River Valley Cooperative to build fifth feedmill

Construction of River Valley Cooperative's feedmill at Sunbury, Iowa is now underway on the new US$5.5 million state-of-the-art feedmill that will be completed by spring of 2011.

 

River Valley Cooperative already had a presence in Sunbury, Iowa since it acquired the former Farmer's Grain and Lumber.

 

River Valley, headquartered in Davenport, currently produces feed at four mills in Iowa and Illinois. Regional manager Chad Petersen said the Sunbury facility will allow River Valley to consolidate some of its outdated facilities and provide for more efficiencies and higher capacities.

 

With the new feedmill design, River Valley will be able to manufacture 60 tonnes of feed per hour. Annually, it will produce more than 225,000 tonnes and will have the capability of more than 340,000 tonnes.

 

The new operation will employ four full-time production employees and as many as 15 feed delivery employees. Initially, the plant will run two eight-hour shifts. At full capacity, a third shift would be added.

 

The co-op estimates an average of 40 semi-loads of complete feed will be manufactured and delivered daily to its members.

 

The process will also use about 6.7 million bushels (1.7 million tonnes) of corn annually, initially from its members, and up to 8.5 million bushels (2.15 million tonnes) at full capacity.