Since the construction of the company’s first grain-receiving facility in Salisbury, MD., in 1960, Perdue AgriBusiness has focused on bringing value to the farm gate — recognizing that viable crop farms are essential to our company’s supply chain.
While our business has grown significantly in size and scope, we remain focused on helping farmers increase the profitability of their operations:
In Queen Anne’s County, Md., David Denny is the caretaker for 120,000 chickens on his four-house poultry farm where he’s an independent contract poultry farmer for Perdue. It takes a lot of chicken feed to raise all those birds to market weight.
David is also a grain farmer and in a unique position in that the corn and soybeans that he raises also help meet the nutritional needs of his flocks. It’s a unique advantage of our vertically integrated business model.
“It makes me feel good that I’m growing my own food for the chickens. I like the fact that our corn has good quality to it. It makes me feel like I know where my feed is coming from and coming from good farmers."
Our “you grow it, we will buy it” commitment to farmers, coupled with agronomic support and options for earning unbeatable premiums, make a real difference in the lives of our farm partners. Kevin Witmer runs Letort Valley Farm in Lancaster County, Pa. with his father. They prioritize crop diversification as a security measure, and have been growing Plenish soybeans for more than six years.
Kevin delivers his beans to the Perdue AgriBusiness soy crush plant in Bainbridge and loves that it’s nearby and he never has to wait in a long line. He said growing Plenish® high oleic soybeans has been similar to growing conventional soybeans, and that he has seen a much bigger return upon delivery.
“We started growing high-oleic beans when they first came out. We grow them the same as we grow regular beans,” said Witmer. “I think being a partner with Perdue AgriBusiness and growing these high oleic soybeans, the facility being where it is, the premiums they are willing to pay for these soybeans and the lack of yield difference between conventional beans and these soybeans, it definitely promotes a good working relationship. It think this year, depending on yield, we should to be able to gain $30 to $50 an acre by having Plenish soybeans (at a premium).”
In 2021, Perdue AgriBusiness launched its first direct-to-consumer product offering with FlockLeader™, a new line of probiotics and supplements designed for backyard chickens.
With a commitment to raising healthy chickens for more than 100 years, Perdue is sharing its expertise in chicken nutrition and welfare with backyard chicken keepers everywhere.
FlockLeader™ by Perdue includes several products that will promote chicken health, including Arrive™, a daily supplement to give newly hatched chickens and young birds a healthy start; Thrive™, a daily supplement that helps maintain a healthy flock; and Recover™, a water supplement to support mild stress. These three main products – Arrive™, Thrive™ and Recover™ – can provide backyard chicken keepers with a trustworthy daily supplement or troubleshoot health concerns that may arise in flocks.
Flockleader™ can be purchased online through backyardchicken.com, a dedicated educational website created by Perdue AgriBusiness that also offers expert resources about chicken behavior for backyard flock enthusiasts.
As part of a strategy to help organic crop farmers transition and expand organic acres and meet demand for heart-healthy soybeans, Perdue AgriBusiness has teamed with Missouri Soybeans to offer the first organic high oleic SOYLEIC® soybean contracting program.
Beginning with the 2022 growing season, Perdue contracted with organic soybean farmers in Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to grow up to 10,00 acres of SOYLEIC® organic soybeans with the high oleic trait.
These high oleic soybeans offer organic soybean farmers the right combination of high yield and profit potential in a rapidly growing market.
We’re committed to making our grain farmers experience with Perdue AgriBusiness the best that it can be.
In 2021, we implemented several ways to improve customer service:
Consumers are trending toward heart-healthy, plant-based food and wellness products. Perdue AgriBusiness is a leader in this category of heart-healthy oils from plants. We contract with farmers to grow specialty seeds such as high oleic soybeans or high oleic sunflowers. Farmers can diversify their crop rotations and earn a premium on the specialty seed. Perdue crushes the oilseeds, refines the oils, and sells it to manufacturers of consumer products such as coffee creamers or breakfast bars. Perdue AgriBusiness is a bridge between farmers and product manufacturers.
For eight years, Perdue AgriBusiness has contracted with East Coast farmers to raise Pioneer® brand Plenish® high-oleic soybeans. Farmers can take pride in knowing the soybeans they raise are producing high-oleic soybean oil that is American Heart Association’s Heart-Check certified. The iconic Heart-Check mark helps take the guess work out when reading nutrition facts and label information. Perdue AgriBusiness sells its high-oleic soybean oil in bulk to meet customers specifications for a variety of today’s food processing applications.
More and more companies are seeking high-oleic products and we remain committed to being a leader in meeting the demand, which also allows farmers to receive a premium for growing high-oleic soybeans, helping increase their on-farm profitability.
Since the 1990s, Perdue’s Animal Nutrition Group has been developing precision feed ingredients and providing technical support for the poultry and dairy industries. Today, they feed approximately 10% of the conventional U.S. dairy herd and work with top poultry farmers. In addition, Animal Nutrition recently introduced organic feed ingredients tailored to the nutritional needs of organic dairy cows, calves, chickens and laying hens.
By focusing on a healthy digestive tract first, Perdue Animal Nutrition helps create an environment for effective conversion and absorption of amino acids and fatty acids to enhance nutrient utilization and support animal well-being.
Our six PhDs work with nutritional consultants, who are part of each farmer’s business team, to help optimize feed formulations to improve farmer profitability.
Since 2007, Perdue AgriBusiness has been selling soybean meal to customers in Sri Lanka. In 2017, we began partnering with Fortune Agro Ltd., a subsidiary of Crysbro, a leading vertically integrated chicken company in Sri Lanka. Crysbro owns 50 percent of the Sri Lankan broiler market.
Crysbro uses local corn and imports the rest of its feed ingredients, which is why it purchases soybean meal from Perdue AgriBusiness at such a great volume. That represents about 10 percent of the soybean meal Sri Lanka imports annually. Perdue AgriBusiness was the first to export soybean meal to Sri Lanka and today holds roughly 37 percent market share.
Through our deepwater port in Chesapeake, VA., Perdue AgriBusiness is able to access harvests in the northern and southern hemispheres and be a year-round supplier to our customers.
Perdue AgriBusiness exports grains, soybeans, soymeal and soy oil by shipload and containers. Our Chesapeake facility is connected to the rest of the grain-receiving and handling network by barge, rail and truck.
Learn about the steps we're taking to reach our goal of becoming the most trusted name in food and agricultural products.
