Raising pets is a task that many of us have the opportunity to do. As pet owners, you want to make sure you have the best for your pets; the best toys, the best treats, etc. Central Valley Ag (CVA) Hinton Feed Mill helps make sure you can provide the best food for your small animals.
CVA’s feed mill in Hinton, Iowa makes food for small animals ranging from guinea pigs to rabbits to chinchillas. The focus of this feed mill is to produce the best quality food for your small pets. “This food has got to be made right the first time, every time,” stated Derek Broekemeier, Feed Operations Lead for CVA.
Hinton, IA Feed Mill
In this one feed mill, 80 different ingredients are used to create about 18 different food blends to best fit your animal’s needs; after all, their health is what’s most important! The mill produces organic, non-GMO, and conventional foods. It is important that CVA is able to produce foods that fit both the pet’s and owner’s preferences. The ingredients used to create these tasteful, healthy blends for your pet include banana powder, blueberry powder, cranberry powder, and so many more delicious flavors that are all food grade.
CVA gets their products from many different places around the world, due to the growing seasons and growing environments of the different fruits and vegetables. For example, cranberries are not grown in the Midwest, so they come from the west coast. The majority of what is used in the food comes from Iowa and Nebraska; the few that come from different states, or even countries, are outsourced to ensure that high quality end products are produced. “We make sure we have the best ingredients for the best quality,” stated
Jennifer Sturgeon, CVA Hinton Feed Mill Manager.
The ingredients come to the mill in the form of a powder. The different powders are mixed together using rations, or recipes, created by nutritionists. The measurements are put into a computer and automatically weighed to guarantee the mixture has the correct amount of each ingredient needed for the end product. These combinations are then put into a machine that heats the mixed powder up and turns them into pellets like you see in the store.
After the pellets are created, they are tested to ensure quality. The pellets go through a series of tests including water activity, integrity of pellets, color, and smell. This is done to ensure the products Central Valley Ag is sending out are of high quality.
Quality is important to CVA, and important to your pets. Ultimately, the pet food that is made at CVA will be on the shelves of pet stores. Once the food is created into pellets, it is
sent to Oxbow, a pet food company, and they bag it in their packaging. From Oxbow, it is sent to stores all around the world. The food begins in the feed mill in Hinton, IA, is sent to
Oxbow in Omaha, NE, and then transported to stores in 35 different countries.
Central Valley Ag knows that your pet is part of your family, and they want to help make sure you are able to provide the best food for them. “The pet food industry is growing by leaps and bounds and we are staying on top of it to ensure your small animal is eating the finest food,” stated Broekemeier.