Feed for Rotisserie Chickens
Poultry Processing Complex Includes New Elevator and Feed Mill
One of the most popular items in any supermarket are rotisserie chickens, whole roasted chickens under a heating element, ready to be served as a family dinner entree or to be shredded as a pre-cooked ingredient in a variety of recipes. Long before they get to the supermarket, however, those are live birds that need to be fed. That’s why Lincoln Premium Poultry included a high-capacity slipform concrete feed mill and adjacent grain elevator as part of its poultry processing complex at the south end of Fremont, NE.
The mill, rated eventually to process 15,000 tpw of chicken feed products, supplies that feed to chicken producers throughout eastern Nebraska and portions of western Iowa. All of those birds are processed in Fremont exclusively for Costco stores. The mill produced its first loads of feed in August 2019. It currently is producing about 7,000 tpw as it slowly ramps up production as needed, says Mill Manager Brent Brinegar, who came to Fremont in August 2018 from a Cargill facility in Council Bluffs, IA, while the new mill was already under construction. “At the time, the concrete shell was already up, and the mill was awaiting the start of equipment installation,” he says.
Before construction began earlier in 2018. Grain Elevator Younglove constructed a 408,000- bushel grain elevator consisting of four 102,000-bushel slipform concrete tanks standing 35 feet in diameter and 135 feet tall. The tanks have steel cone bottom hoppers, eliminating the need to enter the tanks for cleanout. Receiving is done through a pair of 15,000-bph Warrior legs, with a third leg serving the feed mill structure dedicated to soft stocks. The legs are equipped with 18x8 Maxi-Lift Tiger-Tuff buckets mounted on 20-inch belts. These deposit grain into the elevator tanks or onto a 15,000-bph Warrior overhead drag conveyor running to the feed mill through a series of IDFI two-way diverter valves. Mill Operations The feed mill is housed in a 175foot slipform concrete structure on a 75-x-100-foot footprint. All mill operations are under the control of a CPM Beta Raven automation system.
The mill structure includes 21 ingredient square bins holding approximately 2,500 tons total. It also includes four mash feed bins holding a total of 397 tons feeding the pelleting systems, plus 22 finished feed bins holding 3,364 tons, all of which are tied to the weigh lorry truck loading operation. Corn as a feed ingredient is ground on a pair of 350-hp Roskamp Champion hammermills rated at 56-130 tph or a 100-hp Roskamp Champion roller mill rated at 40 tph. Corn is ground for all broiler diets, while coarse rolled corn is utilized for breeder diets. Feed ingredients are mixed in a Scott 10-ton dual-shaft mixer. In addition to the main ingredient bins, minor ingredients are added through a six-tote system plus a 20-bin CPM Beta Raven microingredient system. Liquids added at the mixer include fats, choline, lysine, methionine, and zinmet. The mixer is rated at 180 tph. The average mix time of three minutes still is being tweaked.
Mash feed intended for pelleting goes to a pair of CPM 70-tph pellet mills. Steam is supplied through overhead steam conditioners by a pair of 400-hp Cleaver Brooks boilers. Post-pellet fat and liquid enzyme application is handled by a pair of APEC liquid application systems. Pellets are cooled in a pair of Bliss counterflow pellet coolers at a maximum 75 tph. Each pellet line is equipped with a CPM pellet crumbler to achieve proper particle sizing for all starter feeds. Each of the two loading bays is equipped with a weigh lorry system for fast and accurate truck loading. It takes about eight minutes to load up to 28 tons onto a semi-truck. “All startups come with challenges, and the full construction team has been right beside Lincoln Premium Poultry to work through those and lead the team to success,” says Brinegar. “Most importantly, we have done that safely and are positioned to succeed going forward.” Ed Zdrojewski, editor
