Flat Storage Dairy Feed Facility
VAA designed the first dairy mash feed mill in Michigan, resulting in a facility with a 35 ton/hour capacity with extensive safety features.
Owosso, MI
Challenge
The VAA team needed to optimize commodity movement and eliminate downtime.
Solution
Using feedback from a similar Cargill feed facility designed by VAA, the multidisciplinary team provided several value based engineering assessments, which included consideration of 20 different feed mixes and time studies.
The resulting process uses a front-end loader instead of batching feeders and flat storage bays instead of upright batching bins. The front-end loader distributes various bulk commodities into a loader scale hopper, which in turn sends a batch to a 10-ton mixer through a large capacity drag conveyor. From there, the mixed feed is distributed into upright bins for loading feed trucks. The entire facility layout and equipment is sized and arranged to optimize the utilization of the front-end loader. Effectively eliminating downtime, the system has a 35 ton/hour capacity.
Results
- Designed dairy mash feed mill including safety features
- Provided bid packages, construction phase assistance
- Reduced need for operational staff
- Eliminated down time, creating 35 ton/hour capacity