By ANN ALLEN

Indiana Correspondent

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. — U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) opened a two-day tour of 11 of District 2’s agricultural businesses by visiting Midwest Poultry Services’ automated egg farm.

Here, 2.4 million hens keep 100 employees busy for three shifts a day without them ever touching an egg. From the moment the egg is laid until it is packaged for retail sales across the country, it moves from one conveyor belt to another.

CEO Bob Krouse likes to say the egg is never touched by human hands until it is removed from the carton in someone’s kitchen. While conducting Walorski and Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana Department of Agriculture, through the multi-building complex, Krouse said the hens are caged but given ample space in which to move about, rest, stretch their wings and reach the constant supply of feed and water.

As the son-in-law of the late Donald Strauss, Krouse represents the fifth generation of that family to operate the farm, a part of Strauss holdings that originated in 1875 with a feed mill. The company provides an outlet for local farmers, with 20,000 acres of corn.

“As a new member of the House Committee on Agriculture, this is a great opportunity for me to meet and visit with farmers and employees to talk about how we can continue to make agriculture a pillar of Indiana’s economy,” Walorski said at the conclusion of the tour.

She hailed her two-day, district-wide junket – part of Indiana’s Agriculture Appreciation Month – as an opportunity to highlight some of the important facilities and learn more about their day-to-day operations and the impact they have on the district’s communities.