Lose of Feed Mills

BANDITFARMER · Nov 2, 2014

Hear in SW Ohio we are loosing feed mills, It seams the EPA rules are shutting them down. 2 years ago the closest mill stopped buying grain because OSHA required him to buy about $150000 worth of new safety equipment for the pit and bin area. To much for a small mill so he stopped buying grain. 2 months ago I got a letter from him and he is no longer going to grind feed but he will be selling pre bagged feeds because of EPA regulations.

I know a guy that owns a mill in town who last year spent over $100,000 to comply with EPA regulation for just the grain unloading pit area. All enclosed with the filter system to control the dust. Now they want the same thing for the mill area, He dose not know if he can afford to do this and keep the mill going. He said they want him to keep and test samples of feed for every batch he grinds. I cant even think of how many 200 to 500lbs he grinds a day and now they want testing too! Ware dose it end? How do they expect small mills to stay in open with all these regulations? I guess the big mills will be making more money and the small mills will close with the lose of jobs and custom feed blends. It really hard to believe how many mills have closed in the last 5 years. Now everyone goes TSC or other box stores to buy feed and dog foods. We are losing a big part of the American farm life. Bandit

JD Seller · Nov 2, 2014

I don't know of any feed mills that grind less than 2-3 tons around here anymore. Most do truck load size batches.

As for the little grinding jobs the mills are losing their butts on them anyway. They would need more than the feed is worth to stay ahead with just grinding 500-1000 lbs. batches. Truthfully the commercial prepared feed would make him more money per bag and way less hassle.

As far as feed sample, that has been a rule/law here in Iowa for years. Most of those type of laws are ran by each state's Department of Agriculture. They randomly check some samples to see that the feed has the correct ingredients. It would be real easy for a mill to "short" a fellow on protein or costly minerals.

Have you ever seen a bag of fed with a small hole covered up with a small tape with the Department of Agriculture on it??? I see is every now and then.

Another thing that is killing the smaller mills is that they many times "carry" their own accounts. So they tend to draw the local guys that are not current with the larger feed suppliers. I know of two local mills that closed with over a half million of bad accounts on the books.

Feed turns to shXX a few days after delivery. LOL not much to repo. LMAO

Smaller mills also don't get the serious livestock farmers anymore. I buy more than some of the small mills do. I take semi loads of mineral and protein direct from the manufacture. On 18% pellets I buy them for $50 a ton less than the local mill sells them for. On a 25 ton load that is $1250 into my pockets.<p

NY 986 · Nov 2, 2014

There are far fewer mills than in the days of the 1970's when 50 to 100 cow dairies could be found all over the place. I don't think anybody does 500 to 1000 pound batches but rather finds a mix in their line that is close to what is asked for. For a while you heard about a few guys going together and buying their own grinder for the small dairies but usually that came to an end when nobody could agree when to use it or how the repairs would be divided up.

notjustair · Nov 2, 2014

With more machinery, more folks are doing their own. There's no way I could make any decent money if I had to buy feed for my hog operation. I still go to Baldwin feed, but only to pick up the bagged mineral to mix into my own grinder. I don't do a lot - two ton at a time. I just do it fairly frequently. It seems to keep the mice down if there's a constant rotation. With margins as close as they are I can't add to the expense. I feel pretty good now as I have cheap corn stuffed everywhere I can store it.

Billy Shafer · Nov 2, 2014

Have a feed mill in the next town over. Was going to expand until the EPA and OSHA got involved. Was going to add almost a million dollars to his plans.So now he has canceled the project and the new jobs.

UAFitter · Nov 2, 2014

We're in that boat as small livestock producers ourselves. Has anyone ever seen a small vertical mixer with an electric motor? I've got a friend with one that he bought at an elevator auction that had been used for mixing grass seed and it's the berries. Mixes about 500# at a time. I keep corn and oats here and have a mill and a crisper, if I could find a mixer that would be ideal. JDSeller, if you ever see one, let me know, I'm not too far from you. And a very public thank you to JDSeller as well for the chain links. I've used several of them and they've been very handy!

UAFitter · Nov 2, 2014

Crimper, that is.

Donald Lehman · Nov 2, 2014

The days of a farmer taking oats to the mill and having his own feed ground are long gone. The closet mill is now 40 miles away. There is one guy closer who still sells his own mixes, but the reports I hear is that they don't really perform that well.

Most of the area is dairy farming and the vast majority of them feed TMR mixes and buy ingredients in semi loads. Most of the smaller guys are buying TMR from the bigger farmers. Not much business for the feed mills anymore.

Hay hay hay · Nov 2, 2014

Easy to blame the Govt. Who was to blame for the loss of Grocery stores, car dealerships, clothing stores, drug stores and movie theatres in all the small towns,,,,,changing life styles.

IanC · Nov 2, 2014

Call F.C.Mason in St. Johns MI. They own and manufacture Burton horizontal mixers. Been around since the 30's, and still make small units. We had both horizontal and vertical mixers at the elevator I worked at and I think the horizontal unit mixed better if the feed was "wet" (molasas, etc.).

RodinNS · Nov 2, 2014

Feed milling is a declining business any way you look at it. The dairy sector has largely shifted it's needs from a prepared ration to a need for concentrate pellets or mineral mixes... and an on farm TMR is mixed to include their own grains or at least commodity purchased grain. Likewise with feedlots. Large poultry and hog operations generally manufacture their own feed.
Then factor in that a modern mill is an 8-10 million proposition.... it's all about tonnage. Trucking is cheaper than the capital to build a modern mill so feed manufacturing is centralized and trucked out from there.
That's the way it's been here for 40 years.
The only thing that's changing here is that the fit will survive and the rest will go broke.

Rod

LonM · Nov 2, 2014

Since when did EPA start regulating Occupational Safety and Hazards? Sounds like a rumor mill rather than a feed mill...I understand OSHA upgrades are costly, but if a mill can't take any better care of their employees than that, in my opinion, they probably shouldn't be operating. My two cents. LonM, former feed mill worker.

Buzzman72 · Nov 2, 2014

Don't confuse 'em with facts. Let 'em stay in their comfort zone believing those myths. The truth only upsets them, and still doesn't alter their perception of reality.

ss55 · Nov 2, 2014

Did the guy have enough sales to to keep the feed mill in business? A 200 pounds batch of feed is only about 4 bushels, 500 pounds is about ten bushels.

Back in the late 1960's many small livestock farmers already owned grinder mixers that made 2 tons/90 bushels or more per batch. Many farmers believed feed delivery trucks were not properly cleaned between deliveries, so they could spread diseases from farm to farm (cholera and pseudorabies spelling?).

David G · Nov 2, 2014

I am staying out of it, you are doing fine.

PJH · Nov 2, 2014

Our local mill closed a couple of years ago, but it didn't have anything to do with the government. The heydays for feed grinding was back when there were hogs on every farm. You'd hear that grinder whining nearly all day long. There hasn't been a hog around here since the mid eighties. Now all of the real livestock men have their own storage bins and grinder/mixers, and the mill was left with a bunch of us little guys. My feed buggy holds a ton and a half of ground feed, but there were lots of 500 pound grinds for them, and then most customers wanted it bagged (open top) by hand. They loved it when I pulled in once a week wanting 3000 pounds of loose feed augered right in my buggy. Now I need maybe three loads a year. They also saved samples of each grind, but said it was for their own protection and not a mandate from anyone. The kid that weighed, ground, mixed, sacked the feed was minimum wage, and it still wasn't a money maker. The next mill in operation is another ten miles farther from here, and when (not if) it closes it will be another 15 miles to the last one in operation, providing it outlasts number two. I'm 65 years old and not going to rush out and buy storage and grinding equipment for my small cattle herd. When corn got outrageously high, I quit feeding corn. I'll do it again when the time comes.

VicS · Nov 2, 2014

There is just one left, here in South East Illinois. It is about 25 miles from me. Most small farmers buy prepared feed. The biggest hog feeders get their feed from a mega-mill about 75 miles away. Every thing is bigger and better. Vic

PJH · Nov 2, 2014

Nashville, Illinois?

Traditional Farmer · Nov 3, 2014

Regulation typically runs the small businesses with a slim profit margin out of business that's why big business supports more regulation lots of time it reduces competition.

oldtanker · Nov 3, 2014

I do know that the dying off of small towns started way back in the late 70's early 80's. K Mart, Wal Mart changing farming practices and the small farm dying off are in part to blame. With farming self owned grinders of different types helped kill off smaller elevators. I don't know of anyone farming who doesn't have a grinder mixer or TMR. It's an inconvenient truth that sometimes we have to go farther to get what we need. We had a JD dealer 8 miles away. Now it's 25. We had a great AGCO dealer but it's gone replaced by a guy more interested in selling something new rather than parts or services to keep something going a mere 12 miles away. Now decent support is 50 miles. Times change. I remember in the early 70's when we first moved onto the farm. local guys were all mad. IH was in the process of shutting down the small dealers. Guys had to go further for parts and service. One guy I worked for in 73 switched over to Deer. Everything! All by 75. Only to have the small Deer dealer close sometime between 76 and 78. The big thing that affects all tax paying citizens is that it killed never to be replaced jobs! So did the mega farms and mega sized equipment of today. Life moves on.

Rick

mkirsch · Nov 3, 2014

(quoted from post at 05:34:41 11/03/14) Regulation typically runs the small businesses with a slim profit margin out of business that's why big business supports more regulation lots of time it reduces competition.

That doesn't make sense:

1. The small guy is not "competition" to these big corporations.
2. The regulations hurt the big corporations' bottom lines too, and they're all about the bottom line.
3. The big corporations are the reason we need these regulations.

If anything the big corporations should be AGAINST more regulation. They should be fighting it tooth and nail because it costs them profits.

RodinNS · Nov 3, 2014

Sorry.... but I've got to agree with him on that point... larger businesses often do support that type of regulation when they see it as a benefit to themselves... in that it can put pressure on some of these smaller outfits to fold. While more regulation doesn't help anyone's bottom line in and of itself... it makes a lot less impact on the larger operation than the small operation... and if that tips the scale to knock a few off, then the increased business the rest receive tends to make up the difference. I've watched this happen in the dairy industry here as well as trucking... they bring in more food safety regulations or just general safety regulations that are more easily coped with by big operations, nobody dare criticize it because it's about 'safety'... and eventually the little guy loses because they can't afford the time or the expense to keep up with the paperwork even though it didn't make anything 'safer'.
All of that said... I still don't see the big issue with feed mills. What the OP speaks of is nothing new around here. It's been that way for as long as I can remember. Old mills are getting shut down here by the fire marshall's because of dust. That's the main reason for the dust recovery systems... keeping the place clean. Feed mills are KNOWN to explode and burn due to dust accumulation... so I don't see dust recovery as a bad thing. They just run it back through the pellet mill anyway.

Rod

DaninKansas · Nov 3, 2014

The EPA regulates dust. It's not an OSHA issue for work place safety but a pollution issue.

While the EPA has "agreed" not to enforce regulations on farmers about dust - don't think they back off farm industries.

DaninKansas · Nov 3, 2014

You might want to adjust that condescending attitude. The EPA is regulating dust at elevators as part of the Clean Air Act.

http://agfax.com/2014/07/11/epa-seeks-lower-grain-elevator-dust-emissions-dtn/

EPA provided cost estimates on the proposed grain elevator rule for both existing and new facilities that come into operation in the next five years. The proposal said 88 grain elevators that included 221 “affected facilities” are projected to be subject to the standards in the next five years, “because they will construct, reconstruct or modify an affected facility.” EPA put up-front capital costs for all 221 facilities at about $1.1 million. Annual compliance costs were put at $1.2 million, plus yearly recordkeeping and reporting costs estimated at $83,000 for those facilities.

The only issue is what facilities need to be up graded. Some that are only filled once and emptied once a year are trying to be excempted from the dust collecting equipment (might be extended to o nthe farm bins) that can costs thousands. Others that are in constant use are already making the upgrades.

INCase · Nov 3, 2014

my uncle used to have a portable mill (mounted on truck) that stopped by on a regular basis and did his feed grinding. He never thought is was worth the time to buy a grinder and do his own when he could spend that time making good hay or whatever.

around here the amish keep the small mills in business (shoot, most are Amish owned).

ss55 · Nov 3, 2014

Mkirsch,
#3 is very true! Sooner or later most companies will (mistakenly?) hire a manager who will do just about anything he thinks he might get away with.

DLMKA · Nov 3, 2014

(quoted from post at 09:28:55 11/03/14)

(quoted from post at 05:34:41 11/03/14) Regulation typically runs the small businesses with a slim profit margin out of business that's why big business supports more regulation lots of time it reduces competition.

Click to expand...

That doesn't make sense:

1. The small guy is not "competition" to these big corporations.
2. The regulations hurt the big corporations' bottom lines too, and they're all about the bottom line.
3. The big corporations are the reason we need these regulations.

If anything the big corporations should be AGAINST more regulation. They should be fighting it tooth and nail because it costs them profits.

I think you have big business that has very high insurance costs. Insurance guys come in and request or require changes get made for safety which helps keep insurance premiums lower and reduces claim payouts in the part of insurance. Big business lobbies for across the board regulations to keep everyone on the same footing. Complying with regulations is a smaller percentage of operating budget for big business and drives the smaller operators out which ultimately either get boarded up or gobbled up by big business.

I'm just getting started with raising some livestock after moving to the country this summer. My very first equipment purchase was a mixer mill. It's an older OMC 95 but fully functional and in good shape. I realized before I even started that you can't come out ahead raising pigs or chickens on bagged feed if you wanted your final product to be reasonably priced so anyone can afford it. I milled a ton of 15% CP feed this weekend for about half of what bagged feed would have cost me.

Lose of Feed Mills

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