egg-production ladder in a family business that employs 85 full-time and 40 part-time workers. The business that started with a small egg route servicing a handful of restaurants has blossomed into a successful family corporation that produces, packs and markets 9 million eggs a week.
Brothers Dick and Bill Patmos now own and run the operation. Bill’s son, Doug, and Dick’s son-in-law, Jeff Armstrong, are the third generation joining the business.
“This is truly a family business, and we take a great deal of pride in the number of people we feed,” Bill says.
The family grows corn and soybeans on 7,000 acres in Michigan but still has to purchase much of the feed
ingredients required for proper poultry nutrition.
Big buyer of soybean mealThe egg farmers rely on soybean meal to
provide a high-quality, pathogen-free, highly palatable protein. “Chickens can live on corn alone, but not as well,” Bill says.
The family buys 300 tons of soybean meal each week, making Sunrise Acres one of the biggest soybean meal users in West Central Michigan.
Careful nutrient management
When it comes to manure management, the poultry industry has always been ahead of the curve. Poultry litter is no longer a useless byproduct. It’s become a commodity returned to cropland as fertilizer.
“We sell manure all over the state, and it is used by both traditional and organic farms,” says Dick. “It took a lot of investment to get manure dried so we could truck it a long distance.”
Preserving farmland“Until eight years ago, farming was considered a nuisance and hindrance to development, but now neighbors appreciate that we’ve preserved a large block of open farmland,” Dick Patmos says.
Bill says that although there are a lot of ways to preserve farmland, “we’re doing it by being as efficient and well run as we can be.” Dick echoes that thought. “Farmland is best preserved where we’re economically viable.”
Good neighbors. Good practices.Soybeans and Livestock: Together, we feed you and the economy.
To find out more about good stewardship practices and the connection between crop production and animal agriculture, visit www.animalag.org.