Facility Feature
ADM Animal Nutrition Relocates Feed Operations Into Single Concrete Mill

Quincy, IL - Animal feed has been manufactured on North 30th Street in Quincy, IL since the 1920s. Since 1998, when Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) purchased Moorman’s Manufacturing Co., ADM has been the owner and operator of the complex. Today, Quincy is the North American distribution hub for ADM Animal Nutrition.

With nearly a century of growth on the site, feed milling was scattered over several sites on either side of 30th Street. In January 2017, the division began work on a project to consolidate Quincy commercial feed manufacturing into a single slipform concrete structure on the east side of the street. The new $42 million mill was entering startup in mid-May 2019.

Ryan Goldie, ADM Animal Nutrition director of manufacturing-North America, who came to the company in 2009 from Cargill, says the feed division embarked on its project for three main reasons:

• Feed safety. Consolidating operations limits the number of critical control points that must be monitored continually for compliance under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Perhaps more importantly, the new mill was designed to house three side-by-side manufacturing lines: medicated complete feeds, non-medicated complete feeds, and mineral products. The layout is designed so that it is impossible for the medicated and non-medicated lines to cross-contaminate.
• Human safety. OSHA compliance is easier in a single building. Also benefiting from a single mill structure – machinery maintenance and access to personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Milling efficiency. Again, everything is in one place. A single towering structure can take advantage of gravity to save energy costs.

ADM utilizes Younglove Construction LLC for project

ADM selected Younglove Construction L.L.C., Sioux City, IA (712-277-3906), as design-build contractor on the project. Goldie says the company has favored the slipform concrete approach to mill construction embodied by contractors such as Younglove in recent years.

In addition to Younglove, some of the engineering work was handled by Ebmeier Engineering, Glenwood, IA (712-527-9202), and UCI Engineering, Quincy, IL (217-221-4634). Knobelsdorff Electric Inc., Goodhue, MN (651-923-4970), served as electrical contractor.

To make room for the new feed mill, workers demolished two other structures, a fertilizer storage building and a limestone processing plant, neither one in use.

The city of Quincy did its share in developing the mill providing tax relief and zoning adjustments. ADM is one of Quincy’s largest employers with about 500 employees citywide.

The slipform concrete structure stands on a 100-x-100-foot footprint and is roughly 160 feet tall. The slip includes 92 separate square bins, 40 of which are dedicated to ingredients averaging a total of 2,800 tons.

Feed formulations and plant operations are under the control of a Beta Raven automation system.

Prior to going into ingredient bin storage, corn is ground on a Bliss 125-hp hammermill at approximately 20 tph.

Feeds are mixed in a pair of Scott 4-ton twin-ribbon mixers, again, to prevent cross-contamination between medicated and non-medicated feeds, and mineral mixes and specialized tub feeds are blended on a Scott 6-ton mixer, all at roughly 160 tph for complete feeds. Mix times average around 90 seconds. Liquid ingredients can be added at this point, and smaller-quantity ingredients are added from five APEC 12-bin microsystems and six tote bin scales.

Feeds for pelleting go to three Sprout Andritz pellet mills operated at 15-20 tph. Goldie notes that this specific model is designed for swift die changes, a necessity in a plant that manufactures over 1,200 products. “We’ve already tried this in our plant in Columbus, NE with great success,” he says.

From there, pellets go to a pair of Bliss counterflow coolers. Sprout Andritz crumblers are available as needed.

A third Scott mixer, this one with 6-ton batches, is used for mineral mixes and specialized tub feeds.

Feed is loaded onto trucks through separate weigh lorries to maintain feed separation. (The Quincy mill utilizes third-party truckers.) Other biosecurity measures include requiring drivers to clean trucks between farm visits and zero pallet returns.