A Johnson Township farm family is looking to diversify its operations by adding a turkey-growing operation.
Larry Holscher, flanked by sons Lance and Levi, who together make up HFF Poultry LLC, requested Tuesday night permission from the county Board of Zoning Appeals to build three, 3,000-square-foot barns along with a compost building and a combination office/shop building on a 91-acre tract the family owns on Main Street Road near the intersection with Indiana 241 east of Decker.
Holscher, a county commissioner as well as family farmer, said the confined animal feeding operation would involve growing 27,000 birds at a time; raising 30,000 or more turkeys at one time would require Holscher getting a state permit rather than local regulatory approval.
The property is already zoned for strictly agricultural use, so the CAFO would fit in with the intended land use.
Holscher said the manure collected during the growing-process would be applied to the fields of Holscher Family Farms.
The operation would be 1,600 feet away from the property line of the nearest neighbor, Holscher's father, Charles, and 2,500 feet distant from the next-nearest landowner.
The board approved the request, contingent upon HFF Poultry also getting the county Drainage Board's approval of its drainage and water run-off detention plan. Holscher said the appropriate storm water run-off permit had been submitted to the county Soil and Water Conservation District.
HFF Poultry is on the Drainage Board's agenda for its Thursday meeting.
No one attended Tuesday's meeting to speak against the project.
Board member Steve Volling said Holscher's was only the second CAFO to be approved without remonstrance, something that fellow board member Tom Yochum attributed to the surrounding neighbors all being family members.
“That helps,” Yochum said. “That sure helps.”