Costco Poultry Plant Could Have Growers in Madison County

MADISON - When Costco announced their $300 million dollar poultry plant near Fremont in partnership with Lincoln Premium Poultry, the idea was to supply the chickens for the processing plant from growers in the area. It looks like some of those growers will be in Madison County. A representative from Lincoln Premium Poultry attended Tuesday's Madison County Commissioners meeting. Lincoln Premium says they have received grower applications from three farmers in Madison County, and they want to make sure county officials are in the loop. “One of the goals Costco laid out for us in this new venture is to try to be good stewards and share the story about this project so everyone is aware of what we’re doing,” said Lincoln Premium Poultry Community Relations Manager Jessica Kolterman. “We want to have a lot of transparency." Growers would need to have facilities of at least four chicken houses to produce the poultry, and would enter into 15-year contracts with Lincoln Premium to build the facilities on their property. Lincoln Premium says they are taking steps to make sure the growers will be good neighbors in Madison County. “One of the things that’s very important about this project is bio-security,” Kolterman said. “You have to have a certain number of setbacks from certain roads that maybe would have a lot of other animals moving down them. You’re main thoroughfares are probably going to have farther setbacks to be required to be off the road." Not every question county officials had on Tuesday had an answer yet, for instance it remains to be seen what affect additional truck traffic may have on roads the county would have to maintain. Any new growing operation in Madison County would be subject to approval by the county planning and zoning commission and county board. Kolterman said “Through the different things we’re doing with our plant and with our growers we feel like we’re making strides in always showing that we’re doing the right thing by our partners, our growers and the State of Nebraska." The Costco processing plant is scheduled to be open in April of 2019.