Daybreak Foods Creekwood Cage Free

Daybreak Foods Creekwood Cage Free is an existing Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permitted through the Wisconsin DNR. It has recently completed a large expansion and changed its name from Daybreak Foods Inc. – Creekwood Farm to Daybreak Foods Creekwood Cage Free. From 2017 to 2020 the operation renovated its facility to be a cage free egg laying operation with 2,075,340 laying chickens and 624,000 pullets equaling 23,873 animal units.

Permit issuance background

The facility has been permitted since 1985 and is currently permitted under the former name Daybreak Foods Inc. - Creekwood Farm. The current permit expired on December 31, 2017. The farm submitted a timely reissuance application allowing it to maintain permit coverage until the permit is reissued. An Environmental Analysis Questionnaire was completed and submitted by the farm and the department completed its environmental review. The WPDES permit issuance process for a new source CAFO is an integrated analysis action under s. NR 150.20, Wis. Adm. Code and does not require a separate environmental analysis.

A previous adjacent third-party operation (Unlimited Renewables) that processed manure for this facility is no longer in existence. Daybreak Food Creekwood Cage Free took back operation of the facility in 2016 and has operated it since the closure. The permit for Unlimited Renewables is being discontinued as part of the permit reissuance.

Facility background

The new facility has five barns housing 2,075,340 laying chickens, three barns housing 624,000 pullets, an egg processing building, a new feed mill and storage facility, a new manure storage and processing building, and a new office and employee check in building.

The nine old layer houses from the previous facility were depopulated in the summer of 2019 and removed from the site in winter/spring of 2020. Three pullet houses, one old wastewater lagoon, and one compost building were also removed during this project.

The number of birds at the original site has varied over the course of the current permit. The facility was depopulated in 2015 due to the Avian Flu outbreak. When the permit reissuance application was submitted in 2017, the facility was housing around 912,000 layers and 155,000 pullets and projecting to expand the facility and increase flock size to the current size. There are no plans to expand the new facility any further during the proposed permit term. The facility is also covered by the Jefferson County Livestock Siting Ordinance which sets a maximum approved size.

All eggs produced at the new egg processing facility are broken and/or graded. Approximately 22,000 gallons of egg wash wastewater are produced daily at the egg processing facility. The wastewater is processed prior to being stored and land applied to cropland following an approved Nutrient Management Plan (NMP).

The facility produces approximately 50,000 tons of solid chicken manure annually. Manure is conveyed out of the layer barns and into the manure drying and processing building where it processed into a fertilizer. Manure is also hauled via truck from the pullet houses to the manure drying and processing building. Egg shells from the egg processing facility are also delivered to the manure drying and processing building and blended into the fertilizer as an added nutrient benefit.

The permittee does not intend to land apply solid manure on fields in the NMP. The permittee has a manure distribution plan that was reviewed and approved by the department based on Wisconsin Administrative Code NR 243.142 (2)(b)(2). This plan allows the permittee to manipulate the poultry manure via an industrial drier and sell to AgriNatural Grower Supply (AGS) under a DATCP fertilizer license.

WPDES Permit Application and Related Documents

Documents received by the department as of July 2020