It took a few years to convince Vietnamese-born Brian Le to move to Arkansas and raise chickens.
Le was happy selling cars in Houston, but his uncle kept calling, saying prosperity was calling him to be a poultry farmer. Le wasn’t interested, but at some point he started listening.
So four years ago, when a three-house breeder hen contract for Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale opened up in Clarksville, Le’s uncle persuaded him to visit and see the opportunity for himself.
Le did it, and decided to make the leap. He sold his house and the rest of his possessions and moved his wife and three daughters to an 81-acre farm off Highway 164 north of Clarksville.
He hasn’t regretted his decision.
“We are just happy and working,” said Le, who moved to the United States in 1995 at age 14. “I love this business. I want to make more money.”
Le is part of a second wave of Asian farmers entering the poultry industry. Kay Wagner, who oversees the breeder hatchery program for Tyson Foods’ Clarksville office, said people of Asian ethnicity make up approximately 28% of Tyson Foods’ breeder farmers and 17% of its broiler farmers.
There are safeguards in place after controversy arose after the first wave of Asian farmers in the early 2000s. An influx of farmers, many of them Hmong Americans from the upper midwestern United States, moved to Arkansas to take up poultry farming, with big money dreams such as Le has.
Unfortunately for many of those in the first wave, the experience was rough as high prices, high interest rates and unfamiliarity with the industry led to financial hardships and bankruptcies.
In 2011, Monica Potts, a journalist who has since returned to her hometown of Clinton, wrote an article for The Prospect about the Hmong’s struggles in Arkansas. Titled “The Serfs in Arkansas,” it described farmers tied to contracts with integrators struggling to keep ahead of their debt from buying the land, chicken houses and equipment.
Financial Safeguards
Those pitfalls seem to have been avoided for the most part during the second wave. Nick Roach, the chief lending officer for Stone Bank in Little Rock, said the farmers in this most recent influx are more sophisticated, and all parties involved — integrators, bankers, the farmers themselves — understand that everyone benefits if the farmer does well.
“We have our own stress test set of metrics we run to make sure it works,” Roach said. “We are experienced at this. We get information from every integrator and look at historical financials. We do due diligence. If they succeed, we succeed.”
Le has been successful enough that he recently expanded his operations by adding three more houses. Each house holds approximately 11,000 birds, and 80% to 90% of the birds lay eggs each day.
That means more than 24,000 eggs need to be picked, sorted and packed daily. Tyson Foods picks up the eggs twice a week, keeps them until the chicks hatch and then ships the chicks to another farmer to raise.
If it was up to Le, he would have many more houses. He came from poverty in Vietnam and figures more houses mean more money.
So far, Wagner has been able to dissuade Le from having more than six houses.
“I keep asking Tyson, ‘Let me build more houses,’” said Le, 39. “They said you have so many houses already. I said, ‘I’m young. I need more chicken houses.’ I need to make one million dollars.”
Stone Bank began to focus on lending in the poultry sector of agriculture in the past decade, Roach said. He said the bank saw the opportunity when there was an influx of new farmers requesting loans through the bank’s Mountain View headquarters.
Roach said several bank employees were familiar with the poultry industry, but he had to become an expert as the segment grew. He said Stone Bank has since made hundreds of poultry loans.
“It’s incredibly rewarding as a banker to watch people thrive and grow,” Roach said. “Our due diligence and process benefit poultry farmers quite a bit.
“Everybody’s goals are aligned. We want fair and equitable animal treatment. We want the farmer to do well, the integrator to do well, the financial institution to do well.”
Like Roach, Le knew nothing about chickens when he decided to become a chicken farmer. His uncle gave him advice, and Tyson Foods spent weeks with him going over the ins and outs of a poultry operation.
Wagner said Le is very attentive and very hands-on. For example, he paid attention to how repairs were made so he could make them himself in the future.
“I’m not worried; when I do something, I see the result, and I do it,” Le said. “Tyson came out every day and trained me for a month. Every day you’re working, you’re learning.
“They are very helpful. Kay is very successful, and she comes and shares with me every information she knows. I learn a lot from my uncle and from Tyson and from everybody, showing me how to operate a tractor and a Bobcat. I love it. I drive my tractor to mow by myself.”
“We have our own stress test set of metrics we run to make sure it works. We are experienced at this. We get information from every integrator and look at historical financials. We do due diligence. If they succeed, we succeed.”
NICK ROACH
President and Chief Lending Officer, Stone Bank
Still Struggling
While Le has had an favorable start to his farming career, Donald Vang is still grinding away on his pullet farm in Springdale.
Vang was part of the first wave of Hmong farmers, starting his farm in 2004. He moved to Arkansas from California, where he had settled after fleeing Laos after the end of the Vietnam War.
Hmong tribesmen participated in the CIA secret war against communists during the war, and many fled after the conflict to avoid retribution.
Like Le, Vang had dreams of earning wealth through farming, but those dreams seem no nearer to realization 17 years later. His pullet farm — he raises chicks until they are old enough to become breeder hens — is earning him just enough money to keep his head above water.
Vang occasionally sells off pieces of his farm to pay off his debt. He said his bank has been helpful by agreeing to let him make interest-only payments when things get tight.
“We think if we work hard, we will succeed,” said Vang, who said he was in his 60s. “We will pay off the loan in 15 to 20 years. Then we get old and retire. That plan did not work out for many of us. Not just not work out, but we lost a lot of our nest eggs and hope.”
Vang said his and others’ failure lay in getting bad information. Farmers overpaid for the chicken houses, a situation that, when coupled with high mortgage payments, cut too deeply into the profits generated by the contract with the integrator.
“There are new farmers coming in, but they are well aware of the situation with poultry farming,” Vang said. “They are well-prepared, and they are ready to make the adjustments.
“I tell [others] to be careful and be prepared. If you are not careful and not prepared, you will be in for hard times.”
Those hard times haven’t happened to Le, who was initially reluctant to pursue farming because in Vietnam farmers are stereotyped as very poor.
“I know, here, farming is making money,” Le said. “From the time I was born until 14 years old, we were so poor. What we have right now, I’m happy.”