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 here
and 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.
