Making hog feed with greater speed, efficiency
New Vision’s expanded Magnolia feed mill
boosts prep, loading capabilities
Mavis Fodness | Freelance reporter
Meeting the dietary needs of the millions of hogs bred and marketed annually in the tri-state area is now faster and more efficient for patrons of the New Vision Co-Op feed mill near Magnolia.
The cooperative recently finished an $18 million expansion for an additional load-out facility that took 16 months to complete. The expansion was ready for use in November 2025, which surprised site manager Adam Garms
“They finished a little early,” he said. “It was supposed to be done in February of this year.”
By the time New Vision conducted a public open house May 20, the facility was fully operational as open house attendees enjoyed lunch and guided tours of the facility.
The expansion added another 175-foot tall concrete, load-out structure, tripling New Vision’s storage bins to 48 (or 1,400 tons), which can be loaded from three separate truck bays. The new facility allows two semi-trailers to be loaded at once, lowering the completion time to minutes due to the facility’s improved design, which mimics a semi-truck trailer.
“It’s pretty much a truck in the sky,” Garms said. “There’s nine compartments —all the scales that are above match up with the compartments on the truck.”
An extensive camera system allows each load to be monitored from a central control room. A separate computer system monitors orders already mixed and waiting for loading from one of the 48 bins located above the truck bays.
Global positioning systems in each of the co-op’s 13 semi-trucks alerts the control room when a truck is on its way back to the load facility. Before the truck arrives, the control room prepares one or all nine of the hoppers that funnel the mixed feed into the semi-trailer.
“It takes us 5 to 7 minutes to load (the hoppers),” Garms said. “It takes about (another) 30 seconds to dump (the feed into the trailer) and the driver to grab their paperwork and off they go to deliver.”
Typically, Garms said, one semi can be loaded with more than one order.
“I think the most we’ve ever done was seven in one truck,” he said.
The expanded load-out facility means drivers no longer have long down times waiting outside the facility after morning deliveries. One driver at the open house said, “I don’t get my naps in the afternoon,” when asked about the improvements.
On a busy day, 150 feed orders are prepared, loaded and delivered from the Magnolia mill.
An average day about 40 orders are completed, Garms said, or about 2,000 tons of mixed feed going to customers in southwest Minnesota, southeast South Dakota and northwest Iowa.
More than half of the mill’s orders are delivered to swine producers. Other orders go to poultry, sheep, dairy and beef cattle producers.
Garms said the Magnolia location is the largest mill facility within New Vision Co-Op and one of the largest mills in the region. Other New Vision mills are in Worthington, Windom and Mankato.
The Magnolia mill employs 24 people.
boosts prep, loading capabilities
Mavis Fodness | Freelance reporter
Meeting the dietary needs of the millions of hogs bred and marketed annually in the tri-state area is now faster and more efficient for patrons of the New Vision Co-Op feed mill near Magnolia.
The cooperative recently finished an $18 million expansion for an additional load-out facility that took 16 months to complete. The expansion was ready for use in November 2025, which surprised site manager Adam Garms
“They finished a little early,” he said. “It was supposed to be done in February of this year.”
By the time New Vision conducted a public open house May 20, the facility was fully operational as open house attendees enjoyed lunch and guided tours of the facility.
The expansion added another 175-foot tall concrete, load-out structure, tripling New Vision’s storage bins to 48 (or 1,400 tons), which can be loaded from three separate truck bays. The new facility allows two semi-trailers to be loaded at once, lowering the completion time to minutes due to the facility’s improved design, which mimics a semi-truck trailer.
“It’s pretty much a truck in the sky,” Garms said. “There’s nine compartments —all the scales that are above match up with the compartments on the truck.”
An extensive camera system allows each load to be monitored from a central control room. A separate computer system monitors orders already mixed and waiting for loading from one of the 48 bins located above the truck bays.
Global positioning systems in each of the co-op’s 13 semi-trucks alerts the control room when a truck is on its way back to the load facility. Before the truck arrives, the control room prepares one or all nine of the hoppers that funnel the mixed feed into the semi-trailer.
“It takes us 5 to 7 minutes to load (the hoppers),” Garms said. “It takes about (another) 30 seconds to dump (the feed into the trailer) and the driver to grab their paperwork and off they go to deliver.”
Typically, Garms said, one semi can be loaded with more than one order.
“I think the most we’ve ever done was seven in one truck,” he said.
The expanded load-out facility means drivers no longer have long down times waiting outside the facility after morning deliveries. One driver at the open house said, “I don’t get my naps in the afternoon,” when asked about the improvements.
On a busy day, 150 feed orders are prepared, loaded and delivered from the Magnolia mill.
An average day about 40 orders are completed, Garms said, or about 2,000 tons of mixed feed going to customers in southwest Minnesota, southeast South Dakota and northwest Iowa.
More than half of the mill’s orders are delivered to swine producers. Other orders go to poultry, sheep, dairy and beef cattle producers.
Garms said the Magnolia location is the largest mill facility within New Vision Co-Op and one of the largest mills in the region. Other New Vision mills are in Worthington, Windom and Mankato.
The Magnolia mill employs 24 people.
