Flocks
of mid-Missourians are crowing about the brown eggs sold by two Centralia
brothers who started their business when the older brother was in first grade
and inspired by a University of Missouri Extension 4-H project.
Dustin
and Austin Stanton of Stanton Brothers shared their story of how they hatched a
large business with teen would-be entrepreneurs attending Summers @ Mizzou’s
Build-a-Business Camp recently.
Dustin
is a junior in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.
Austin is a 17-year-old junior at Centralia High School.
In
1999, Dustin’s first-grade class hatched baby chickens through MU Extension
4-H’s “Hatching Chicks in the Classroom” program.
Names
were drawn for the lucky winner who would take home the baby chicks that were
incubated and hatched.
Dustin
brooded when another classmate won the chicks, so badly that his uncle bought
him six chicks. His love of chicks hatched a business. By 2007, he had 500
chickens. It is now a 12,000-poultry operation, the largest free-range
operation in the nation.
At
the crack of dawn, the brothers begin feeding the free-range Hy-Line, Bovan and
Tetra chickens. It’s a daylong job to gather, wash and box the eggs, which they
transport to retail outlets in mid-Missouri, college residence halls, nursing
homes and grocers. They also sell their eggs at the Columbia Farmers Market and
are the sole supplier for Isle of Capri Casino in Boonville.
They
grind 5-7 tons of feed weekly from milo grown on the farm that has been in
their family since before Boone County was an actual county. Their parents
operate a 1,200-acre grain and cattle operation and help with the egg operation
as needed.
Dustin
does marketing while Austin handles production and technical duties. Working
and living together might cause some brothers to cry fowl, but the Stantons
feather their nests with competitive fun.
Because
their operation has grown so much, they now have two part-time employees and
are building a state-of-the-art facility that offers automation of egg
gathering, washing and packaging.
When
the new 40-by-200-foot facility is finished, chickens can lay their eggs on
angled, elevated nests so that the eggs will roll to a conveyor belt that
carries them to automatic washing, grading, sorting and packaging machines.
They
hope the automation increases production levels and makes their processes less
labor-intensive. Their job is not “sunrise to sundown.” They say it is “sunrise
to whenever the job is done,” and some days that might be midnight or later.
They spend vacations combing the country for new equipment and learning how to
improve their already successful business.
The
Stanton brothers have had many successes, and many failures, along the way,
including first picking a breed of chicken that is a “meat” chicken. They have
consulted University of Missouri Extension specialists and learned through FFA
and college courses.
They
plan to stay on the family farm after they finish school because they think it
is important to produce quality food locally and efficiently.
They
want to preserve the rural way of life they and their fine-feathered friends
enjoy. Now that’s something to crow about.
(by Linda Geist, MU Writer)
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