Ranch-Way Feeds adds organics to its menu

FORT COLLINS – As animal nutritionist at Ranch-Way Feeds in Fort Collins, Kelcey Swyers has a lot of responsibility resting on her shoulders.

Every day, she makes sure the feeds milled and shipped from Ranch-Way are properly mixed and contain the nutrients needed for a wide variety of meat, milk, egg and fiber-producing animals as well as pets and companion animals.

Not quite a year ago – in May 2010 – Swyers helped add organic feeds to the menu of products turned out by Ranch-Way.

“Customers are demanding it,” Swyers said. “They’re making choices that lean toward organic. It’s what they consider a healthier choice.”

Ranch-Way Feeds got its organic certification after meeting rigorous federal and state standards.

“You have to meet a whole series of regulations to become certified organic,´ said Dave Sewald, Ranch-Way’s purchasing manager who now sits on the state’s organic foods board and represents organic feed producers in Colorado.

Sewald said while there’s no scientific evidence that clearly demonstrates that organic feeds are more nutritious than non-organic feeds, there is a growing demand for organics.

“There’s a perception that it’s better,” he said. “It leans toward sustainability.”

Sewald said organic feeds must meet three basic standards: They must not be produced with genetically modified seeds; they must not have been irradiated; and they must not have used fertilizer with sewage sludge as a source.

Swyers adds that organic feeds also must not contain hormones, antibiotics or chemicals that promote growth.

Half-million-dollar investment

Ranch-Way spent $500,000 to convert part of its feed-production area into an organic milling and packaging section. Swyers said it’s still a fairly small operation, able to turn out about two tons of feed per hour compared to Ranch-Way’s non-organic mill where about 20 tons of feed per hour can be produced.

Ranch-Way as a whole produces about 50,000 tons of feed annually, Swyers said, and that represents a wide variety of mixes. “We have about 2,000 formulas we maintain, most of which are custom,” she said.

Ranch-Way Feeds, located just east of downtown Fort Collins next to the Poudre River, has a long and colorful history that goes back to 1868 when it was the town’s local grist mill that used water power to grind wheat into flour.

Ranch-Way came under its current family ownership in 1968 and is now a major supplier of feeds to the region’s agricultural sector, manufacturing feed for ranchers, dairies, feed stores, boarding stables, 4-H members and animal lovers.

Bonnie Bixler-Szidon, one of the business’ owners, said the decision to add an organic line of feeds started with chickens.

“This originally came about primarily from young people raising poultry in their backyards,” she said. “It was really by popular demand to install this little feed plant.”

Bixler-Szidon said adding the organic operation was a way for Ranch-Way to continue to thrive in an always-changing business.

“Finding niches is one of the things Ranch-Way is good at and how we’ve managed to survive,” she said.

A growing business

At first, the organic mill ran only one day a week. But Swyers said demand steadily increased and it now runs at least for a portion of every work day.

Swyers said Ranch-Way now is developing a reputation for its organic milling capabilities and is one of the biggest producers in the region and beyond.

“In terms of being truly organic and having 20 to 30 items on the menu, there’s nobody doing anything close to that,” she said.

Swyers, who grew up on a dryland wheat farm near Yuma in eastern Colorado, obtained her master’s degree in equine nutrition from the University of Maryland and received her doctoral degree from Colorado State University about two years ago.

She had been working at Ranch-Way as an intern while attending CSU and was hired to be the company’s resident animal nutritionist upon graduation. Swyers said it’s not required to have an animal nutritionist on staff, but it’s been a long-standing tradition at Ranch-Way.

“It’s just a priority of the company as something we need to do,” she said.

Swyers said Ranch-Way earned its “Safe Feed, Safe Food” certification last October. That means it meets the requirements of the national Food Modernization Act recently signed by President Barack Obama.

“That puts us ahead of the ballgame, complying before we were forced to,” she said. “It assures the safety of everything we make. That’s just part of our statement. We think food safety is paramount no matter what feed we’re making.”

Swyers said she loves her job and is never bored with it.

“If I weren’t doing this, I don’t know what I’d do,” she said.

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