Biosecurity: Managing Disease... together

A Team Effort

​Within the agricultural industry, biosecurity refers to the set of practices used to prevent the spread of disease among farms and essentially, between the animals we care for.  Disease can be devastating; both to the individual farm impacted and to the surrounding livestock producers and community.  As ruthless as livestock diseases can sometimes be, one thing they do is bring us together.  When it comes to biosecurity, our team is here to support our customers and community as we work together to prevent the spread of disease.

Wash & Storage

The mill’s private truck wash and segregated, heated storage area allows us to maintain a clean fleet of delivery trucks while minimizing the risk of transferring disease.  Custom wash and disinfect programs are available for your individual farms.

Complete Traceability

Our mill’s WEM Automation System has the capability of forward and backward lot tracking. This provides complete traceability of feed ingredients throughout the manufacturing and delivery process.

Delivery Triangle

One simple, effective approach we use to maximize biosecurity during feed delivery is the concept of a biosecurity triangle.  With this approach, clean trucks are used for delivery to high risk farms such as parent stock and sow farms before making deliveries to lower risk farms such as finisher sites.

Biosecurity​: Mission Critical

Regardless of where you are at in the food chain, you play an important role in preventing the spread of disease.

Community Awareness

As part of the community, simply being aware of how disease is transmitted can go a long way.  Vehicles, clothing, and shoes can all transmit disease.  If you come into contact with livestock, change clothes, shower, and allow appropriate down time before visiting another farm.  If you own backyard livestock, stay informed about the latest diseases facing our industry and don’t hesitate to contact a veterinarian if you see symptoms within your animals.  While disease might not have a large impact on you, your animals can be a carrier for disease to be transmitted to larger, more critical livestock systems.

Customer Responsibility

​Diseases can also be transmitted through grain and feed ingredients.  If you are delivering grain from a livestock facility, please communicate this with our office. Grain originating from livestock farms is stored in a segregated area for appropriate down time.  When delivering grain, take the time to ensure your delivery unit is clean - especially during seasons with manure application. If you are a livestock producer receiving our feed milling services, be sure to report any disease breaks to the mill manager so we can adjust our biosecurity accordingly.  

Visitors: Welcome!

As a family-owned business, we thoroughly embrace and support the community we live in.  If you are interested, we would enjoy sharing with you the ins and outs of the feed milling business and invite you to stop by anytime!  However, as a critical part of the food chain, we also take our role in preventing the spread of disease very seriously and ask you to do the same!  If you are planning to visit the mill, take the time to insure you have completed the correct biosecurity steps beforehand.