Looks like Michigan....

...has cancelled all poultry exhibitions. Fairs, swap meets, 4-H...everything. Not sure of the duration. They want reports of any excessive death rates in home flocks. I'm not thinking most folks who show and put a lot of money into breeding stock are going to get real excited about the concept of Michigan maybe coming in and culling the whole lot. We stopped showing about a year and half back but the daughters were talking about taking some Brahmas to the shows this year. Maybe some Narragansett.

Guess not.

They made the same announcement for Nebraska just this morning. The ban is suppose to be in effect until the end of the year. We were kind of thinking of getting a couple of geese to run around the place and keep the chickens company, but I guess that won't happen. Probably safer anyway. Link below:
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Yup, that's about the size of it. No poultry expositions of any kind. At least as long as it takes to get the "bird flu" under control. This is uncharted territory although we had a outbreak of "monkey pox" a few years back that put a hault to rabbit shows and fairs. That one got lifted just in time for our kids 4-H fair. Don't think this one will be lifted in time for our fair - end of this month. Guess they will be doing showmanship with stuffed chickens and rubber duckies. Don't know if they can do any market class even if they arrive at fair frozen in styrofoam coolers!

This is really nothing new, as we have had terminal experience for pigs for years. They go straight from auction to slaughter houses. No one survives the fair. No one should be carrying dreaded diseases homè.

Sadly many of our 4-Hers had significant investment in poultry projects only to loose the chance to recoup. Guess their projects will be the guest of honor at Sunday dinner!

I'm on a Public Health Committee for the Counties of Seward, York, Polk, and Butler in Nebraska. At a meeting Tuesday evening it was announced that there were verified cases of avian flu in Richardson County in the southeast tip of Nebraska and in Dixon County in the northeast.

Apparently it's no threat to humans, but it can sure raise havoc with the poultry industry, particularly high volume producers who depend on it for their sole source of income.

Minnesota did the same thing in May. Over one hundred farms are already known to be infected in the state.

Shoot does that mean in the future you will not be able to buy chicks at places like a farm and home store??

Maybe all the backyard chicken coops are what started all this....

Not likely more likely to be imported bird or birds that fly long distances

More states are getting on board every day.
Can you imagine what would happen of Herbruck's got that bird flu? In addition to all of their caged production,they provide all of the cage free eggs for every McDonalds east of the Mississippi. I guess they're under extreme lockdown. My best friend since we were four,maintains their feeding equipment.

The Ohio State Fair Board and Department of Agriculture also cancelled any and all shows, auctions, etc. of any fowls, due to the possibility of the virus spreading to Ohio flocks.

I live in the bird flu hot spot here in Northwest Iowa and I do have fifteen half grown layers but they don't leave the tight little building they live in. No way will I let them go outside. I have a pad filled with disinfectant outside the door, that I step in every time I go in and that is only once a day for chores. Every time I look in there I hope there aren't any dead ones.

They don't really know what is spreading it but it must be an extremely hot virus. These chicks were destined for the fair this fall but that won't happen and I wouldn't be surprised if the show ban becomes permanent.

One feed mill that I have hauled corn to on occasion went from producing 2200 tons a day to 850 tons now. This mill makes feed for a ton of turkeys along with hog feed. A 6.5 million bird laying facility four miles away from here is sitting empty. I was planning to haul corn to them from a couple of fields two miles away but it looks like the corn will travel at least twelve miles now.

New York state fair cancelled the poultry show this year also.Where I work we use a lot of eggs, especially in the fall to make pumpkin pies. The price of eggs is going up daily and is expected to be 5-10 times the price they were a few weeks ago shortly. All our customers are taking their pumpkin pies now to avoid the high price in the fall and absorbing the storage costs. Seems like there is something going crazy for price all the time.

There was a spot on the radio news about this today.
Commenting about how the price of eggs has gone up.
Said they think the disease came in with migratory birds.
Expect eggs to be higher priced till they can raise a new flock. (about 6 months)

That is a really good idea, I would bet Iowa will lose 40% of poultry population before it is done.

I'm working for an egg producer here in North Central Iowa, we're sweating bullets on this one. Two sister flocks of our company, one in Minnesota and one in Northwest Iowa got the bird flu and those sights are now de-populating, to make matters worse we can't get a straight answer on what we have to do to put those sights back into production. It has cancelled a multi million dollar expansion at our sight. We have a barn that was de-populated just as this hit, it's now sitting empty because we're afraid to bring any birds into our sight. Cancelled the molting schedule and are keeping every bird we can in production. Liquid egg prices have shot up but we're having a hard time moving liquid because of the price. Barn workers have to change into uniforms onsite before they can go into the barns and we're not letting any visitors onsite if we can help it and they spray the wheels on my car with disinfectant every day before I can drive on the lot. On of my employees got disinfectant sprayed in her eyes, I saw the MSDS, if I wasn't driving a old car with 290,000 miles I might be a little upset they're spraying corrosive liquid on my car every morning.