and meat prices and weather effects. By contrast, production of blends for ruminants has grown steadily from less than half a million tonnes to in excess of 1.2 million tonnes; from about 11% of total ruminant feed production 20 years ago, it now accounts for about a quarter. The rise of blends in the feed product mix within Carrs Billington has been even more marked than this national picture, with blends now accounting for 30% of feeds manufactured. Asked why this should be the case, Paul answers that it is down to the range and quality of blends available from the company, the knowledge of their salesforce and the geography in which the company operates, which is essentially the major grassland areas of the country. The location of the blends plants is important too; they need to be close to the customer, within 30 miles or so, if haulage costs are not to be prohibitive. So their positioning in densely populated livestock areas makes a lot of sense. As the growth in production of coarse mixes demonstrates, high


end products are sought after and clearly the farmer sees value for money in the results, in spite of the higher cost per tonne. Some customers are feeding pedigree beef and sheep which will sell at auction for tens of thousands of pounds, and they are prepared to pay a premium for a quality product. “Nutritional balance is what we sell,” says Paul, “not ingredients.” The best nutrients per kilo of feed with the best safety leading to the best returns for the genetics of the animals being fed and the target market, whether it is milk, meat or breeding stock. “The farmer doesn’t trade with us because he likes us. He trades with us because he is confident that our products will offer the nutritional balance and safety which can maximise his returns.” The key is to have salespeople who understand what it is the farmer is wanting to achieve. Too many salespeople tell the farmer what they should be doing rather than asking what they want to do. To this end, with the average age of the farmer customer being late 50s to early 60s, Paul advocates a salesforce having a similar age profile . Moreover he doesn’t believe that a significant level of online sales of feed will happen any time soon. Until recently, blends for part of the southern region had been


toll-manufactured at a plant some 20 miles from Stone. This caused some problems where customers wanted mixed orders of blends and compounds, and so that management team looked at the possibility of erecting a blends facility on site alongside the Stone mill. Planning approval was achieved and initial designs completed, but the ground conditions were such that the expense involved in levelling the site was prohibitive. So, the decision was taken to put this plan on to the backburner and look at other options. Nigel Hillyer was aware that, at Micklow Farm just two miles


from Stone mill, there was a large building being purpose-built as a bin-based blends and coarse mix plant. What is more, the owner was a long-term acquaintance. So Nigel made an enquiry which ultimately led to an agreement which would allow Carrs Billington to take over the building and use it to produce blends themselves. The building was empty with all the bins, mixing and conveying equipment having been removed, although the intake system remained in place. It wasn’t large enough to accommodate a typical floor-based blends operation.


PAGE 38 MARCH/APRIL 2018 FEED COMPOUNDER Sponsored by B2B Nutrition


However, it was tall and lent itself perfectly to be refitted to its original purpose and recommissioned as a bin-based system. And this is exactly what has now been realised, with the new blends and coarse mix production facility at a cost of £1.5 million at Micklow Farm going live in February. A bin-based system has many advantages and Nigel set about


designing one which enabled the company to utilise the raw materials required. He opted for 15 raw material bins, each with a nominal capacity of 50 tonnes. These are linked to two 1 tonne weighers which allow for a capacity of 30 tonnes per hour. Material is transferred using high-speed conveyors to a paddle mixer capable of mixing each 1 tonne batch in 15 seconds. Incorporated into the design are seven bays into which finished product can be conveyed, each holding up to 30 tonnes of product meaning over 200 tonnes for storage of finished product ready for collection at a later time. This allows for the most efficient utilisation of people, equipment and transport. However, finished product can also be conveyed directly into a waiting vehicle. The plant is capable of producing a batch every two minutes, in


a continuous process. Fully computerised under DSL control, the only human intervention being the addition of micro-ingredients by hand tipping, all feed produced by the plant is fully traceable by interrogating the data stored on the system. Two operators working on average ten hours per day will be on hand to oversee


the production, which will up to 35,000 tonnes per year with the bulk of this, unsurprisingly, being made between January and April. Flaked raw materials, which would be broken down if they were


conveyed and elevated mechanically, are put into a separate hopper and proportioned into the mix by a loss-in-weight system. Molasses, of which two different grades are used depending on the type of product being made, is also proportioned in by weight. Accurate adherence to recipes is one of the benefits of a bin-


based system, compared with a floor-based system which relies on an operator using a weighing shovel. Partly because of the inherent inaccuracy of the equipment, and partly because of human nature, there will always be variances from the target weight of each ingredient added to a batch in this kind of system. With the bin-based system in operation at Micklow, the company claims that the blends and coarse mixes produced will be the most accurately manufactured feeds in the


Left: The elevator has a dedicated monitoring system (inset) to ensure its safe operation


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