I bought a feed mill as part of an unintended venture (another story) and have learned an awful lot since making that decision.  The first problem is the very, very low margin available in the industry.  Manufacturing feed involves a large number of issues that still haven't been covered here.  The very first thing you need to do is obtain a feed manufacturing license.  Next you will need to publish labels for each product you need to manufacture and get them approved.  That is a very big venture in itself, especially when you include medication in your ration.  You will need to do this for any additional state that you wish to market/ship to.  Then there is the feed mill ton taxes that you will need to report and pay.  You will need product liability insurance.

You now must record the lot numbers of all ingredients purchased and assign lot numbers of all products manufactured.  The rations will need to be accurate and provable when the state inspector shows up.  The inspector will need proof of the inventory on hand and you will need to establish why you have the correct amount of medication in inventory.  Any time a product lot number changes with the ingredients, you will have to change the lot number on the manufactured product again.  All of this has to be documented and maintained for 4 years.  When changing between products you will need to "flush" the mixer, grinder, scale, etc. with a product that can be used later in the next process, all of which must be stored in a separate location and labeled until used.  This also must be documented and the record retained for 4 years.

Some incoming ingredients must be tested for aflatoxin and the test results kept on file.  The analysis of the incoming ingredients must be proved and the records maintained.  Your feed will include some type of dressing for dust control which must be approved and included at the correct rate.  If you don't pay attention to all of these areas, the first customer that comes in and blames you for "killing" his pigmy goat will be able to take you to the cleaners, possibly destroying your business. 

Then there are lots of issues with the packaging and quality control in general.  Vented bags for some feeds, non-vented for others.  Pleated or non-pleated, flat bottom or taper, etc.  Consistent product appearance and smell is another consideration that will be an issue with the customer.

With marginal sales some inventory will go out of condition and need to be re-milled or disposed of.  If you sell through dealers you will have to be able to manage this problem in some fasion or "your" feed will be sold to a customer when out of condition.  Most feed other than mineral will have a relatively short shelf life.  Mineral can even go out of condition if not stored in a dry place.  Rodent control will be a necessary battle that has to be won daily.     

The software costs to start will run you more than $5,000 for formulation and if you include feed tags support it easily doubles.  A complete software package for feed mill automation is many times that.  If you deliver any feed it will quickly become another web of legal and regulatory hoops to jump through.

I could go on and on but just remember where I started in this reply.  Low margins.  All of this and a lot more to compete against a market that denies any reasonable return on your investment and risk. 

Would you like to buy a feed mill?