Some area residents are questioning the benefits of a proposed egg factory that would measure 60 feet wide and twice the length of a football field.
They are worried that tons of chicken manure, waste water and egg shells will pollute the Hay-Red Cedar River watershed, not to mention attract flies and produce a bad smell.
More than 1 million eggs per week would be produced in the farm proposed by Primegg Ltd. of Cameron, Wis.
“This is not a farm, this is a factory,” said Menomonie resident Mark LeFevre, president of the Tainter-Menomin Lake Improvement Association. “Trying to put a million chickens in the same spot is not a safe thing.”
Mark Werner of the Wheeler area, a member of the Citizens for a Responsible Environment, describes the scale of the proposed operation as mind-boggling.
The eggs wouldn’t be sold as eggs; they would be broken and the liquid shipped to drying plants and converted to egg powder, which is used for things such as candles and cake mixes.
Primegg’s president, John Lulkart, said the factory will produce between 50 and 75 jobs for the community.
There are two proposed locations for Wisconsin’s largest poultry operation: a 95-acre site just north of Wheeler and about 13 miles north of Menomonie and a 400-acre parcel between Wheeler and Boyceville. Primegg officials said they prefer the latter location due to a lesser amount of opposition by area residents.
