The town manager for Dayton, Virginia, confirmed to the town council that the Cargill turkey plant in the community is being sold to Pitman Family Farms.
While neither company has publicly acknowledged the potential transaction, Dayton Town Manager Brian Borne in a recent Town Council meeting said, “Cargill has entered into a purchase agreement with Pitman Family Farms.”
According to a report from the Daily News-Record, the California-based Pitman Family Farms intends to acquire the plant in Dayton, the distribution center in Mount Crawford and the feed mill and hatchery in Harrisonburg.
Borne reassured the council that he had been informed that all Cargill employees will be offered continued employment and that “no significant operational changes” are anticipated.
“Everything sounds like they’re a really good fit for the area, and a really good fit for Dayton, and will continue operations as we are used to, but it’s still a change,” he said.
The Town of Dayton typically publishes videos of its council meetings on its YouTube channel. However, as of the morning of January 15, footage of the meeting where the Cargill facility was discussed had not yet been posted.
Borne’s announcement follows the 2025 closure of Cargill’s turkey plant in Springdale, Arkansas. It has since been reported and verified through land records that Tyson Foods acquired that facility.
Pitman Family Farms is also said to be in the process of acquiring Cargill Protein’s turkey facility in California, Missouri.
If the sale of the Virginia and California Cargill Protein assets are finalized, it would signal Cargill’s exit from the vertically integrated turkey production business.
Pitman Family Farms is a family-owned business that formed in 1954. It gained a significant presence in the U.S. turkey industry when it acquired Utah-based Norbest.
As of the issue of the 2025 WATTPoultry USA Top Companies issue, Pitman Family Farms ranked as the 16th largest turkey producer, with an estimated 118 million live pounds processed in 2024. Comparatively, Cargill was responsible for 791 million live pounds processed during the same year. With the closure of Cargill’s Springdale, Arkansas plant in the summer of 2025, Cargill’s slaughter was reduced to 644 million live pounds in 2025.
If Pitman completes the acquisition of the Missouri and Virginia Cargill turkey complexes, the company will likely be one of the four largest turkey processors in the country in 2026.
It was also reported in 2024 that Bel’s Poultry, a company affiliated with Pitman Family Farms, acquired the majority of the assets owned by Cooks Venture, a now-defunct broiler producer.