E2-Coin Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 18, 2003 What Happens At The Mill? MICHELLE KUNJAPPU Sections Staff LEBANON (Lebanon Co.) Although grain is an every day part of agriculture, few stop to think about the process that helps to make feed ready for the feedbunk. At Mark Hershey Farms, Inc., a mill that has been in operation since 1956, that pro cess is part of day-to-day busi ness. The mill offers custom feeds and pellets, steam flaked and/or ground grains, and grain drying and storage. Donald Smith weighs out 250 grams of corn to measure the moisture content. Newly-flaked corn, still hot, comes out of the auger. Mike Meyer, mill supervisor, oversees the corn grinding process. According to website in formation at www.markher sheyfarms.com, Mark C. Her shey the founder of the mill was a pioneer in perfecting the process of steam cooking whole soybeans that could then be flaked/rolled (called “soyflakes”), and ground. The steam cooked and flaked soybean is sought after by customers since the soyf lake retains nutrients (35 per cent protein) efficiently. Addi tionally, valuable fat is not burned off in the steam cook ing and rolling process. Flaked grain is also in de mand since they will mix with pellets, and stay mixed, so the entire ration is more appetiz ing to livestock, according to David Bates, controller. The mill also steam cooks and flakes or rolls com, barley, and oats. Customers can purchase steam flaked/rolled soybeans, com, barley, and oats in bulk or bags. Donald Smith, mill cooker, steam flakes the grain that comes from local farmers, “as the supply holds up,” said Smith. “We buy all the local that we can, depending on the year.” Steam rolling, according to Smith, allows the animal to receive more total digestible nutrients (TDN). “The com is softer and easi er to digest. It must be steamed to soften it or it won’t roll it would bounce other wise,” said Bates. The com is stored in bins or dumped in by trucks, when it is cleaned by being shaken through a large screen. Every truckload is sampled for mois ture content. Smith prefers the com to be at 14-14.5 percent moisture, “because if it’s too dry, it breaks up more,” he said. “The best com for rolling is crib dry.” At the mill, “we only fill the bins later in the year, such as November, when the moisture gets down to about 20 per cent,” he said. However, “new varieties tend to get dry faster, so we can put the com in the bins sooner.” Corn is unloaded into this large screen to remove any debris. The moisture content re mains consistent throughout the steaming and flaking pro cess “it comes out with nearly the same reading,” said Smith. After being unloaded and moisture-tested, the com then comes down a pipe, goes into an elevator, and is moved into the steam cooker. An auger moves it through the steaming process where it moves through 212 degrees of pure steam for 10-12 minutes. Next, the com goes through two 18-inch rollers, applying 1,500 pounds of pressure to flake the kernels. “Every kernel should be broken,” said Smith. “That makes the nutrients more available.” The 60- and 30- horsepower boilers generate the steam. “From the time I start the machine” until the time the steam-flaked com comes out and begins cooling, 25 minutes have elapsed. According to the Mark Her shey Farms Website, produc ers are finding that finer ground com offers easier di gestion for livestock, so the grinding process is also impor tant at the mill. Equipment on the property also has the ability to coarse grind com, which is used in poultry feeds. Mike Meyer, mill supervi sor, explained the com grind ing process. Smith displays rolled corn. When the com first comes off the truck, it is moisture tested. Approximately 15 percent of the com that the mill grinds is mixed into feed, with 85-100 percent fine ground for bulk sales, said Meyer. For the flaked com, the breakdown is 50/50 put into feeds and sold in bulk. According to Meyer, the com is gravity fed into the hammer mill, then ground through a 3/32-inch or a 5/ 32-inch screen. The screen sizes are differ ent for soybeans and soyf lakes, explained Meyer. The size of the screens de pends on how fine the custom er wants the product. General ly for livestock, customers prefer a fine-ground com so the nutrients are more readily utilized. The coarse-ground com is used in poultry feeds. After the com goes through the hammer mill, an auger takes it out and dumps it into an elevator that distributes it into bins. “I prefer if the corn is 14 (percent moisture) or under to grind,” said Meyer. “Fifteen is borderline. It will mold.” Higher moisture gives the com a shorter shelf life, as far as the length of time in the bin. More than half of the cus- tomers use ground corn, according to Meyer.
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