Butterball LLC is building a state-of-the-art feed mill near Yellville with a completion date of October this year, Yellville Mayor Shawn Lane said Thursday.
The company chose the Yellville area because it is centrally located to reach the region's contract turkey growers
"Most everybody is pretty excited," Lane said. "It provides new jobs and opportunities for a small community."
North Carolina-based Butterball broke ground on the Arkansas mill in the summer after securing a natural-gas line for operations and a railroad spur to transport tons of feed. Lane said the company initially wanted to build west of Yellville but plans fell through and "some things all kind of intersected in Yellville."
The mill will be at 3726 U.S. 62 West, just outside Yellville.
According to industry news outlet WATTAgNet.com, Butterball plans to mill 12,000 tons of feed per week when the facility is at full capacity. The north Arkansas mill will replace two older metal feed facilities in the region, the poultry website reported.
About 22 jobs will be created, excluding drivers needed for transportation. Lane said the mill will spur transportation demand, creating more jobs.
Tourism, lumber and agriculture are the economic engines of Yellville, a town of more than 1,000 people, according to Yellvilleweb.com.
Butterball, the nation's largest turkey processor, produces more than 1 billion pounds of turkey each year and Arkansas is a leading turkey producing state.
U.S. Department of Agriculture data show about 26.5 million turkeys were processed in the state in 2017, the largest total in the South. Missouri produced 18.8 million turkeys in 2017.
The new mill, about 30 miles south of the Arkansas-Missouri border, will supply feed to contract farms that raise up to tens of thousands of turkeys in the region. Terry Ott, the former county judge of Marion County, said officials wanted the mill to service a 200- to 280-mile radius for current and future growers.
"They're wanting to add more [growers]," Ott said.
Brian See, Marion County agent with the UA System's Agriculture Division, said Butterball has "quite a few" turkey growers in Boone, Marion and Baxter counties and the feed mill's central location is ideal for them. It also sits close to the Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad, which runs around Bull Shoals Lake northwest to Branson and on to Carthage, Mo., where Butterball operates a plant. Asked if the mill could serve growers in Missouri, See said "that's likely."
However, Bull Shoals Lake flows across the top of the state, making transportation of feed, made from grains and animal parts, cumbersome. "There's a ferry," See said. "Otherwise you have to travel into Baxter County then travel into Boone, which wouldn't be ideal for servicing Missouri."
"Probably the Green Forest area would be better for that," he said.
Butterball has processing plants in Huntsville, Ozark and Jonesboro and older feed mills in Green Forest and Mountain Home.
Business on 01/04/2019