You can never plan too much into the design of a facility to house your livestock – and especially for fire prevention. Roughly two-thirds of fatal barn fires occur from October to March, according to an October 2018 report from the Animal Welfare Institute, with 36.8% occurring in January through March.

It really is better to ask permission now rather than ask forgiveness later - especially in Illinois and Indiana where you should not stake out a new livestock structure until you have the proper permits approved and in-hand.

In the Chinese culture, don’t expect to begin a business discussion until you have developed a relationship with the others in on the deal. In the United States, according to the Better Business Bureau, business owners were asked what the most critical assets to their businesses were. The answer may be surprising.

Turkey meat production in the United States during January-September 2018 was 4.36 billion pounds, down about 2 percent from a year earlier. The 2018 turkey production forecast is lowered by 24 million pounds to 5.875 billion pounds, 2 percent below 2017.

Company consolidation is everywhere – whether it is in the agricultural world (think Monsanto and Bayer or Pioneer and DuPont) – or in the fast food world (think Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) – it gives customers choices. But more importantly these companies have linked together to combine expertise, to share resources, and to maximize the services they can produce and provide.

Farmers know you can’t do the same thing and expect different results. Protein producers make adjustments in their operations frequently – managing uncertainty in things like the weather, regulations, market prices, etc. But sometimes, as protein producers know, you need to re-think an issue to take advantage of the opportunities at hand, keep up with new ideas offered in production methods, technology, science, etc.

Is the demand for cage-free eggs disrupting technology? Is it causing big producers to abandon technology they have been using for the last 40 years with caged hens?

During the past year alone, Summit Livestock has been the subject of a great deal of buzz in the protein industry, and a lot of that excitement has centered on new innovations in cage-free egg production facilities. Wrap-the-Equipment™ is innovation.