URBANA, ILLINOIS, US — The University of Illinois’ Feed Technology Center is now complete and open for business.

The university opted to celebrate the opening of the new facility with a video series and fact sheet instead of an in-person event. 

The Feed Technology Center is part of the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) program that is dedicated to advancing feed technology and animal nutrition. 

“One of the best things about this new facility is we can bring people in from all over the world to participate in continuing education, trainings on different technology, feed science and livestock nutrition,” said Kim Kedwell, dean of the College of Aces, in the video. “It’ll be an exciting place to bring industry and academia together to train people in the cutting-edge technologies in feed science from all over the world.”

The 12,000-square-foot facility replaces a 95-year-old feed mill and features new technology such as: 

  • 195,000 bushels of whole dry grain storage
  • 10,000-bushel wet grain bin
  • Concrete truck loadout bins, 12 with 1,450 bushels each
  • Mill production rate around 20 tons per hour (TPH) of mash feed and 5 TPH of pelleted feed
  • Dryer capable of 750 to1,000 bushels per hour
  • Complete automated control system for feed production 
  • Standalone extrusion line

“This facility of course is going to support innovative research and animal nutrition but it’s also going to play a critical in our academic program,” said Rod Johnson, professor and head of the department of animal sciences in the video. “We envision new courses for our undergraduate and graduate students, engaging our clients, the public and community through outreach activities that we can do in this new state-of-the-art facility. You can imagine that in a 95-year-old feed mill that we are very limited on what we can do with academic programs. We see this as a tremendous opportunity for our students and to engage the community.”

The $20 million facility is located at the University of Illinois South Farms.