IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – As the spring semester comes to an end, University of Iowa’s dining services is already working to prepare for the fall semester. Part of that work includes considering a new vendor for eggs.
“We’re looking at how do we incorporate the food pricing and the changes and the different structures and how that works,” said director of dining services Don Stanwick.
Their contract with Farmers Hen House, located in Kalona, will end this month. In the meantime, they will work with Sysco to get both hard shell and liquid eggs.
“We’ll go back and forth, we’ll put together a criteria then we’ll get that put out to a variety of different companies for them to bid on then hopefully we’ll find somebody who meets all the qualifications and we’ll be able to have another egg provider,” said Stanwick.
One Iowa State University professor says prices should be back to ‘normal’ between June and September.
“USDA projects that we’re going to have further reduction in egg prices as production capacity rebounds. It takes about a year for a farm that’s been hit by Avian Flu to re-establish their capacity because they have to clean out everything,” said Iowa State University Professor Emeritus Dr. Peter Orazem.
He says the only problem is that Avian Bird Flu is cyclical, meaning once the prices come back down, they will eventually go back up again.
“So when the migration starts again, we’re probably going to get another round of avian flu outbreaks in the fall and winter,” said Dr. Orazem.
Copyright 2025 KCRG. All rights reserved.