Countryside Feed welcomes international guests
Staff writer
Last Friday, Countryside Feed, LLC, in Hillsboro welcomed 30 international men and women, along with two members of International Grains Program at Kansas State University, to tour its facility.
The group represented 13 different countries, that included Serbia, Slovak Republic, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Korea, and Lithuania.
According to K-State senior agriculturist, Harvey Kiser, the international delegates were here in the states to participate in a IGP/KSU two-week course to learn various levels of grain production and to tour facilities in Kansas and Louisiana.
The purpose of the K-State course is for groups to explore the major elements of modern feed manufacturing and to gain knowledge in the advances in feed technology.
Some members of the group were sponsored by USDA/Cochran while others paid for the course themselves.
"With the price of the course, lodging, and traveling expenses, it could cost them close to $5,000," Kiser said.
Kyle Cederberg, sales manager at Countryside Feed, escorted the group to the conference room and explained how their facility operates and about their owners' cooperatives. He also answered group member's questions.
"It was very interesting to me," Cederberg said. "They had specific questions regarding manufacturing."
Kiser said that all 30 of the members could speak and understand English fairly well, so no interpreter was necessary.
The 30 then split into two groups to tour the warehouse, the feed mill, the control room, the receiving area, and the basement which houses the milling equipment.
One group was led by Cederberg and included Kiser; the other by Luke Lindsay, general manager of the company, and included Carl Reed, also of IGP at KSU.
One gentleman from India reported that one of the members owned the largest water buffalo farm in their country.
The group toured the Bunge Soybean plant in Emporia before coming to Hillsboro.
After touring Countryside Feed, the group headed back to Manhattan for the night. They traveled this week to Louisiana to visit a dairy, a milk plant, a poultry caged-layered company, and a soybean loading port facility.
Lindsay said he thought the visit went well.
"We were the only feed mill that they were touring," he said. "We didn't know what to expect, and I don't think they did either."
After group members complete the tours and the course, they will head back to their individual countries and companies and report their findings. And hopefully take back a little taste of Hillsboro with them.
