Herb and Joan Backes of Loose Creek retired and closed their poultry processing plant in 2016. Everyone thought that the business would be closed for good, but their grandson Evan Beckman had a different idea. This summer, while Evan was home from college, the processing plant was back in business. Herb and Joan came out of retirement to help their grandson. The future for Backes Poultry is no longer in the past as Evan has his eyes on the future.

Evan is a sophomore at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, where he is studying agribusiness. His goal is to come back to Loose Creek and run Backes Poultry. 

“Evan and his cousins used to come and help us all the time,” Herb said. “They just did little odds and ends stuff, and Evan just likes it.”

“I set up a Facebook page for us,” Evan said. “It doesn’t have too much on it, but it is a start.”

“We put an ad in the paper and then word of mouth,” Joan said. “This year all of the chickens are already sold. We could have sold more but we thought this was enough.”

“Most of our chickens are sold to individuals,” Herb said. “We sell some to BJ’s and Annie’s and we cut up chickens for some of the picnics.”

For this summer, retirement is on the back burner.

“We are trying to retire,” Joan says with a laugh. “Obviously we wouldn’t be doing this if Evan wasn’t interested.”

“We are glad to help out,” Herb added.

The Backeses are raising three batches of chickens to butcher over the summer. There are about 1,200 chickens in a batch and they still have one more batch to go.

“They are ready to butcher in four weeks and four days,” Herb said. “They grow fast. The last week you can just about see them growing.”

“We like to keep them right at three pounds,” Joan said.” But they keep growing. We can’t stop them.”

“The hotter it gets the harder it is to take care of them,” Herb said. “We want to avoid the hotter weather as much as possible.”

The Backeses also butcher poultry for other people. They charge $2 per bird.

“Some people want their birds inspected so they can sell at a farmer’s market,” Herb said. “Other people don’t want to butcher them themselves because they have become pets. We tell people don’t name them if you’re going to eat them.”

The Backeses raise all Cornish cross chickens, and they buy their feed locally from Backes Feed.

“They are really a nice bird and the feed is the best,” Herb said.

Herb’s dad, Martine Backes started the business back in 1932. “He would go down to the creek, wherever there was running water, and he would kill a few chickens,” Herb said. “Then the next day he would take them to Jefferson City to sell.”

“He was just doing what he could to help his family through hard times.” Joan said.

He built the processing plant in 1940, although it wasn’t as automated back then.

“When I was like 17 I remember thinking, I’m not going to do this the rest of my life,” Herb said. “I don’t remember what changed my mind. If it was a wife or kids or life.”

“He didn’t tell me about this when we started dating,” Joan said. “When I married Herb, I thought I had really moved up because at home we had to do this all by hand.”

Mostly it was life that kept Herb in the poultry business.

“I know after dad died, I just stayed with it,” Herb said. “And you know we got the kids through college and built up a good reputation.”

“All of our kids have helped with the business,” Joan said. “We started them out feeding the chicks and it just went from there. We always had a lot of fun working together. If you can talk and work, it makes it go fast.”

The Backeses have modernized the processing over the years. A part of the building that was originally a carport was converted into the “dirty” area, which is where the chickens are killed. The chickens are caught and put in coops the night before.

“Then the feed is all out of them and it makes for a cleaner butchering,” Joan explained.

The dead birds hang from shackles and are dipped automatically in scalding hot water, which is kept between 135 and 140 degrees.

“Any hotter and it will burn their skin and they won’t pass inspections,” Evan explained. “Any colder and the feathers won’t come off clean.”

After the birds are dipped in the scalding water several times, Evan puts them in the automatic picker. The machine has rubber finger and flings the birds around. Feathers and water fly, and the birds come out plucked and clean. Evan then puts the birds down a small chute into the processing room.

Down in the “clean” room, Evan’s grandparents and his dad, Randy, work at a stainless-steel table processing the birds.

The state inspector is onsite any time that the processing plant is butchering.

“I remember butchering 1,000 chickens a day when we had five people working here,” Joan said.

“We can do about 200 an hour with a full crew,” Herb added.

The processing moves quickly as everyone has a job, and makes quick work of cutting off the neck and feet and gutting the birds.

“The inspectors have to check every bird and make sure it is clean,” Joan said. “She looks at the insides, looks at the heart and lungs.”

“You can tell pretty quick if something is wrong,” Herb said.

If the chickens pass inspection, which almost all of them do, they finish processing them and then put them in water and ice to cool.

“Their temperature has to be down to 40 degrees in four hours so that there is no bacterial growth,” Joan explained. “We usually have time to clean while we wait for the chickens to cool.”

The chickens are packed 25 to a box and covered in ice ready for customers to pick up that same afternoon.

What does grandpa think of Evan taking over the family business?

“If he thinks he can swing it,” Grandpa Herb said, “I think he should go for it.”

So does that put off retiring?

“A little bit,” Joan said with a shrug.

“Eventually he’s going to have to find some help,” Herb said. “We’re not going to be able to do this forever.”

“That’s the hard part for any small business, finding help,” Joan said. “We make this look easy, but it is hard work.”

“People have told us that this is the best news they’ve heard in a long time.” Herb said. “We just want to help Evan out if we can.”