LITTLE ROCK — A Rison poultry farmer will be inducted into the American Poultry Hall of Fame later this month in recognition of his work establishing a standardized method of brokering broiler hatching eggs in the United States, which led to egg sales around the world.
Jack England, 91, was one of five selected by the American Poultry Historical Society for inclusion in the hall of fame this year. He will be inducted at the 2013 International Poultry Expo in Atlanta on Jan. 29, according to family members.
The poultry historical society bestows the award upon a maximum of five people at three-year intervals, said Lou Arrington, treasurer of the group.
Since 1953, 93 people from the United States and Canada have been inducted into the hall of fame. Plaques with the image of each inductee are on display at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Md.
Marvin Childers, president and chief lobbyist for the Poultry Federation, a trade group that represents the poultry and egg-laying industry in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, said England is an industry pioneer.
Childers said a stable method to get fertilized eggs into the hands of brokers was unheard of before England established his network of brokers in the early 1970s.
England was raised in Rison, southwest of Pine Bluff, and served as a pilot in World War II, according to England Farms’ website and a news release from the family about the award.
After his return home, England raised cattle and cotton before going into the poultry business in 1955 with four chicken houses and a large flock of turkeys. He added more poultry houses, a feed mill, a trucking fleet and a processing plant in nearby Pine Bluff, but eventually sold those operations in 1968.
England is credited with setting up one of the first reliable brokerage hatching-egg businesses in the 1970s and 1980s. England’s companies purchased broiler hatching eggs and transported them around the United States and eventually overseas to the Middle East and North Africa. England’s business model connected broiler hatching-egg suppliers with areas that had a shortage of eggs.
According to England’s nomination letter, “This innovative business model radically curtailed the frequently stifling effects of supply and demand, and spurred unparalleled growth in the industry at a crucial phase of its evolution.”
Arrington, of the American Poultry Historical Society, said inductees must have created significant change in the industry.
“My father developed his business before the Internet. He was able to network, that was his specialty,” said Terri Lindquester, England’s daughter.
Notable poultry pioneers with Arkansas connections already in the American Poultry Hall of Fame include Don Tyson, of Springdale-based Tyson Foods, credited with the expanding the company that eventually became the world’s largest meat producer; James T. “Red” Hudson, the founder of Rogers-based Hudson Foods Inc.; and Lloyd Peterson, who founded Decatur-based Peterson Farms Inc.
Also in the hall of fame are James Denton, former department head and director of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and Richard Forsythe, who held the Arkansas Poultry Federation Endowed Chair at the University of Arkansas and was instrumental in development of the Center for Excellence in Poultry Science.
Inductees are ranked and selected by a committee of 30, whose members are from a variety of locations around the country and who have diverse backgrounds in the poultry industry and poultry sciences.
England’s son, Jack R. England Jr., is the president of England Farms in Rison, which today has 50 employees and sends broiler hatching eggs to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and across the United States. The company also employs numerous contract farmers in Cleveland County and the surrounding area.
Business, Pages 25 on 01/09/2013