A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Juna 25, 1994
Purina Celebrates 100th Year, Holds Open House
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.) The red and white
checkerboard-painted water tower
and signs at the Qtmp Hill Purina
Mills Inc. facility have been a
landmark for years, visible from
Rt. 11, south of Camp Hill proper.
It’s also been a landmark busi
ness since opening in the early
19505.
This week, Thursday through
today, was an open house celebra
tion with hundreds of people
attending, touring the mill and vis
iting with company representa
tives, dressed in casual shirts that
were designed especially to mark
the 100th anniversary of Purina
Mills Inc., in St. Louis, Mo.
Though ownership of the com
pany changed this year with a
takeover buyout by the Sterling
Group.
With input from Sterling, man
agement and employees now own
35 percent of the company.
But the celebration this week at
Camp Hill was a display of the ver
satility and agressiveness of the
company to be the dependable feed
company for everyone.
In the rear of the Purina head
quarters building for the northeast
United States, in the parking lot in
front of the mill, tents were
erected, with bags of various types
of Purina feeds used to weight the
tent poles and to provide an attrac
tive display. Straw bales set in
rows and food was offered to those
in attendance.
Tours of the facility went from
start to finish, explaining the role
of the company’s 1,200 acre
research farm in Gray Summit,
Mo., that was started in 1926.
Research there has been ongo
ing and has helped the company
develop complete nutritional feeds
for almost every animal need.
In the past several years and
within the past year and a half, a
number of new feeds have been
introduced, especially Prepare, a
pellet feed for up close dry cows;
another for heifers called Corner
stone; a horse feed made for the
palatability and nutritional needs
of geriatric horses; another for rac
This machine, one of several In the automated Purina
Mills Inc. facility at Camp Hill, is bagging a feed while a
machine operator performs his job which Includes
Inspecting the product and monitoring equipment mea
suring devices.
MILK.
IT DOES A
BODY GOOD.
ing horses: another for pleasure
horses; etc.
There are elephant feeds, monk
ey feeds, wild bird feeds, commer
cial poultry, turykey, layers,
poulets, swine, cats, etc.
At the Camp Hill mill, about
900 tons of product, bagged and
can be manufactured daily with
three shifts working. At that plant,
they make about 200 different
types of feeds.
And quality control is carefully
monitored. Each worker on line
actually does a quality control
inspection and signs off before the
product is moved to the next phase.
In 1985, with an expansion of
the 10-acre Camp Hill facility, the
current quality control program
had been put into place.
And it keeps modernizing and
gaining in accuracy and efficiency.
Computers linked directly to the
home office in SL Louis give nutri
tional formulas that change slight
ly with each tested variance in
ingredients.
And ingredients, all of them,
every shipment, are tested and
approved before the shipment can
be unloaded.
Testing of fat quality is impor
tant to ensuring the palatability of
the product and handling. Fats can
go rancid quickly, they can melt.
About 60 percent or so of the
ingredients come by railcar; the
rest by truck.
The product goes out of the
facility by pickup truck and by
tractor-trailer and serves and area
from Virginia to Maine.
Of the 30 perople who work the
mill, 21 are in production, five in
maintenance and four drive truck.
There are five people in custom
er service and five in
administration.
The regional headquarters
employs 40 people.
Being located in the heart of ani
mal raising country, with access to
Rt 11 and major interstates, and
the railhead, it can be expected that
the plant at Camp Hill should con
tinue to be a landmark for some
time to come.
Balloons adorn the entrance to the Purina Mills, Inc. Harrisburg plant In Camp Hill.
The company held an open house for three days this week offering tours of the plant
and talks with company employees to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Purina.
Similar celebrations are to be held across the nation.
A Purina employee discusses the laboratory testing techniques utilized by Purina
Mills Inc. at the Harrisburg plant.
Paul Hann, right, gives a tour of the Purina Mills, Inc. Harrisburg plant. Here, stand
ing In front of pallets of turkey feed, he discusses the variety of feeds, the manufactur
ing process and considerations taken In making the beat product they can.