A new mill in town
By Holly Hollenbeck
MFA made a financial commitment to producers in southwest Missouri with the addition of new equipment, structures and technology at the Aurora feed mill. The multi-million-dollar upgrade is designed to provide quality feed for producers.
Jim Head and his family remember the old Aurora feed mill. He and his family have operated their 512-acre Sycamore Jersey dairy farm since 1964, about a decade after the original Aurora mill went up. Now they've witnessed the upgrade.
"A new tower has been added," he said. "And they've added on a warehouse, too. I hadn't ever been inside the old mill, but I got to see the new mill during their open house. It was interesting."
The new mill has been making the feed Head has been giving to his cows since Jan. 10 of this year. The upgrade enabled the mill to produce all lines of MFA feeds, including the new Turbo Plus dairy feed that contains oats. The feed wasn't available to producers before the new mill was built because of the older machinery.
Head is already benefiting from the new Turbo Plus feed on his farm, and he can now pick up all of his feed at the Aurora location. Producers like Head are the reasons new additions were made.
In with the new
In order for the mill to operate in the most efficient manner, some structures needed to be removed. A large warehouse on the east end of the mill was torn down to make room for a parking area. A long dolly pad was poured in this area. It allows empty trailers to be dropped here as part of a "drop and pull" loading program. Customers who pick up feed in trailer loads can leave an empty trailer and pull out a full one that has been loaded when they arrive. This eliminates the waiting time for the drivers and provides better use of both transportation and mill labor. The extra room allows truck drivers to avoid backing to the loadout dock from the street.
A new automatic palletizer allows one person to stack one ton of bagged feed onto a pallet single-handedly.
An old flour mill that had been converted into a working part of the mill was removed to make room for a new tower. The new tower was placed next to the existing 1956 mill tower where most of the feed was already being made. The condition of the old tower was good, so the new tower was added to it.
The 1956 tower houses a new computerized batching system that controls the mixing of all except textured feeds. This includes both pellet and meal feeds. A 200-horse pellet mill was brought from MFA's Springfield mill, and two other existing mills were updated to process feed. Soft stock is also housed and added to the feed here.
The new tower went up in December 1998. In the new tower, textured feed is blended, bulk loadout is handled, grain processing occurs and feed bagging is done. A new bagging system and conveyer belt to transport the bags to the warehouse have also been added. A new warehouse, next to the new tower, holds empty bags and bagged ingredients.
The mill's three liquid systems allow Taltec, poultry fat and molasses to be stored and added to feed. All three liquid ingredients can be added into the bulk loadout system. Both Taltec and molasses can be added to feed at the bagging system.
The feed process
Making feed is a complex process. First, soft stock ingredients and grain must be brought to the mill and unloaded for storage. Soft stock is stored in the old mill until it is added to other ingredients in the mixing system. When grain is brought to the mill, it is dumped into a receiving system controlled by a touch-panel computer. The computer allows the operator to direct grain either to a storage bin or to the grain processing system.
The grain processing system breaks down corn. The corn can be cracked in the system to make chops, steam rolled to make flakes or ground to make ground corn. Processed corn is then directed into separate storage bins.
To begin making feed, the computerized batch controller is set to the feed type. A computer pulls the correct amount of each ingredient into the mixing system. After mixing, the feed either goes to the pelleting system for pellets, to the bagging system for bagging or to the loadout system for bulk.
When feed pellets are made, they are sent through the bagging or loadout system for transporting or taken to the processing system. The processing system blends pellets with chops or flakes before sending them to the bagging or loadout systems.
The batch controller can handle two-, three- or four-ton batches of feed at a time and can process 20 to 40 tons of feed per hour, depending on the type of feed. After each feed is made, the computer flushes the system to prevent contamination.
At the bagging system, fines are removed from pelleted feeds, and liquid ingredients can be added. Machines can bag 10 to 12 feed bags per minute. The bags are then transported to a warehouse on a conveyer belt to the automatic palletizer for storage until they are transported to MFA locations.
Bulk feed is taken to the loadout system where liquid ingredients can be added. Bulk feed can be loaded on trucks at 60 to 90 tons per hour depending on feed type. The trucks are loaded on a computer-controlled scale for accurate and consistent loads. The system allows for loads to be divided into a number of different feeds before being delivered to the customer.
MFA's goal
MFA decided to invest in the Aurora facility for several reasons. One of the most pressing reasons, though, concerned MFA's feed mill in Springfield, just 30 miles northeast of Aurora.
Over the years, urbanization has changed the city of Springfield from a sprawling town to a developed city. "Southern Missouri's customer base has shrunk," said Joe Powell, MFA feed division vice president. "The metropolitan area has pushed agriculture out of the area. Most farms are either east or west of the Springfield area." Considering these facts, the company decided to close the Springfield mill on Jan. 27 of this year. All equipment was either moved to other locations or sold.
"We thought the Lebanon and Aurora feed mills were still close enough to the Springfield area to provide good coverage and service," said Powell.
This meant these two mills would pick up the extra feed needs in the area. But the Aurora feed mill, which had been built in 1956, had become inefficient and expensive to operate. An upgrade, said Powell, was needed.
"The new mill allows us to have a more compact arrangement at the location, and with the new automation system, we can be more efficient," said Powell. "And we have been able to improve the quality of the feed when compared to the old mill. The new mill allows us to provide better customer service."
Now, with the renovation and new construction, traffic flow in and around the facility has improved greatly. "We have lessened the negative impact we may have had on the community by getting traffic off the streets," said Powell. "The whole new facility and outlying area should be a safer place."
Powell said the true test of operating efficiency will come this winter when the need for feed increases significantly. The location is capable of running 24 hours with three shifts of employees, if needed.
"We've gone to a year 2000 design with this mill," said Powell. "The mill allows for a significant increase in quality and more flexibility in what we can manufacture for our customers."