OAKWOOD, GA. — Poultry processor Wayne-Sanderson Farms recently filed a motion to clarify if its participation in the Agri Stats subscription service was lawful.

The company made the motion after a Jan. 18 filing by the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that Wayne-Sanderson was violating a consent decree between the two sides which would force the company to stop its longstanding use of the Agri Stats service.

In a separate case, the DOJ division continues to litigate Agri Stats in a federal district court in Minnesota that is looking to shut down the subscription business, according to filings cited by Wayne-Sanderson.

A consent decree was entered into between Wayne Farms and Sanderson Farms with the DOJ back in 2022 as part of its merger. The company said the decree included a $69.8 million class action settlement regarding ongoing employee wage cases. That decree included a 10-year monitorship conducted by a private attorney working at the direction of the division but paid for by the company.

“The division’s filing is premature and unwarranted, and a result of a poorly modeled and broken monitorship,” said Jeremy Kilburn, chief legal and compliance officer at Wayne-Sanderson Farms. “To date, over the course of this nearly two-year and almost $2 million monitorship, our monitors have billed for more time meeting and engaging with the division than they have for meeting and engaging with us. They refused to meet with our personnel who can explain the Agri Stats service to them and correct their misunderstandings. This is not how a monitorship is supposed to work.”

In its filing with the court during the last week, Wayne-Sanderson Farms stated that it has not violated the consent decree. The company added that until the filing a few days before the new federal administration, neither the monitors nor the division conveyed what aspects of the Agri Stats reports were problematic, even with numerous requests by Wayne-Sanderson.

The company noted that in the coming weeks, it hopes the DOJ division will meaningfully engage in correcting misunderstandings about its Agri Stats subscription and put an end to the proceedings.