Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Manufacturing research feeds



I had a fun and productive day yesterday with Kent Lanter and Steve Furst at our Mulberry horse feed mill in central Florida. Kent and I traveled there to oversee the manufacturing of a new feed that is being shipped out for a large research project. Kent is our "mad scientist" so to speak that helps us on the process research side and to figure out how all the different ingredients us nutritionists want to put in a feed will actually end up as something a horse will eat! Steve is the plant manager with a huge amount of experience and always runs a great mill with a crew that is willing to work with us on new feeds and designs.


I always like spending time in our mills and it makes me proud to see how things are running smoothly- from ingredient testing, to mixing, pelleting, blending, packing, etc. Its nice to work with all our dedicated employees that are ensuring the feed is made correctly and with our high quality standards.


We made three different rations yesterday, 30 tons of feed in all that is now enroute to its research location. I wish I could tell you what it was, but of course, that is top secret while we are in the development phase. I can tell you this- if this product performs as expected, it won't hit the market until 2012 at the earliest! It takes time to do good research and develop new and innovative products that are good for the horse. A lot of formulating, testing, retesting, field trials and more.


So enjoy the pics of our Mulberry mill at sunrise and all the feed ready to load on the trucks! That's all you're getting for now....


And I have to give a shout out to Dr. Kelly Vineyard. This is actually a research project that she has been working on- and she was not able to make it to the mill because she is officially on maternity leave! Baby Owen Robert Vineyard was born last Tuesday, April 5th and the whole family is doing very well.


Have a great day!

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