Kent Feeds

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About Us

 

A Strong Tradition, Growing With You.

Kent Feeds, Inc is an animal feed manufacturer headquartered in Muscatine, IA, and has 10 plants located in the Midwest. We market animal feed products through local “feed” dealerships located in 13 Midwestern states. Our products include feeds or foods for swine, beef, dairy, horses, poultry, sheep, goats, and pets.

Like many farm businesses, Kent Feeds started as, and still is, a thriving family enterprise.

As a family business, we stand by our relationships with our dealers and customers. Over nearly a century, we've come to know them as valued associates. Through prosperity and challenge, we've cultivated an intimate understanding of their businesses and their challenges.
At Kent, we are proud of our traditions, but we're also energized by future possibilities.

By investing in new strategies and taking on new dimensions, we've joined a world where agriculture is no longer a byway, but a vigorous thoroughfare to the world economy.
We spread our roots in the fertile soil of farming's new tradition. We celebrate its promise. Most of all, we hope to build on this tradition with you.

 

History of Kent Feeds

The Kent Feeds story began in 1927 in the central Iowa farming community of Indianola. It was there that Gage Kent started manufacturing Kent Baby Beef™, the original "Feed Without A Filler."

With the introduction of this new feed, Kent revolutionized the cattle feeding industry. Before Baby Beef™, most cattle feeds were formulated with little regard for nutritional needs. Kent Baby Beef™ was manufactured with only top-quality ingredients and no filler materials, setting a new standard for the industry.

Kent's feed mill flourished in Indianola, and in 1936 he moved his steadily-growing company to Muscatine, Iowa, to take advantage of economical Mississippi River transportation.

In addition to his feed business, in 1943 Gage Kent joined forces with a prominent Muscatine businessman, to found Grain Processing Corporation (GPC). This corn processing plant was built to produce industrial alcohol for the manufacture of synthetic rubber needed in the war effort. When the war ended, the plant continued to operate, producing industrial and beverage alcohol, starch, and maltodextrins. A second corn processing plant was built near Washington, Indiana, opening in 1999. Today GPC is one of the largest corn processors in the nation.

Kent Feeds built a modern feed manufacturing plant in Muscatine in 1952 to meet increasing demand. This facility, constructed with a production capacity of 720 tons of feed per day. Today, this facility is owned and operated by GPC to meet its growing demand for consumer products. As the company continued its rapid growth and added new swine, beef, dairy, poultry, specialty feeds, and an animal care line to its growing family of quality products, other Kent plants were constructed. Additional Kent plants were built in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1958; Waterloo, Iowa, in 1961; Rockford, Illinois, in 1964; Altoona, Iowa, in 1967; Beardstown, Illinois, in 1969; Marshall, Missouri, in 1976; Logansport, Indiana, in 1977; and Columbus, Nebraska, in 1984. A plant acquired in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1986, was extensively remodeled to manufacture Kent Feeds and endo-thermal molasses products.. The opening of the Mason, Michigan, manufacturing facility in 1989 brought the total number of Kent Feeds plants to ten.

Kent Feeds is dedicated to the same attitude and work ethic as its dealers and customers. Commitment to quality, research, dealer training, and customer satisfaction has made Kent Feeds a leader in the livestock feeding industry. Quality is ensured with Kent's Six-Ton Money-Back Guarantee. Kent dealers and customers can count on Kent for consistent, high-quality, precision-made feeds.

Today Kent Feeds, Inc., and Grain Processing Corporation are owned by Muscatine Foods Corporation, a private, family owned corporation. Other feed manufacturing companies under the Muscatine Foods Corporation umbrella are Blue Seal Feeds, Inc., of Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Evergreen Mills, of Ada, Oklahoma, a division of Kent Feeds.

Gage Kent's original idea when he started making Baby Beef™ was to provide a top-quality product that would enable farmers to increase their livestock production potential and profits. This basic concept has prevailed throughout the history of the company and has helped make its tremendous growth possible. 

Kent Feeds also owns and operates a 650-acre Product Development Center complex a few miles from Muscatine, along the Mississippi River. The first acres were purchased in 1955. At this facility, feeding trials are conducted to evaluate feed ingredients and new feed formulations. The major objective of the Kent Product Development Center is to develop feeds and feeding programs that will improve animal efficiency, thus allowing the livestock producer to obtain a maximum return on investment. Only after a product has been thoroughly tested at our facilities does it receive the Kent label and the Kent guarantee of product satisfaction. Through research, "The Feed Without A Filler" has grown into a complete line of guaranteed products. Today the red, yellow, and black Kent logo is proudly displayed by dealers in thirteen states across the Midwest.

 

Committed Employees

Why do Kent people understand your business? Because they're livestock people too. Many Kent employees were born on farms and grew up around animals. Our employees tend to stay with us. And that gives them a deeper perspective on both our business and yours.

 

Real World Testing for Real World Success

At Kent, we're committed to testing our products. That's why we have our own Product Development Center and confirm each product through testing. By seeking proof of performance, we can more accurately predict how our products will perform for you. The Kent Product Development Center guarantees the performance of cutting edge nutrition technologies under real-farm conditions. It helps us more accurately recommend solutions and prevents costly mistakes.

 

Products That Help You Achieve

Precise, targeted nutrition is the shortest route to growth, performance, and better health. Whatever the goal, Kent Feeds supports your drive to achieve.
Kent is helping dealers diversify by supplying support for these specialty animals: Horses, Sheep, Dogs, Cats, Rabbits, Deer, Wild Birds, Alpaca, Poultry. This strategy promises tremendous potential for market expansion in rural areas that are making the transition to a suburban mix.

Kent Horse Feeds help horses perform.

Race horses. Performance horses. Older horses. Brood mares and foals. All of these horses require specialized nutrition. That's why we offer a wide range of quality horse feeds, each precisely adapted to support performance and glowing health.

Kent Pet Foods, Vital nutrition for vibrant lives.
Kent offers dog food for every budget, age, and activity level. From no-soy, poultry-based Puppy Prime, to premium, meat-based Adult Prime for older dogs. Products like Kent Kit & Cat bring balanced, high level nutrition to cats in every stage of life.

Kent First Rate Show Feeds produce champion condition.
Kent is proud to offer show feeds for swine, beef, horses, sheep, and rabbits. They're designed to bring top genetics to peak show ring perfection while safeguarding health.

 

Working Together to Expand Opportunities for Agriculture

Strong families have always been the backbone of American agriculture. Today, Kent Feeds, Inc. , is part of a hard working family of companies, called The Kent Group. We're joining together to open new ways to help America's grain and livestock industries thrive.
Our vision gives us the foresight to set forth in new directions while retaining our dedication to industry stewardship. Even as we expand our vision, we hold tight to our commitments to our customers, dealers, employees, and investors.On American farms it has often been said that many hands make light work. In the same way, by combining financial strengths, we have developed the scope to explore new ventures, employ new technologies and support new research.
Though we have assumed a modern scale, we haven't forgotten our roots. Always a family owned business, we will forever take customer and dealer interests to heart.