New 300,000-tpy feed mill near Columbia City, IN for Alliance Feed, LLC, joint venture between Farmers Grain & Feed Co. Inc. and Co Alliance cooperatives in Indiana.
Columbia City, IN — Alliance Feed, LLC isn’t very old, formed by two Indiana grain handlers in February 2018. But it’s already delivering feed to hog producers around northeast Indiana from a new 300,000-tpy feed mill outside of Columbia City, IN.
Alliance Feed is a joint venture between privately owned Farmers Grain & Feed Co. Inc. based in Columbia City and Co Alliance, a cooperative based in Avon, IN.
“We had the organization and infrastructure here in northeast Indiana, and they had experience developing feed mills around the state,” says Terry Shively, CEO, Farmers Grain & Feed. In terms of that infrastructure, Farmers Grain & Feed already had the space next to a 4-million-bushel grain operation three miles east of Columbia City on U.S. Highway 30.
Shively notes that the new all-steel mill has an identical footprint and similar layout to a mill Co Alliance built in 2012 at Reynolds, IN.
To build the new mill, the new venture awarded the contract to Manufacturing Solutions Inc., Humboldt, IA (515-368-3391), which already had a track record with Co Alliance. In addition to overseeing the project, Manufacturing Solutions also provided design engineering.
Work on the new feed mill began in April 2018, and production began in August 2019.
Corn is brought to the mill from the elevator via an overhead Hi Roller 5,000-bph enclosed belt conveyor. Once there, corn is stored in four Tom-Cin square bins holding a total of 353 tons. An additional 21 bins for a variety of dry ingredients hold a total average of 1,383 tons. Other storage in the mill includes four mash feed bins holding 145 tons and 20 loadout bins holding 500 tons.
The shell corn bins are located directly above a pair of RMS roller mills operating at a total of 56 tph. FM cleaned from the corn goes to a Bliss hammermill for screenings.
Ingredients are blended, then mixed in a 4-ton Scott Twin-Shaft Mixer. Mix time has been averaging 74 seconds, says Shively.
Liquids and white grease are added at the mixer from a set of liquid tanks supplied by Manufacturing Solutions. Also added at this point are microingredients from a 24-bin Sudenga system. Manufacturing Solutions built a six 2-ton tote bag system that feeds directly into the microingredient bins.
Mixed mash feed is run through a CPM feed cleaner before going to a CPM Model 7934-14 500-hp pellet mill operating at 50 tph. A 250-hp Cleaver-Brooks boiler supplies steam for the pelleting operation to a CPM steam conditioner mounted atop the pellet mill.
Pellets then continue to a Bliss counterflow cooler before going to the loadout bins.
WEM controls material flow at the mill from receiving all the way to the trucks sitting atop a Rice Lake scale where they are loaded with an Essmueller reversing drag shuttle unloading system. Alliance Feed operates a fleet of six tractor-trailers.
Mill control room where mill operations are under the control of a WEM Automation system.
Company Info, Alliance Feed, LLC
- Ed Zdrojewski, editor
Reprinted from Grain Journal November/December 2019 Issue
New All-Steel Feed Mill
