POUL 3100 Writing Assignment 1

My background in feed manufacturing and in a feed mill is very limited. I always knew what a feed mill was and grew up not far from a feed mill and had been in the Auburn feed mill, but I had a very limited knowledge of feed manufacturing. Growing up on a cattle farm and also helping my uncle from time to time on his chicken farm I knew the importance of feed to any agriculture operation. Without feed livestock do not seem to perform exceptionally well. I always knew that feed had to be produced, but in my mind it was a simple process of grinding some corn and other ingredients together and then you had feed. Shortly after I got to Auburn I realized just how inaccurate that assumption was. The amount of work that goes into making one batch of feed was appalling. From making the recipe to adding the micro ingredients there was no room for error and time was always your enemy. My eyes were quickly opened to the process of making feed and just how much effort it took to keep livestock fed.

When I first found out about the feed manufacturing course it immediately interested me. I was still looking for a field in the poultry industry that I wanted to pursue a career in. Feed had started to intrigue me when I started helping Dr. Dozier's lab with research trial in the summer while working at the farm. At the time I was considering graduate school and I thought working with feed and feed manufacturing would be a great career choice, but I had no experience with any aspect of feed. I had also received an opportunity to interview with Wayne Farms and other companies for internships at their feed mills, which I really wanted to pursue, but again I had no experience in a feed mill setting. When I heard about the possibility of a feed manufacturing class being made I was excited because that would be a way to get experience in the feed mill and also be able to see if working in the feed manufacturing part go the poultry industry would be an option for me. I decided to take this course because it gives insight to an aspect of the poultry industry that I had little knowledge of, but also because knowing all the pieces of the poultry industry and how each piece works together to work as one gives anyone an advantage in any field to help better the poultry industry as a whole.

Taking this course has really made my interest in feed manufacturing grow, but it has also shown me that there is a very large amount of information needed to know in this field. I never knew just how much could go into a recipe for feed, but I have never looked at feed from a scientific aspect. I want to learn more about ingredients and why each one is added and why we use this ingredient and not another. The mechanical aspect really caught me off guard. I never knew how much math would have to be used to know how many bushels can be loaded into a storage bin; then to find out how fast that bin can be unloaded by a certain diameter auger running at a certain RPM really surprised me. Learning about the feed mill and feed manufacturing has really opened up a whole new world for me that I did not know how vast it was. It still mazes me that even though I have learned a lot there is still more to learn and there will always be more to learn.