Kansas State University’s Department of Grain Science and Industry held a formal groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 2 for the new O.H. Kruse Feed Mill and BioRefinery. The event was part of the department’s two-day centennial celebration.
The feed mill is named for O.H. Kruse, the founder of O.H. Kruse Grain and Milling Co. of Goshen, Calif. The Kruse family made a lead gift of $2 million toward the mill. Ron Kruse, chief executive officer of Western Milling, Goshen, Calif., was part of the ground breaking team. In addition, Kirk Schulz, K-State president; April Mason, provost and senior vice president; Joel Newman, CEO of the American Feed Industry Association; Jim Brown (K-State alumni and wife Carol who made a $1 million donation for a professorship in feed science and management); Dirk Maier, head of K-State’s Department of Grain Science and Industry, and Ken Odde, head of the Department of Animal Science and Industries, participated in the ceremony. The importance of the new facility to the university community and its stakeholders was outlined in comments by President Schulz, Provost Mason, Mr. Brown and Mr. Kruse.
The mill will be home to the university’s Feed Science and Management program, which has provided more than 700 graduates to the U.S. feed manufacturing industry over the nearly 60 years since the feed industry helped to establish the program at K-State. The new mill also will provide for all of the research diets needed by the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry on its livestock research farms.
In addition to serving undergraduate and graduate students, thousands of feed industry professionals have participated in educational short courses and seminars conducted by the FSM program, according to grain science professor emeritus, Keith Behnke.
Actual construction should begin after the first of the year and the new mill is expected to be completed by early 2012.
