Post Holdings Inc., of Saint Louis, hit hard by bird flu in the Midwest earlier this year, is buying Willamette Egg Farms, “one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading egg producers and a leader in the industry’s adoption of cage-free hen housing,” said Capital Press. Willamette Egg produces approximately 2 million eggs a day at farms in Canby, Oregon, and Moses Lake, Washington, for sale mostly in the Northwest. Post Holdings, whose products include breakfast cereals, paid $90 million for the company.
Willamette operates “highly automated cage-free facilities in which chickens are able to perch, hop down to the floor to mingle with the flock and retreat to nesting boxes,” said Capital Press. The company supported legislation in 2011 in Oregon and Washington State to gradually increase cage size over 15 years, which would give the industry time to adapt.