To the Editor:
It only takes one phone call to change your life and there were 17 farmers in Osage County that got a life changing phone call last week when Butterball called and terminated their turkey contracts. There was no warning. These producers were not expecting it. Just one day, one phone call and their way to make a living was gone. They have turkeys in their buildings right now and in 90 days those building will be empty.
Right now, those farmers are still in shock, still trying to figure out what they are going to do to make a living. Picking up a new contract is not easy right now. Some of these farms have been raising turkeys for generations in Osage County.
These are hardworking, dedicated people who get up at 2:00 in the morning to check on brooders and make sure augers are running. They sit beside us in church and send their kids to school and chair committees. They spend money in our communities and make Osage County strong. Now they do not have a way to make a living.
I grew up in Osage County and I remember all the empty chicken houses that dotted the farms. They are mostly gone now but they were once the way farmers in this area made a living. Dairy farms were common in our county years ago, now there are only a couple left. When I was growing up it was hogs. I remember spending a lot of my youth helping dad feed sows and catch baby pigs. It was a way for families to earn a living on the farm and most people did it as a family with everyone working together. These days there are more empty hog houses than there are full ones in Osage County. That way to make a living is gone and now there will be empty turkey houses. In the years to come there maybe more. Until there is no way for our farmers to make a living on their land.
There will be tangible losses for our county with Butterball pulling out. Those 17 farmers are the same as 17 businesses getting shut down. Right now, it is only hitting the growers themselves, but it will affect the businesses that support them. This will mean less money for our little county. But the intangible things we lose will be just as important. I fell in love a couple of years ago feeding day old Butterball turkeys at the end of a date. I realized he was the love of my life a couple of months later when I watched him teaching my little boy how to feed a new batch of baby turkeys. One of the things that makes Osage County so special are these small family farms and we are losing them.
Through all of this I have been surprised that none of the growers want to talk to the newspaper. They may grumble a bit amongst themselves but for the most part these men will just put their heads down and figure out a way to keep going. Some of them hope to pick up new contracts somewhere down the line with other companies, many of them will have to find other ways to make a living. The buildings will stand empty and eventually fall into disrepair. There may be a dozen reasons that these guys don’t want to have their say but one of them that I keep hearing is that Butterball has fed their families for so many years. Butterball has been completely dismissive of their lives and their commitments. But the growers still have loyalty to them. It is the kind of men they are.
Butterball does not deserve our farmers and they do not deserve our loyalty
Theresa Brandt
