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Second Largest Egg Producer In US Ready To Roost In La Paz County

One of the nation’s largest egg producers is almost ready to roost in La Paz county.

Indiana-based Rose Acre farms plans to bring in their first chickens this fall to a La Paz County operation.

Getting the farm up and running has been a three year process, said La Paz Economic Development president Skip Becker.

The farm’s location near the small town of Bouse is more than just a strategic Western spot, Becker said — it was also a secure one.

“They tried to pick an area that’s not really on a flyway, and that’s isolated due to avian influenza that’s been a problem throughout the United States,” he said.

Becker says this move is good for a county that’s been struggling to gain control of the groundwater from foreign agriculture companies.

“This egg operation would use roughly what a 170-, 200-acre alfalfa farming operation would use," Becker said. "That kind of stuff comes out, but we haven’t had anything but really a lot of support for this.”

A flyway is a route used by migrating birds, that can carry the disease. Becker estimates the farm will hire 80 to 100 employees from the area.

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Casey Kuhn was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2015 to 2019.