Ronan family markets organic eggs
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“I like eggs,” John Walkup said. It’s a good thing, too, because John and his wife Crystal and children Chase, 18, Nathan, 14, and Autumn, 12, operate Mission Valley Organic Eggs and have since 2007.
Crystal said John often has scrambled eggs for breakfast and for lunch a fried egg sandwich with meat about every day. Even when the Walkups are on the road, John will order an omlette sandwich at Subway.
“Crystal just shakes her head,” John said, laughing.
As well as eating eggs, the Walkups gather, wash, candle, pack and refrigerate 160 dozen organic eggs each day as well as grind grain for the chickens, irrigate, put up hay, clean chicken barns and complete the million other tasks farm families have to do. It’s a good life for humans and chickens, though.
Chickens at the Walkups can browse during the day in an alfalfa and orchard grass field at the Mission Mountain Organic Egg farm. They also are free to eat bugs, wander through the chicken-sized tunnels crisscrossing the field, flutter their wings in a dust bath and enjoy the sunshine while they cluck, talk to the other chickens and lay eggs.
The egg-layers have a fancy name; they are Institut le Selection Animale Browns or ISA Browns, a cross between Rhode Island Red roosters and Rhode Island White hens. The strain has been around for about thirty years as they have proven to be good egg-layers.
About 2,600 laying hens and 2,000 chicks that will begin to lay eggs in the fall live on the farm. Business growth over the past four years has required changes at the farm. The Walkups now have three barns to house their chickens.
Organic standards, John said, mandate each chicken have six inches of perch and 1.2 feet of floor space per bird, and Mission Mountain Organic Eggs meets or beats the standard.
As far as organic certifiers, John said, ”Montana is really up there; it’s extremely strict here.”
The Walkups earned good marks on the website www.tilth.com and on cornucopia.com.
In addition to grass and bugs, the Walkups feed their chickens free-choice wheat, peas, oats and barley, all certified organic, plus protein fish meal, a vitamin/mineral supplement and organic hay in the winter. Oyster shell, which makes the eggshells hard, is available in feeders, and there is also calcium carbonate in the feed.
The fish meal is full of Omega 3 oils which John said are more effective when you get them through chicken - its better than just taking the pills.
Mission Mountain Organic Eggs market their eggs through the Western Montana Coop, and the Good Food Store is their biggest volume buyer. They also sell their eggs to Harvest Foods and Super One Foods locally.
Another loyal customer is Azure Standard, which distributes in the San Francisco Bay area. Azure Standard likes MMOE because they are soy free, and the chickens are pastured. The Walkups also use really hot non-chlorinated water to wash their eggs as opposed to using an egg detergent.
Once troubled with skunks and other predators, the Walkups added a new fence. As with most farmers, the Walkups are recyclers. The fence is made from mink cages from an area mink farm that closed about 10 years ago. The fence surrounds and protects the chickens.
For the never-ending egg gathering and egg processing, the Walkups devised a system — every other day Chase and John gather eggs and on the off days Crystal, Autumn and Nathan collect eggs. Everybody gets a day off from gathering eggs although John and Chase will still grind feed on their day. A neighbor collects eggs for the Walkups on Sunday so they can attend church, and they trade him hay for his horses. After church, the family processes eggs all afternoon. Family vacations are out, so Crystal and the two younger kids will go to Minnesota to visit family in late July, and John and Chase will go to Missouri in the fall.
Despite the rigors, Chase thinks he will stay on the farm. According to his father, he is doing more and more to help all the time.
Not only is he grinding grain, candling eggs, irrigating and other chores, he has amassed 31 college credits after high school graduation. Chase will take the College Level Examination Program test in Missoula soon. The young man says he plans to be a business major.
“Chase is a thrifty, frugal fellow,” John said, describing his son.
Although running an egg farm won’t make a lot of money or give Chase the security of a salaried job and benefits, John said Chase likes the idea of raising a family here, close to home.
Siblings Nathan and Autumn are also interested. Fielding calls from all over the United States, the Walkups have noticed people really want what is healthy food.
There is a lot of interest in a corn-free diet, maybe because 90 percent of corn is genetically modified, John said.
He added that he and his family go to a lot of time and expense to make sure their chickens eat a soy-free diet, are pasture raised and grass fed so the eggs are healthy.
“We hope more people to get educated about food,” John said.
