Poly’s state-of-the-art feed mill can churn out enough chow to fill the bellies of every last critter in the university’s College of Agriculture, from the smallest chick to the heftiest steer

Food for 13,750 ... animals, that is

By Nick Wilson

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CAL POLY HAS A LOT OF HUNGRY MOUTHS TO FEED

Cal Poly’s animal science department will use its new processing plant to make feed for all 13,750 animals on campus, including:

400 beef cattle 125 sheep 250 dairy cows 125 horses 500 pigs 350 quail 5,000 egg-laying hens 7,000 broiler chicks

In an operation that would make Noah envious, Cal Poly has a new four-story mill operated by computers that will soon make feed for all 13,750 animals on campus.

It’ll help train students on food safety and processing. It also will serve as a training site for feed managers from the West and Asia.

The computer-operated, 21,000- square-foot operation—called the Animal Nutrition Center — is on the campus near Highway 1.

The center was built because an older mill was removed to make way for the Poly Canyon Village housing project, which will board 2,700 students by 2009.

The new mill grinds and prepares nutrients for animals.

For many of the animals, such as poultry, the food pellets produced at the center combine corn, soybean mill, soy oil and vitamins. Swine consume the same combination but in different amounts.

Some of the feed products, such as hay, come from the Cal Poly campus.

But much of it is brought in, including corn that comes from the Midwest, said Andrew Thulin, head of the animal science department.

The new mill’s computer system allows technicians from Iowa to spot flaws in the system remotely and talk staff members through a problem when necessary.

“Compared to what we used to have, this is like upgrading from a Pinto to a new Cadillac,” said plant manager Casey Callaghan, a 2005 Cal Poly animal science graduate.

The new center will help instruct Cal Poly students in various ways, including food safety, designing dietary pellets and manufacturing.

High-end feed requested by private businesses also can be produced at the center.

The university already is working on a deal that would bring in $100,000 to the college for training a group of feed managers from Iraq over the course of two weeks.

Proceeds from deals with outside partners will help fund operations.

About $4 million from the CSU system and $1.5 million in donations paid for the center.

“Basically, this whole thing came together in 18 months,” Thulin said. “That’s amazingly fast.”

The university already has drawn up plans for a $5.5 million, 13,500-square-foot meat processing center, but $1.5 million still needs to be raised.

Cal Poly dairy science student Mike Brazil, 22, said that he and fellow students would benefit.

Brazil, who works part time at the plant, said he’s learning now how to use the computer that operates the feed mill.

He’ll also learn how to create animal feed for poultry at the plant in coming weeks.

“I don’t think too many colleges have anything like this,” Brazil said. “It’s pretty unique.”

The Animal Nutrition Center operates a machine outside the facility to produce feed for sheep and cows, but its indoor system still needs software installed before it runs, officials say.

Officials expect the indoor machines to be producing feed by mid-April.