Kerr饲料和谷物拥有创新

韦德布莱恩特，总经理Kerr Feed & Grain，代表第四代Kerr家族，为围绕生产者提供饲料和营养产品Henrietta, TX. In 1930, the company started to plant its roots with small retail location where Bryant's great grandpa started selling feed and other farm supplies. By 1948, Kerr Feed & Grain was born and had established itself as a retailer for other lines of feed; by the mid-50s, it had established the mill and began blending and grinding feed for its customers. From there the company continued to build on to the mill and by the 1970s, it was steam flaking, blending and pelleting own products under the Kerr label.

Today, 90% of Kerr Feed & Grain’s business is retail; the other 10% is wholesale feed delivered straight to the ranch. It mainly manufacturers cattle feed, but also many other feeds, i.e. horse, swine, poultry and other specialty products. The company delivers feed within 100-mile radius of Henrietta, including southern Oklahoma and north Texas.

最近，Kerr饲料和谷物通过用草坪和花园制品，五金和电气供应使其产品多样化，成为农村社区的一站式商店。

Bryant notes that while many smaller ag outfits in the area have gone out of business — as high operating costs and commodity volatility have made it difficult to compete — and the ones that have survived have done so through consolidated with larger companies. Bryant feels that as long as Kerr Feed and Grain stays price conscious and somewhat competitive, customers will continue to trade with them because they know they are concerned about them and their operation.

“There’s room for a regional, local player like us,” he says. “We have customers who did business with my granddad and continue to trade with us because we do what we can to take care of them."

As Bryant looks to the future, he asserts his feeling that the company will maintain a balance between growth and maintaining the business.

“When we entertain growth — like hiring outside sales reps or increasing our geographic coverage — we feel it’s important to keep things manageable,” Bryant says. This being said, he feels that the bulk cattle feed industry “is definitely the way of the future.”

“In 11 years since I’ve been here full time, I’ve witnessed this growth,” Bryant explains, pointing to the fact the company used to run 75% bagged product and 25% bulk, in his time it has shifted to a 50/50 split.

“There will always be a demand and need for bags, but the bulk industry — as far as distribution and the ability to service more customers — is the way of the future," he says, "especially as these guys continue to invest in feeders that distribute bulk products as well as overhead bins to be able to accept deliver on bulk product.

While some ranch operations won’t be able to justify the capital investment, Bryant attributes the root of the shift to bulk to the efficiency required by an aging ranching population, as they are less likely to take chances with injury bag feeding can deliver.

The grain business

在20世纪60年代后期，克尔饲料和谷物架设了一台120,000蒲式耳的谷物电梯，带有两个电梯腿。由于该地区的粮食产量减少了“因为收获并不是曾经是曾经是什么，”公司现在在收获期间处理小麦，五月至7月，但通常用它来在冬季储存饲料厂的谷物。

“回到80年代后期，我们处理了数十万蒲式耳的谷物，但要与你坦率，在最后收获之后我们没有买一个蒲式耳的小麦，”布莱恩特解释道。“这不是我们业务的骨干，但是T总是对我们所做的补充。现在，当我们建立我们的预算时，我们知道我们不能挂在它上面。如果有的话，它只是额外的。“

In the mill

由于克尔饲料和谷物没有铁路进入，所有东西都被卡车带到了。谷物交付后，它们被带到研磨应用程序中，aJacobsonV240 grinder, or delivered directly into ingredient bins. From there, it moves to a two-ton Hayes and Stolz mixer and a manual batching system where auger systems to convey product to the weigh hopper on Mettler Toledo weigh cells to batch feed and then drop it into a blender. From there it can feed in three directions: the pellet mill, a bag texture bagger or to a bulk blended load out that is truly just a blended mixed type feed. From there on the pelleting side, Kerr pellets in three sizes: 3/4, 3/16 and 3/8 inches.

50％的脾生产是袋装，50％的散装载有Essmueller拖累和A.Rotex振动器提供散装颗粒产品。任何包装的东西都穿过约翰逊和儿子袋手，从那里搭配一系列输送机，最终源于该公司的新机器人和包装系统。

Kerr Feed & Grain produces 120 tons/day running at full capacity, which is four to five months/year, or 15,000 tons of grain, annually.

Automated bagging

“曾经用五个男人袋子和码垛产品现在需要三名男子，”布莱恩特解释道。在进行系统的投资之前，一个员工悬挂袋，一个缝制，两个堆叠了饲料，另一个开车叉车。今天，机器人消除了对责任身体劳动力的两名员工的需求。

Bryant said the primary goals of the investment were to prevent injury and eliminate the man-hours it took to physically stack the feed. The bags from either line are hung on to the bagging scales, once the meet the requisite weight they are dropped on to a flat conveyor standing vertically and are fed into Union special machines with mechanical thread cutters.Chantland-MHS.设计了一个敲击式转击机输送机，袋子被撞到了背部，然后皮带从它们下面拉出末端，直到它们铺平。然后，他们搬到一个跳投的行李箱到袋中的产品，然后移动到富士机器人的拾取输送机，在那里富士机器人将袋子两种堆叠站中的两个。它在一侧工作，直到托盘填充到确定的负载量。一旦侧面完成，机器人将移动到另一个堆叠站，因为叉车驱动器刷子移动全托盘并重置站，交替来回交替。

Everything is controlled with a touch screen user interface with 400 stacking configurations depending on the needs of the operator.

“在木托盘上堆叠的灵活性或迷你塑料托盘直接向牧场提供，”布莱恩特说。在Kerr，每天堆叠60吨袋装饲料。

Not only can you reduce payroll costs, Bryant says, an automated packaging system will reduce workers compensation costs — including liability insurance — by reducing the risk of lifting injuries.

“A decrease in total wages paid (fewer employees) equals lesser workers comp and liability premiums which create additional cost savings over and above reduced claims and lost time from injury,” Bryant explains.

布莱恩特承认他最初对东西的机械和电子侧犹豫不决，处理电脑，因为它在塔里面有一个PLC，它在它内部操作了机械机构，但他的担忧已经被证明是没有根据的。

“I would suggest anyone set their worries aside because what we’ve seen and from what we’ve heard they are well built pieces of equipment with very little downtime,” Bryant says. He anticipates the ROI in three to five years.

—Jackie Roembke