ISU Breaks Ground On Feed and Grain Complex

AAI CEO Joel Brinkmeyer and AAI Foundation Representative and AAI Executive Committee member José Laracuente attended the Iowa State University groundbreaking event on Friday, September 13, 2019, in Ames. This event marks the construction of a $21.2 million Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex.

Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex will provide a state-of-the-art, hands-on training, teaching, research, and extension venue for faculty, staff, students, and external partners and stakeholders. The complex supports the understanding of best practices in feed mill and grain sciences. While modeling the most up-to-date technologies and methods to link grain crops with their processing and uses, storage and handling, animal well-being and health, food safety, and environmental standards. The complex’s groundbreaking was a historic event for Iowa’s grain and feed industry.

The Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex project is being 100% funded by private donations, led by

AAI played an integral role in determining the need and encouraging the development of the complex by surveying AAI’s membership engaged in the feed business in 2014. The survey results showed an overwhelming need for such a complex to provide the latest technology in equipment needs. Responses also indicated a need for training industry professionals to manage Iowa’s important feed mills.

“The feed, grain, and livestock sectors are key to the success of agriculture in Iowa,” said Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen. “As a top land-grant university, Iowa State is at the forefront of critical and cutting-edge research, education and extension programs that support these important sectors. The Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Sciences Complex will provide the space, facilities, and technology to strengthen our ability to carry out our mission.”

“The Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex will be a world-class, state-of-the-art facility used by faculty and staff to prepare students, train industry professionals and conduct impactful research that will make Iowa State a recognized leader in support of the feed industry,” said Daniel J. Robinson, holder of the Endowed Dean’s Chair in ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in the release.

The AAI board and committees have been kept up to date on the development and process of the facility by Iowa State leadership, including Dr. Charles Hurburgh, Dr. Dirk Meyer, Dr. Jay Harmon, Dr. John Lawrence, and most recently by Dean of the College of Agriculture Dan Robison.

The mill will have a capacity of approximately 20,000 tons of feed per year to meet needs of ISU classes, tours, short courses, research diets, internships, small batches and rations for livestock and poultry. Completion of the complex is expected during the summer of 2021

###