By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

DEMOTTE, Ind. — Belstra Milling Co., Inc. plans to spend $5 million during the next two years to expand and modernize its DeMotte feed mill. When the two-phase project is completed, employment could increase from the current 28-45 workers.

Malcolm S. DeKryger, vice president of Belstra Milling, said $2.5 million will be spent this year to “renovate, modernize and expand” the DeMotte feed mill. The remainder of the investment will come in 2012.

In a prepared statement announcing the expansion, President Tim Belstra added “customer demand is driving the need for this expansion and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to strengthen our relationships with our partners throughout the supply chain. DeMotte has been a wonderful home for our company since the beginning and it’s exciting to be reinvesting in the community.”

Belstra said the family-owned company has been part of DeMotte for 57 years, and the project announced Aug. 15 will help solidify its presence in the community for years to come. DeKryger added Belstra Milling has operated a feed mill at its current location for 45 years.

“We’ve expanded and upgraded regularly. We’ve been blessed with good business growth, about 3 percent to 5 percent a year, but we’re at a point now where we have to expand,” he said.

Last year, Belstra Milling mixed and delivered 115,000 tons of feed to area livestock and dairy operations. In addition to the feed mill in DeMotte, Belstra also operates five farrow-to-finish hog operations with 11,500 sows. In 2009, the company reported $48 million in feed sales and $25 million in pig sales.
DeKryger said the project includes a new corn drop area, receiving scale and bulk ingredient load-out area. The project also will improve traffic flow into and out of the feed mill. When it is finished, DeKryger said the nearly 50 trucks a day that visit the feed mill will enter off a nearby city street and exit onto U.S. Highway 231/Indiana 10, alleviating the traffic jams that frequently occur now in the parking lot and along the highway.

“By changing the routing of trucks, it’s not going to be so congested,” he said.
Plans for the project have been under discussion for more than a year, said DeKryger. “We’re pleased to be able to respond to steady and incremental growth. We’re scrambling in order to get the first phase done before this fall’s harvest, but the farmers here in northwest Indiana are large enough and professional enough to be able to store their own crops.”
Belstra worked with the town of DeMotte to create a Tax Increment Financing District and the issuance of bonds that will not only help finance the expansion, but make improvements to roads and streets around the mill.

“Belstra Milling is a tremendous corporate citizen and we are pleased to have the opportunity to assist them with this major project,” said DeMotte Town Council President Mark Boer.

“We’re committed to supporting our local business community and are very proud of Belstra Milling’s success over the years.”

DeKryger said Belstra has grown comfortable in its role of being not only an agricultural, but a business and economic, leader in the community. “We know that what we do is economic development,” he said. “We’ve become trained to present a program to community leaders showing the impact of our economic development.

“Long-term proven companies like our feed mill aren’t threatening to leave or asking for anything. We’re here to stay; we love it here. But animals in the area need fed every day, and that’s what we do. We’re not a seasonal operation. I think there is a huge value in having this kind of a base in a community.”

Belstra Milling was founded in 1954 by Albert “Bud” Belstra when he bought the business from his employer, Neil Kaper. In 1960, it expanded with the acquisition of Bauman Feed Mill, and in the process acquired the Purina Chow franchise.

In 1967, a new feed mill was built at the company’s present site in DeMotte and the company began manufacturing Action Feeds. Bud Belstra retired in 1987 and his sons, Tim and Max, took over the operation. Max died in 2000.
Tim Belstra and his wife, Marta, now operate the family-owned mill, which has 28 employees. When the first phase of the expansion project is completed, employment will be 31 and by the time the entire project is finished, employment could reach 45.