Facility Feature
Swine Feed Mill Startup

Crystal Valley Cooperative did something a little unusual prior to starting up production at its new feed mill in Trimont, MN (507-639-2031) at the end of September 2022. The cooperative held an open house for members around the end of August, when not everything was completed.

Once the crowds were gone, equipment testing and the early stages of feed production could proceed without interruption, says Bob Raue, vice president-feed. (Raue has worked 11 years for Ralston Purina, 29 years for Juergen’s Feed, and nine years at Crystal Valley, a total of 49 years in the feed business.)

Building a feed mill at Trimont was part of Crystal Valley’s master plan for growth. Its opening follows a major project that increased milling capacity of an existing feed mill at Vernon Center, MN, 40 blacktop miles to the east. (See the July/August 2021 issue of Grain Journal.)

The idea, Raue says, is that Vernon Center could handle swine producers to the east, and Trimont could handle accounts to the west. Crystal Valley’s feed division makes strictly swine feeds.

Trimont made a lot of sense as a site for the new feed mill, since the cooperative already had a 2.5-million-bushel grain elevator there. All of the corn handled at Trimont will go to the feed mill for grinding, Raue says.

Construction Project

Crystal Valley awarded the contract to build the slipform concrete mill to McCormick Construction Inc., Greenfield, MN. McCormick also had been the contractor and millwright on the upgrade at Vernon Center.

Groundbreaking on the 18-month project took place in March 2021, and everything proceeded on time. An open house handout says the actual slip for the mill took eight days around the clock. The mill and an adjacent 55,000-bushel corn tank consumed 3,600 cubic yards of concrete and 490 tons of rebar.

Raue explains that production startup will have a single nine-hour shift producing about 1,000 tpd or 280,000 tpy of swine feed. Plans call for the addition of a second shift early on, bringing total mill capacity to 560,000 tpy. The mill currently produces strictly bulk mash feeds, though there is space to add a pelleting line in the future if needed.

New Mill Description

The new mill stands 153 feet tall on a 80-foot-x-75-foot footprint. The structure includes 23 ingredient bins holding an average total of of 1,688 tons and 48 finished feed bins located above two loadout bays holding a total of 1,680 tons. All mill operations are under the control of a CPM Automation system.

Corn will be sent to the mill from the grain elevator via a Schlagel 357-tph overhead drag conveyor mounted on a 141-foot Warrior bridge. Once at the mill, corn is ground on one of three RMS Roller-Grinder triple-stack roller mills. Each of the 36-tph roller mills is dedicated to a specific grind – coarse, fine, and screen corn.

Other ingredients are received through a Rice Lake dump-through truck scale that feeds a Schlagel 250-tph leg. Hayes & Stolz distributors send ingredients to the correct storage bin in the mill tower.

Feeds will be mixed in a Scott 9-ton double-ribbon mixer at 135-tph for an average three minutes mixing time. Liquids are added at the mixer from a tank farm outside the building, and smaller additives come from eight tote hangars and a CPM 40-bin microingredient system.

Trucks are loaded in two loadout bays. Each bay is equipped with an Abel 9-ton high-speed weigh lorry under the control of CPM Automation.

The mill receives power from a new electrical substation constructed south of the mill by South Central Electric, a local utility serving Trimont.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

From September/October 2022 Grain Journal Issue

Crystal Valley Cooperative

Mankato, MN • 507-726-6455

Founded: 1927

Feed production: 500,000 tpy at two locations

Products: Full line of swine feeds

Number of feed members: 250

Number of feed employees: 40

Key personnel at Trimont:

• Bob Raue, vice president-feed

• Jim Harriman, feed operations manager

• Juan Marroquin, supervisor

• Ashley Gohr, administration

• Thomas Cunningham, operator

• Dave Fast, operator

• Riley Oeltjenbruns, receiving

• Josh Weber, warehouse

Supplier List

Automation ... CPM Automation

Bearing sensors ... 4B Components Ltd.

Bucket elevators ... Schlagel Inc.

Bulk weigh scale ... Abel Mfg. Co. Inc.

Catwalk ... Warrior Mfg. LLC

Civil contractor ... Beemer Companies

Cleaner ... CPM

Concrete construction ... McCormick Construction Inc.

Contractor ... McCormick Construction Inc.

Conveyors ... Schlagel Inc.

Distributors ... Hayes & Stolz Ind. Mfg. Co. Inc.

Dust collection system ... Schenck Process

Electrical contractor ... Knobelsdorff

Elevator buckets ... Tapco Inc.

Engineering ... VAA, LLC

Leg belting ... Applied Power Products/Continental

Level indicators ... BinMaster

Manlift ... LiftCo Manlift LLC

Microingredient system ... CPM

Millwright ... McCormick Construction Inc.

Mixer ... Scott Equipment Co.

Motion sensors ... 4B Components Ltd.

Motors ... Toshiba International

Roller mills ... RMS Roller-Grinder Inc.

Roof system ... NIJAC Roofing & Insulation

Speed reducers ... Dodge Industrial, Inc.

Square bins ... McCormick Construction Inc.

Tower support system ... Warrior Mfg. Inc.

Truck scale ... Rice Lake Weighing Systems

Weigh lorry ... Abel USA