UGI Fuels New Feed Mill, Supporting Local Farms and Jobs

A new sight in the skyline near Interstate 80 and Old Route 15 in New Columbia, Pa., is a 176-foot-tall mill tower, which is now producing 8,000 tons of swine feed weekly. UGI natural gas is fueling this new operation.

Middletown-based Country View Family Farms, which is owned by Clemens Family Corp., began operating the $50 million White Deer Feed Mill in October.

The mill takes raw ingredients, including corn and soybeans, and turns them into pellets. Not only is the mill providing feed for nearly a million hogs on 150 nearby farms, but it also created 50 new jobs.

The two biggest factors that led Country View Family Farms to pick this Union County former farmland to build the mill are railroad access and a UGI natural gas pipeline.

“The access to natural gas was a big reason we selected this location,” says William Fink, Director of Agriculture Operations at Country View Family Farms. “It is the preferred energy source for the feed mill. It is Pennsylvania gas, it is efficient, and from an emissions standpoint it is clean burning.”

That energy source is already playing a role in the company’s expansion. The plan is to also have a grain dryer up and running on the site by this fall.

DID YOU KNOW?

America’s agriculture sector consumes roughly 1.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually – equivalent to almost 15% of all U.S. commercial and industrial consumption of natural gas.

– American Gas Association, “The Value of Natural Gas to U.S. Agriculture and Agrochemicals.”