After the former Mallquist processing equipment moved to Pearl Valley Eggs, Thompson was able to process the eggs the same day they were laid.
“We figured out that in order to make this equipment profitable, I needed to have more than a million chickens,” said Thompson. “I never thought we would grow this much, but it was a clear choice if I wanted to be competitive in the egg business.” The Thompsons expanded the operation to 1.1 million birds, and added a
second pullet growing barn.

An egg’s journey
Moving slowly through the farm, a vast green rod conveyor belt almost 1,000 feet long is part of that innovation. Eggs come from the various
coops in the barn and roll directly onto a small 4-inch conveyor belt. From there, the eggs wait patiently to be pulled one by one up to the rod conveyor on small colorful trays, nicknamed “the escalator.”
Carrying eggs directly from the chicken barns, the conveyor takes the eggs through a gentle wash and blow-dry before they face the “egg candler,” which illuminates the eggs from underneath, allowing a Pearl Valley employee to inspect the interior egg quality. Poised at the candler with a computer wand, an employee watches 100,000 eggs roll by each hour. If she sees an egg that needs an extra wash, she touches it gently with the wand. The computer remembers and sends the egg back for another
scrub. After their bath, the computer automatically checks the eggs to be sure they are not cracked, and then they are individually weighed. The eggs are then computer directed by their weight to one of 14 egg packing machines to automatically carton them for distribution to well-known supermarket chains and convenience stores. The eggs can be sold in Pearl Valley Eggs packaging, or in packaging from the stores themselves.
Cases of pink, white, yellow, gray and blue egg cartons line the storage facility of the farm, waiting for machines to package them and fill orders. “We’ll put the eggs in whatever carton the customers want,” said Thompson. Other eggs will go to dairies that distribute the eggs with their milk. Even cracked eggs are put to use, separated at a breaker plant in Stockton, Ill., and sent to bakeries as egg whites and yolks.

A home for chickens
Watching the endless row of eggs can be mesmerizing. “But really, it’s all about the
chickens,” said Thompson, who talks about caring for the birds as if he knows each one by name. Caring for the birds is a full-time job. They eat 140 tons of feed a day, all made right on the farm in Pearl Valley’s own feed mill. In fact, all of the ingredients from the feed are generated in the Midwest. “We use corn grown locally, and
soybean meal from nearby,” said Thompson, watching a local farmer drop off a load of corn.
The grain will be mixed and measured by a computer, then shipped out via another conveyor to the birds, which eat six to seven times a day. The environment of the chickens is directly controlled by a sophisticated computer system that lets employees know how much food and water the chickens are eating, and how comfortable they are. “We make sure it stays about there,” said Jim Geary, farm manager for Pearl Valley Eggs, looking at a computer screen showing him a
temperature of 72 degrees. “There are computers in every chicken house watching over everything. They can even tell us egg counts by row. If they’re comfortable, they lay more eggs.”

Working every angle
Another innovation for Pearl Valley Eggs is the utilization of the chicken manure. Early on, Dave Thompson envisioned creating a fertilizer from the byproduct of the chickens. “Even with only two chicken houses, Dave was thinking that composting the manure was a good idea,” said Andy Thompson, Dave’s younger brother
who oversees the sale of the compost through Pearl Valley Organix.
In the late 1990s, the two brothers began a trialand- error process to develop the compost.“After a year of composting outside in wind rows and dealing with Mother Nature, we soon realized in order to really move forward, we needed the operation under a roof,” said Andy Thompson. Pearl Valley Organix now has two large composting buildings at the farm. Manure is taken by a separate conveyor belt right to the composting buildings, where it is aerated by giant machines that methodically churn the manure with other materials according to a formula developed by the Thompsons. “One ingredient of the formula is wheat straw that we grow right here on 80 acres of the farm,” said Dave Thompson.
The different fertilizer blends are sold under the “Healthy Gro,” label which got its name from the golf course superintendents who were amazed at how “healthy” their grass was.
The clients of Healthy Gro might come as a surprise. Anyone who has ever stepped onto a golf course might have been standing on the thick, dark green grass of Healthy Gro. Several of the top golf courses in the nation use the Healthy Gro products from Pearl City. “In the last three years, we have established a strong agronomic program with golf courses from California to Connecticut,” said Andy Thompson. “People are amazed at the results from an application of Healthy Gro.”

Which came first?
It may remain the great unanswered question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
For Dave Thompson and his family, it isn’t about which came first. The chicken and the egg find equal attention. “We’re proud of our operation and the attention to detail that is present in every part of our operation.”

Tunnel ventilation regulated the environment for the chickens.