Commercial Feed Mills - EXL Milling at Lloydminster

EXL Milling, located in Lloydminster, Alberta, demonstrates how a commercial milling operation supplies finished feed for hogs, cattle and chickens. The facility utilizes a Lambton Grain Leg, a Hutchinson Grain Pump, a Laden Feed System, one 17,000 bushel Westeel Wide-Cor grain bin, and eleven small hopper bins, to produce this feed.

Grain Leg Feeds the System

The eight-inch grain pump system receives grain, canola meal and other feed products from down spouts from a bucket elevator leg. From there, the grain loop stores feed products in one of twelve different bins on the loop. The facility is a closed-loop system ie, no truck dump, but uses the Lambton Grain Leg to introduce raw materials into the top of the grain pump; and then blended or whole raw materials are dropped back into the Lambton bucket elevator from the grain pump loop. The Hutchinson Grain Pump is also used to do the gross mixing of the feed, and a Laden Feed System is used to apportion micro ingredients according to the recipe in use, and deliver the finished feed product.

Laden Feed Systems

The Laden Feed System is used to blend special recipe feeds for specific situations. This system is made up of weighing and measuring units, rolling and grinding components and mixing and blending machinery.

The product is blended or mixed from various bins by gravity to the bottom of the loops and back to the bucket elevator for sale to customers. This is a heavy use system and employs an 81xHH conveyor chain. This conveyor chain is the heaviest available for the system and is a must for EXL Milling as they move over 2 million bushels of grain each year. This is a maximum usage system and because of that, the maintenance regime is of paramount importance. Operation day in and day out puts additional pressure on the system components.

Custom Blended Feed

In 1994, Sydney Palmer developed EXL 7060®, a unique "high-rumen-by-pass protein and unsaturated fat" livestock feed product from whole canola seed which is widely accepted by Canadian and American beef & dairy industry. The production of this unique blend, among others, also requires the capacity to roll, grind, batch and, weighing components. It also requires the mixing of the micro and macro ingredients for feed production package recipes.

Over half the product is exported to the USA and EXL is investigating markets in the
Pacific Rim and Middle East.

The use of canola meal in the feed mixture, provides a high-value market for canola seed off grades damaged by frost or drought.