An animal feed bagging plant that cost €1m to build was officially opened by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue at Quinns of Baltinglass last Thursday 10 November.

This investment is the latest in Quinns growth of its animal feed mill located in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, and will "greatly improve" the company's efficiency in bagging animal feed.

Quinns has been producing animal coarse ration at the site for over 25 years and the family business made the leap to producing pelleted feed in 2017 in a €5m investment.

Growth

These investments have allowed Quinns to grow its feed business, now supplying over 100,000t of feed to beef, sheep, dairy and equine customers across the Leinster area, Quinns said in a statement.

At the launch, head of feed at Quinns Valerie Hobson said: “This latest investment of Quinns is a highly efficient Austrian-made Statec Binder FFS (form fill and seal) bagging plant, with new bins feeding it and a robot to palletise the bags once filled.

"When the bags go through the bagger, they are formed, which reduces the plastic used in the production process."

She added that a decision was made to only source plastic for bagging that includes a high percentage of recycled plastic.

"Currently, 30% of our bags are made from recycled plastic and the plan is to have 50% inclusion by next spring, which is important to us as a company.

"As we look at the decisions we make, our focus is on making positive sustainable changes," she added.

Locally sourced

Quinns aims to include maximum levels of locally grown wheat, oats and barley in its feed, as well as rolled beans, which are a quality protein source, William Quinn said speaking at the launch.

"In today’s age of sustainability and carbon footprint concerns, it makes sense Quinns as millers and grain merchants to support the local tillage sector as much as possible," he said.

Quinn added that the company's pelleting feed plant is the only one in the surrounding five counties.

"The last minister for agriculture to visit us was Ivan Yates back in 1996 when he cut the ribbon on our very first coarse ration feed mill.

"The Minister was very generous with his time and our dedicated team were delighted to meet with him and show him our facilities," he concluded.