Koch Foods Poultry Feed Mill
This new facility constructed for Koch Foods has many design similarities to the feed mill in Hope Hull, Alabama, which Younglove constructed in two phases in 2016 and 2018. The new feed mill can receive unit trains of grain at 40,000 bushels per hour and trucks for ingredients at 10,000 bushels per hour. The grain storage consists of two 70-foot-diameter silos and one 35-foot-diameter silo, holding nearly 1 million bushels of grain. The 35-foot-diameter silo is equipped with an elevated cone hopper to allow space for hammermills beneath it. The 70-foot-diameter silos can feed directly into the grinders or be reclaimed to the 35-foot-diameter silo through above-grade tunnels.
The feed mill structure has 24 bins to supply ingredients to the 12-ton batching system. It also has six mixed feed bins (two future) which supply the two current and one future 65-ton-per-hour pelleting lines housed in an attached pelleting tower. Both lines utilize counterflow coolers. After cooling, finished feed is transferred to a separate loadout structure. The loadout utilizes a dual-lane driveway with a total of 24 bins. Feed is weighed and loaded in trucks through multiple overhead 4-ton stationary scale hoppers.
Additional features include an enclosed tank farm with nine tank locations for liquid storage, attached warehouse and maintenance shop, a freight elevator to the roof level in the feed mill, two 75 hp air compressors, and two 500 hp natural gas boilers. All structures on this project were constructed of concrete. The feed mill, loadout, and silos were constructed using the slipform method, and the ancillary buildings were constructed of concrete tilt panels that were cast on site.
Cleanliness and ease of maintenance were driving factors for other mill features. Boxed structural beams, structural tubes, and sheets of cellular decking were used to minimize dust ledges. The interior walls were painted with a four-coat system that dries to a smooth tile-like finish to allow for easier cleaning. All bucket elevator head platforms can be accessed from stairs instead of ladders.