Segment Information (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended				3 Months Ended				3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended				9 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		3 Months Ended	0 Months Ended
	Sep. 27, 2014	Sep. 27, 2014	Dec. 31, 2013	Mar. 30, 2013	Mar. 30, 2013 Pork	Sep. 27, 2014 Power item	Sep. 27, 2014 Processing plants in Salt Lake City, Utah and Missoula, Montana	Sep. 27, 2014 Butterball, LLC Long-term note receivable	Dec. 31, 2012 Butterball, LLC Long-term note receivable	Sep. 27, 2014 Butterball, LLC Turkey	Sep. 28, 2013 Butterball, LLC Turkey	Sep. 27, 2014 Butterball, LLC Turkey	Sep. 28, 2013 Butterball, LLC Turkey	Dec. 31, 2013 Butterball, LLC Turkey	Sep. 27, 2014 Bakery business Democratic Republic of Congo	Sep. 27, 2014 Bakery business Democratic Republic of Congo Supplier concentration risk item	Sep. 27, 2014 Bakery business Commodity Trading and Milling Democratic Republic of Congo	Dec. 31, 2012 Bakery business Commodity Trading and Milling Democratic Republic of Congo	Sep. 27, 2014 Cargo terminal operator in Jamaica Marine	Sep. 27, 2014 Daily's item	Sep. 27, 2014 Daily's Pork	Sep. 27, 2014 Triumph Daily's	Sep. 27, 2014 Divestiture of a 50% interest in Daily's	Sep. 27, 2014 Divestiture of a 50% interest in Daily's Pork	Sep. 27, 2014 Divestiture of a 50% interest in Daily's Triumph Pork
Segment Information
Percentage of ownership interest sold																									50.00%
Cash proceeds		$ 72,500,000																					$ 72,500,000		$ 72,500,000
Amount receivable for preliminary working capital adjustments																									1,720,000
Gain on sale of controlling interest in a subsidiary	64,392,000	64,392,000																					64,392,000	64,392,000
Gain on sale of controlling interest in subsidiary net of tax																								39,279,000
Gain on sale of controlling interest in subsidiary (in dollars per share)																								$ 33.56
Number of processing units																				2
Percentage of ownership interest accounted as equity method investment							50.00%											50.00%	21.00%		50.00%
Exceeded amount of book value of investment to determine fair value																				31,336,000
Fair value of investments																				72,500,000
Amount contributed as additional equity to provide additional working capital to equity method investee																						2,000,000
Total investment in affiliate	522,071,000	522,071,000	406,900,000												71,593,000					74,500,000
One-time Federal blender's credits recognized as revenue				11,260,000	11,260,000
Note Receivable from Affiliates																	34,556,000
Equity investment in affiliates															11,869,000
Number of suppliers																1
Amount invested for acquiring non-controlling interest																			17,333,000
Capacity of power facility leased (in megawatts)						72
Portion of sales price remaining in escrow						1,500,000
Estimated future gain on sale of assets						4,953,000
Net sales										486,971,000	444,787,000	1,218,402,000	1,169,301,000
Operating income (loss)										35,881,000	1,282,000	85,311,000	(3,238,000)
Proportionate share of impairment charges of fixed assets recognized in loss from affiliate											(1,155,000)		(3,859,000)
Total assets										1,073,196,000		1,073,196,000		907,004,000
Notes receivable from affiliates	$ 194,244,000	$ 194,244,000	$ 180,386,000					$ 137,105,000	$ 81,231,000