OAKWOOD, Ohio – Citing a response to consumer demand, Ohio-based Cooper Farms, now in its 85th year, is ramping up production in its turkey division, adding 39 new barns to its production lineup. Each barn comprises 20,000 square feet of space.

The new barns are expected to accommodate an additional 500,000 birds produced each year, and the construction of the new barns is projected to be completed by Jan. 1, 2024. This allows for expansion of its processing and cooked meats divisions.

“We are always strategically thinking about where our company can grow and how we can be a better supplier for our customers,” said Gary Cooper, Cooper Farms COO. “With a huge expansion like this, it is important to recruit the right people to join the team.”

To make this production expansion possible, Cooper Farms believes it has recruited the right people to step in. Seven existing family growers have chosen to grow their farms with the expansion, while seven new families have chosen to join Cooper Farms with this endeavor.

“We were concerned that it would be hard to recruit growers with the high interest rates that exist right now,” said Bill Staugler, Cooper Farms’ live turkey production manager. “We were pleasantly surprised by the responses we received from current growers and prospective ones. It makes us feel good that a lot of our current growers want to expand. It tells us that they enjoy what they do and want to continue growing with us.”

Cooper Farms is a diversified agrifood company with operations in the turkey, egg and pig industries. It ranks as the seventh largest turkey producer in the United States, having slaughtered 306 million pounds of live turkeys during the past year. As an egg producer, Cooper Farms ranks as the 16th largest in the nation with a flock of 6.18 million laying hens. Cooper Farms produces 130 million dozen table eggs each year. Cooper Farms, a fourth-generation farm, is one of the top 30 hog producers in the country, raising 825,000 pigs annually.

Virgil and Virginia Cooper started their company in the small town of Oakwood in Paulding County in 1938 with just 300 turkeys. In a matter of just three years, they had grown their turkey flock to the point where none of the local hatcheries could handle their needs.

By the end of 1944, Virgil bought one of their suppliers’ hatcheries for himself. His brother started an appliance business with him in the same building, and with that, Cooper Farms was off and running.

Over the next 75 years, the Cooper family would expand their reach, buying farms and expanding their enterprise into both hogs and eggs. By the time Virgil retired, his children, Jim, Dianne and Gary were ready to take over the family business and have continued the success and expansion of the company to this day.

Prior to this expansion of 39 barns to house turkeys, the company expanded into the egg division. The demand for cage-free eggs has forced the egg market to adapt, and Cooper Farms was at the forefront of this movement. The opening of their state-of-the-art Golden Heritage Cage-Free Egg Farm in March of 2022 added nearly two million cage-free egg layering hens, allowing them to meet the needs of customers across the country.

“We are in an ever-growing cage-free egg market,” Cooper said. “We have been trying to get involved in this market for quite a while and were told we were too small to even consider. Well, we now have the capacity to supply the growing cage-free market and continue to grow with it.”

Cooper Farms also keeps the environment in mind and has made itself 98 percent landfill-free. More than 20 percent of the energy used by the company is created using renewable sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels. Cooper Farms also saves more than 480 million gallons of water a year with the capacity to treat its own reused water.

Cooper Farms gives back to the community. The farm donates hundreds of thousands of pounds of food to area foodbanks and has donated thousands of dollars to local causes, including a $750,000 donation to Camp Lakota, a Boy Scout Camp in Defiance, Ohio.

To this day, the fourth-generation company has about 2,400 team members, most coming from the Ohio counties of Paulding, Van Wert and Mercer.

“Our company was founded on a handshake mentality, with a focus on doing the right thing all the time,” said Jim Cooper, CEO. “It’s humbling to see the growth of Cooper Farms and all that we’ve accomplished, with the help of great partners, leaders and team members. I’m pleased to see these next generations stepping up to leadership roles and seeing us through these next phases of growth.”