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WELCOME to Wilcox Family Farms! We are now offering educational farm tours! Please contact us for more detailed information.
Your virtual tour will start in three minutes so please make your way to the official Wilcox "Tour Bus". Everybody have a seat? Our first stop is the Egg Plant. It will take a few minutes to get there so let me tell you about Wilcox Farms. |
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WILCOX FARMS is a fourth generation, family-run farm that started in 1909. The original farm had a little bit of everything, but today specializes primarily in egg and milk products. The building to the right is the Egg Plant, so please unload and make your way to the front entrance. |
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THE EGG PLANT processes over 3.6 million eggs a week. To achieve this feat, it requires great team work and commitment from our employees. |
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IF YOU MOVE this way you will see something that looks like a dark room in a photo lab. This is the candling room. A candler's job is to pick out eggs that have an imperfection. Candler's must have quick eyes to see over a hundred eggs every four seconds.Two candlers pick out stains, leakers or eggs with shell imperfections. They do not have to pick out cracked eggs, as the Wilcox Farms Egg Plant is equipped with a check detection system. The machine detects cracked eggs by bouncing sound waves off the shell. Cracked eggs make a different sound than uncracked eggs. Once the machine detects a crack, it will route the egg to the correct line where it will be sent to the Wilcox Farms Egg Breaking Plant for further processing
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NO, THOSE ARE NOT DOCTORS in the white lab coats, but FDA inspectors who work full time. They ensure that Wilcox produces the freshest eggs on the market. Wilcox Farms packs over 48 different cartons and produces over 85 different packages. This concludes our tour of the Egg Plant. Back on the bus for the trip to the Milk Plant.
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THE SOUND you hear is the processing from the machinery in the Milk Plant. The Milk Plant packages over 90,000 gallons and loads over 30 trucks a day. Now it's my favorite time of the tour, fresh chocolate milk time!! The milk in your carton was produced less than 24 hours ago and it stays at a temperature right above freezing to insure it's freshness. Now it's time to see the baby calves and visit the new dairy facility, built in 1997.
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GO ON, it is safe to touch the calves. The only thing they might do is lick you a little bit. Back in the bus, it's time for the final stop on the tour. |
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NOW WE WILL visit the Harts Lake School. This school house was constructed in 1905. It serviced the local area for over 70 years as a one-room school house. Jim and Barrie's father, Truman Wilcox, went to school here and was instrumental in it's preservation. It is fully restored to it's original state.
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This concludes the Wilcox Farms tour. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I would like to remind everyone to support your local Wilcox cow and chicken!
