Westway Feed Products, a Texas-based company, is partnering with Michigan Sugar to use sugar beet byproduct to feed cattle.
Marc Flegenheimer, president and CEO of Michigan Sugar Co., was at an industry meeting chatting with Westway’s CEO about the company moving to Michigan with the burgeoning dairy industry in the Thumb of Michigan.
Flegenheimer said the site in Carrollton would be an excellent location since it’s an underutilized facility.
“[I said] we should see if we could put something together,” he said. “They built a state-of-the-art million dollar facility where they take our molasses and blend it with other products to make a high nutrition product for dairy cows.”
Greg McLean, Westway’s feed director of starting-business development, said they are pleased to be able to fill a need for Michigan dairymen.
“It benefits the dairy farmers in the area from the standpoint of providing a higher level of nutrition for their cows, which helps them be more productive,” said McLean. “Sugar also helps them have a higher fat content in their milk, so all those things benefit beet growers and dairy farmers in the area.”
The Carrollton site has the capacity to process 30,000 tons, and McLean said moving forward, they can add on to the site as demand for the products grow.
