Posted July 10, 2014
A new fish feed mill is opening in Indiana that will utilize soybeans to feed the aquaculture industry across the Midwest, according to an Agri-News article available here. The Star Press also published an article available hereand the Fish Site here.
The new Bell Farms feed mill in Albany will have the capacity to produce two million pounds of feed per month with soybean meal as a quality ingredient in most feeds.
“We congratulate Bell Farms in their commitment to producing sustainable, soy-based feeds here in Indiana,” said David Lowe, president of Indiana Soybean Alliance, the state’s soybean checkoff organization. “We believe a feed mill serving the aquaculture industry located within our state will not only benefit our state’s aquaculture producers by having a local source for quality feeds, but also our soybean farmers as it is another in-state market for our crop.”
The vertically integrated feed mill will include a 1000 metric ton fish farm, in-house processing facility, and production of products generated from capture and cultivation of byproducts, according to the Fish Site.
“A long time dream has been realized here today. I am very proud of our team, our partners and our community for working together to make this dream a reality and take this critical step toward providing a solution to our coming food deficit.” said Norman McCowan, president & CEO of Bell Aquaculture LLC.
Steven Craig, a nutritional biochemist and former associate professor at Virginia Tech, is the director of feed mill, and says that the process is similar to that of “dog food or Cocoa Puffs cereal,” according to the Star Press.
It consists of mixing ingredients, such as soybean meal and animal byproducts, grinding, extruding, drying, cooling, screening, oiling the pellets with fish oil, and bagging.
The feed will also be tailored to the nutritional, biological, and physiological needs of specific species at key points in the life cycle of the fish, according to the Fish Site.
For more information on aquaculture, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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