The Basics of Animal Feed Manufacturing: Before & After Report

Before:

Having grown up on a black Angus cattle farm, I have always been in and out of feedmills as a child. I would often notice the different shapes, colors and smells that each type of feed possessed. Though I did not know the ingredients nor the nutritional values of the various types of feed we purchased throughout my time at home, I was always interested in raising the biggest and best calves. When I was younger, I always wondered why calves got a different feed than the cows, and why our horses were fed a different type of feed than the livestock. During the summer before my first semester here at auburn, I worked at Hillsboro Cotton Gin and Feedmill. During my time there I learned what all went into the different types of feed, still, however, not knowing exactly the nutritional value of each feed. I got to see how a privately owned feed mill was run. The batch sizes were just big enough to have for about a week of storage. We would pull from our supply when customers would pull up with their trucks and trailers. Sometimes we would fill up just enough non commercial chicken feed for two barrels and other times we would load a flatbed trailer down with forty tons of cow feed. Every day was different. I also learned some general repair work around the feedmill. It seemed like something was always broken. When I finally got to college I started working at the Auburn University’s research feedmill. This is where I learned how to sample and conducts moisture tests as well as pellet durability and percent fine. There was more emphasis on having a clean, safe and organized facility there as well. I also got to experience more of the commercial poultry side of feedmilling as well as learning the more precise side of feedmilling, weighing hand adds and making some micro batches at only a couple hundred pounds. I began to understand what ingredients were used for and what their purpose in the diet was, and their ratio to the batch size. Having worked at both of these facilities taught me something. Not every feedmill is the same. The quality of the feedmill comes down to attention to detail. Having honest, hard workers is also always a good key to success in any job setting. I, myself, really enjoy the nutrition aspect of poultry science and hope to get my masters in poultry nutrition one day. So, the reason for my enrollment in this class is for the simple fact that it all starts at the feedmill. The whole process relies on the the feedmill’s capability to correctly make a batch of feed, and get it there on time with the best pellet possible. If the feedmill fails in some way, form or fashion, the process can not be completed efficiently and companies lose money. I want to learn the ins and outs of feedmilling because I believe it may be in my day to day work later on down the line. I hope to learn a little more about the entire process of the feedmill as a whole as well as diving into more specific operations in this course. I want to know as much as I can so that if or when the time comes, when I am working in a commercial feedmill, I can run it to the best of my ability and be successful in producing a quality feed that not only is formulated and made properly but delivered on time and in excellent condition.

After:

Since the summer before my senior year, I have worked in and around feed mills. I was first at Hillsboro Feedmill in Hillsboro, Alabama during my senior year of high school, and, for my freshman year of college, I was at Auburn’s very own research feedmill. I learned a great deal while working at both of these feedmills, but neither can compare to the amount of knowledge I have received after taking this feedmilling class. In this class, I have learned so much about every step. Each step has its own set of control points. It all starts with receiving. When feed is delivered at the feedmill, the truck’s tires must be sprayed and drivers must be advised to follow biohazard safety measures to ensure they do not accidentally contaminate any worker or any area in or around the feedmill. The feed must be sampled to ensure that is within the upper and lower critical limit for acceptance. Proper sampling is key to this process. Once the feed is analyzed for moisture content, pathogen growth and other deemed necessary tests and found acceptable, it is then usually dumped into a pit. This pit has a grate to act as a filter to help catch larger foreign materials and protect workers from falling into the pit. After it is dumped into the pit, a drag pulls the feed to an elevator which can then send the feed to the proper storage bin through several different types of equipment. The storage bins can have buildup along the inner walls or have bridging with some feed ingredients. This can be a real problem and require special permits to fix. Also, if moisture in ingredients is too high and conditions are right pathogen growth is likely. This is one reason why sampling is important. When an ingredient is needed for a diet, it is weighed out to meet specifications, and then taken through drags and elevators until it is taken through a hammer mill or roller mill, if necessary, then dumped into the mixer. When going through the particle size reduction step via hammer mill or roller mill, screen, blade and roll condition is a factor in the success in particle uniformity. Foreign material can easily damage these pieces of equipment so magnets are placed upstream of them to catch foreign metals. After grinding, the majority of the ingredients are dumped into here until they are mixed thoroughly. Hand adds, or micro ingredients such as antibiotics or enzymes, are added at this point. From here, depending on the diet, the feed is then taken to a holding bin above the conditioner and pellet mill, a holding bin above the bag out/load out area or carried to a storage bin. When pelleting feed, the feed is dropped into the conditioner from the holding bin above with another magnet in between to catch metal brought in from ingredients that didn't need grinding. This is where steam saturates the dry mix/meal and turns it into mash. Holding time is critical here and is controlled with the angles the paddles are sett or shaft speed. After conditioning it is then dropped into the pellet mill. Feed is forced through a die by corrugated rolls. Having proper conditioning mostly determines the pellet durability index, or PDI. A blade separates the pellets from the die. From there, pellets drops into a cooler that pushes air through the feed from the bottom to the top, evenly drying the pellets before they are carried through more drags and elevators to different areas. Pellets can be sprayed with a liquid applications to increase PDI to palatability. From there it can be crumpled which makes a smaller pellet. This would typically be done for chick diets. Either way, feed is then carried through a sifter which separates the pellets or crumbles from the fine particles that have not managed to stay in a pellet. Those fines are usually put through the system again to hopefully make a pellet and not be left as fines or wasted. After the sifter pellets are then sent to the bag out/load out area or storage bins via more drags and elevators. Drags and elevators should be watched closely for broken paddles and buckets so feed does not become backed up. When this happens the negative possibilities are endless. Proper maintenance procedures are crucial for maintaining a safe, well-working feedmill. Safety procedures should be followed strictly by the book. How a feedmill manages each steps control point will determine how well that feedmill will succeed in producing a timely throughput with a safe work environment. All of this information was comprised of nothing but pure memory. For this reason I am happy to have taken and completed this course. It has brought me new understanding and appreciation of the feedmill.