Panicked Tennessee farmers are selling farms as Jack Daniels ends its free corn slop program [View all]
Tennessee Farmers Panicking After Jack Daniel’s Ends 45-Year Program Of Free Cattle Feed
https://brobible.com/culture/article/farmers-panicked-jack-daniels-ending-45-year-free-cattle-feed-program-tennessee/
After 45 years of a free cattle feed program run by Jack Daniel’s where livestock farmers in Moore County, Tennessee were able to use the “stillage” leftovers (corn, rye, barley), Jack Daniel’s is ending the program to partner with an energy company.
According to reports from local news outlets, panicked livestock farmers are already selling their land out of fear they will be unable to afford their operations going forward without the free cattle feed program ran by Jack Daniel’s for nearly half a century.
Terry Holtz has been making that daily drive from his farm to the distillery since he was just 20 years old. Holz told News Channel 5 “I’ve been at it 365 days (a year)… multiply it times 45 (years), (that’s how) many days I’ve hauled it… I don’t miss any day.”
As the farmers lose the Free Cattle Feed program, Jack Daniel’s has partnered with Three Rivers Energy. They are a local energy plant that “converts the slop into renewable gas and fertilizer.”
That is, of course, good for the surrounding region but for different reasons. It sounds like Three Rivers is producing sustainable clean energy and fertilizer that will be repurposed in the surrounding areas, albeit not for free. And they are presumably paying Jack Daniel’s for the ‘slop’ that farmers were feeding to their cattle.
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