Culver Duck Farms Inc: Pride in Poultry

Culver Duck raises and processes approximately 3.5 million ducks annually. Products include duck breasts and cooked duck halves in five flavors, as well as a variety of duck sausages.
_________

Food & Drink Magazine
Fall 2008

Culver Duck Farms Inc.: Pride in Poultry
By ALAM DORICH

Culver Duck Farms Inc. is a family owned business that takes pride in its work, Secretary and Treasurer Burt Culver says. Based in Middlebury, Ind., the company raises and processes approximately 3.5 million ducks annually.

Early on, Culver Duck recognized the value of the Asian marketplace and set on a path to grow ducklings that could meet the high standards required for Peking duck and other oriental dishes. That commitment later positioned Culver Duck for the natural food market, which also holds to a higher standard and recognizes the value of the breed and quality of Culver's product line.

Culver's great-great-great-grandfather, Warren W. Hallock, started the family business in 1858, when he began raising ducks in Speonk, N.Y. Since then, the company has relocated to its current location in Middlebury, which is "in the heart of Amish country," Culver adds.

Culver's father, Herb Culver, and mother, Marilyn, moved the family to the Midwest in 1959. With more than 70 years' experience in duck farming, Herb Culver is still actively involved in the business at age 83, while Marilyn retired just last year.

"The farming is good here, [and] with the Amish being here, we find good people to raise ducklings for us," Burt Culver says. Many locals have raised ducks for several generations.

Today, Culver Duck's products include duck breasts and cooked duck halves in five flavors, as well as duck sausages in a variety of flavors - and even lotions, soaps, BBQ sauces and rubs, and chicken products. It supplies its products to restaurants and specialty stores around the world.

In addition, the company has earned numerous awards for its products. In 2008, of the 2,100-plus entries in 31 categories at the Summer NASFT Fancy Food Show in New York City, Culver Duck won a Sofi Silver Award for Outstanding Product Line, while its Roasted Duck Half took home a Sofi Silver Award in the Outstanding Diet and Lifestyle category.

Defying Perceptions
Culver says he was "born and raised" in his family's business. "I started working at the age of 12 on the farm," he recalls, adding that he has spent the majority of his life at the company. "Many of us here have between 20 and 40 years' experience in the business," Culver added.

Although his family believes duck is an excellent meat product, the company encounters resistance from some consumers, Culver says.

For instance, at food shows, Culver Duck's products often surprise attendees, he says. When people visit Culver Duck's booth and try the product, "They love it," Culver says. "But if you tell them this is duck they are eating, they go, 'Duck?' It's foreign to them."

Often, consumers perceive duck meat as being unhealthy, Culver explains. "They don't understand that the duck today has been carefully bred and carefully fed a scientifically monitored, all-natural feed formulation containing no by-products and no animal fat, while producing 70 percent meat on the yield," he says.

Once known as a fatty meat, Culver's painstaking breeding selection processes have developed a white pekin duckling that is 42 percent less fatty with a 45 percent higher meat yield, according to Drew Frey, director of farm operations - the company's resident statistician.

In addition, "It has the nutrition of poultry and the quality of steak," Culver asserts. "Duck breast meat has about half the fat of chicken breast meat."

Moving Up
Culver Duck recently introduced fully cooked duck halves that come in six flavors: Andouille, BBQ Rub, Bistro, Cranberry Chipotle, Roasted and Sesame-Ginger. The company is now working on other items, including duck confit. "It's a classic duck dish," Culver explains, adding that the company is developing the product with a chef at the Le Petit Paris restaurant in Chicago.

Culver Duck also has started supplying its duck breast product in four flavors - Honey-Orange, Cajun, Teriyaki and Original - as well as its All Natural Whole Duckling to Bell & Evans, a poultry company based in Fredericksburg, Pa. "That moves [us] to an upscale market," he says.