Hickman's Egg Ranch loses 95% of its chickens to bird flu: What's next
The Arizona Department of Agriculture on Monday announced a third commercial farm testing positive for bird flu in Maricopa County.
Meanwhile, Hickman's Egg Ranch is clearing out a third farm due to infections, leaving just one uninfected farm left.
Hickman's Egg Ranch is Arizona's largest egg producer and is one of the top 20 egg producers in the country.
In the last few weeks, they've been hit hard, losing 95% of their chickens to bird flu.
What we know:
Egg prices may have dropped across the country, but a supply chain expert says we could see an increase here in Arizona with this recent news.
We learned it will take around two years until Hickman's production gets back to normal.
"You know, since this outbreak started in February of 2022, we've lost 170 million birds and that's just got to stop," President and CEO of Hickman's Egg Ranch, Glenn Hickman, said on June 2.
He says three of their four Arizona farms need to be cleared because of the bird flu impacting six million chickens.
"All of our layer flocks have been on the west side of town, have been determined to be positive. We're in the act of depopulating those farms and removing the chickens and trying to start the cleanup process," Hickman said.
Hickman says it will take 20 months to repopulate all farms. In the meantime, they're getting by with the help from other farms.
"Thankfully, we have some other farmers that we are cooperative with, and some of those have had some extra eggs. So we've been able to kind of reshift and reprioritize where those eggs are going," Hickman said.
Local perspective:
Hitendra Chaturvedi, ASU Professor of Practice for the department of supply chain management, says egg prices will go up, but Hickman disagrees.
"Hickman's supplies about 80% of Arizona's egg production. You are reducing about 80% of Arizona's supply chain from about 2.2 billion to 450 million eggs," Chaturvedi said.
Hundreds of jobs expected to be lost
"We only represent about six of the 330 million birds producing eggs in the country, so the amount of effect that our chickens have on the market is pretty nominal," Hickman said.
Clearing out the farms not only impacts customers but also employees. Staff will be reduced because there won't be work for a while.
"There will be approximately, in my estimation, 300–500 jobs that are lost because Hickman's farms are going to be shut down for two years, as they have mentioned. So, the 300–500 jobs will have a ripple effect on the economies of Buckeye, overall, looking at Arizona," Chaturvedi said.
What's next:
For now, employees are in the middle of clearing out the three farms.
Hickman says in a week or so, they will have to make the tough decision to let employees go.