To celebrate the kickoff of Cargill’s new $29 million Hedrick, Iowa, feed mill, the company will hold a dedication for invited guests, 10:30 a.m., May 12, 2015. Operating 24-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week, the 15-story-tall mill’s 14 employees will produce 350,000 tons of feed annually, destined for the more than 100 family-owned farms that raise hogs for Cargill throughout the region.

“This is a great day for Hedrick and Ottumwa, the farmers who supply us hogs for pork, Cargill and our employees,” said Jane Fallon, Cargill Pork general manager. “It’s always exciting to see the investments we make turn into long-term job creation. These projects represent our commitment to the state’s agricultural economy, and illustrate our long heritage for helping communities and farmers to thrive while enhancing our ongoing efforts to provide high-quality protein to nourish millions of Americans and consumers around the world.”

The feed mill will load and unload approximately 100 trucks daily, one every 10 minutes, annually converting about six million bushels of locally grown corn to highly nutritious feed for farms in a radius from the mill that averages 35 miles. Building the feed mill required 12,500-square-yards of concrete, 340 tons of steel rebar in the mill structure alone, and during most of the construction averaged 75 workers to complete the job with a near-perfect safety record.

Cargill’s Ottumwa pork processing plant sits on a 10-acre site, has more than half-a-million-square-feet under roof, employs more than 2,300 people and harvests 18,000 – 19,000 hogs daily. It is one of two large pork processing facilities owned by Cargill, with the other located in Beardstown, Ill. The Ottumwa facility recently completed a $25-million-plus expansion of its bacon production capabilities, doubling daily bacon output.

“People love bacon and we see demand continuing to increase,” said Ottumwa plant general manager Randy Zorn. “As consumer demand for bacon has increased, our retail and foodservice customers want more bacon, and we intend to meet their needs. In fact, we inaugurated a Bacon Fest in Ottumwa last year that drew 4,000 people to a one-day event, which tells us how passionate people are for bacon.”