TRACKING AND TRACEABILITY
Facing the growing need for the ability to track and trace all ingredients and premixes that flow through our massive distribution system, innovators at Nutra Blend developed NBi. NBi is an enterprise resource planning software package that was specifically designed for Nutra Blend. NBi is a tracking and traceability system that has the capability of tracking the millions of pounds that move through our system at any given time - from coming into our facilities to moving out the load dock.
PREMIX BLENDING
The vitamins, trace minerals and nutritive feed additives we blend eventually end up in livestock, poultry and pet foods in amounts as small as just a few grams in 2,000 pounds of complete feed. Even though they are in small amounts, they are nutritionally vital for the animals consuming them. For this reason, blending at Nutra Blend is held to a much higher standard than many other blending companies. Our blending equipment and practices ensure the even distribution of the important nutrient within the mix down to parts per million. NBi was initially designed with the ability of NBi to accurately track and trace finished goods but has also evolved into so much more. Together this improves quality procedures and help error-proof the processes before products are shipped.
INGREDIENT PORTFOLIO
The agricultural industry is innovative and technologically progressive. It is the agriculture industry's job to feed a growing world, while at the same time using fewer resources in that endeavor. Hundreds of companies conduct exhaustive amounts of research to develop nutritional ingredients that will help animals grow safely, efficiently and allow animal protein to be viably sustainable.
Our customers want and need these ingredients. It is our job to have them readily available at an economical price. Therefore, we stock millions of pounds of inventory and thousands of SKUs in our system comprising nearly every major (and most minor) feed ingredients used in feed production. We like to say, “If it an ingredient that is used in livestock, poultry or pet foods, we probably have it. If not, we can get it.”
WAREHOUSING
Some companies may not give a lot of thought to the importance of warehousing, but Nutra Blend does! Cleanliness and efficiency are top of mind in our daily operation. A strict cleaning schedule provides you with better looking product. Our NBi program allows us to know exactly where every pound of every lot number of every product is housed at all times. This efficiency helps provide lower prices and better services to our customers.
TRUCKING
As a distributor, trucking is one-of-the-most vital aspects of your business. At Nutra Blend, trucking is not simply a means of moving product from one place to the other, but rather is a key component of the service we provide. We have our own trucking fleet driven by Nutra Blend drivers that distributes the majority of ingredients and premixes to our customers. Nutra Blend drivers play a big role in our overall service we provide our customers going above and beyond to ensure on-time deliveries. Most of our drivers know our customers on a first-name basis. On the occasions when product is delivered to our customers via common carrier, you can be assured that our trucking department has vetted the carrier to ensure the best service possible.
QUALITY CONTROL
Quality assurance is a comprehensive program of policies, procedures and process controls that yield a consistent product. A comprehensive feed quality assurance program should consist of the following components: purchasing and receiving of raw materials, the complete cycle of feed manufacturing and process controls, finished product sampling, inspection and labeling, shipping and delivery, sanitation and pest control and finished product investigations. Being part of the food supply system means meeting the highest-quality control standards is not just important, it is essential. Our quality staff works tirelessly to ensure internal, third party, federal and state standards and regulations are met. Animal feeds, and the nutrients within those feeds, play a very significant role in the overall health and well-being of the animals. For that reason, it is imperative that you acquire products from a supplier that is committed to delivering a product that meets a higher standard. One that strives to go above and beyond to deliver a consistent product to you every time. Both of our Neosho, Missouri and St. Albans, Vermont manufacturing facilities are FSC34/SQF Level 2 Quality Certified.
TECHNICAL SERVICE
Providing technical expertise to our customers is essential whether we are acting as a distributor or a manufacturer. Our technical services staff consists of B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. trained animal scientists and animal nutritionists that work closely together as well as in conjunction with other nutritionists and veterinarians in the field of agriculture. We are here to provide technical advice to our Nutra Blend customers as it relates to animal health and performance and product quality and consistency. To have that type of knowledge over such a vast array of ingredients is not easy. However, our technical staff understands the service such knowledge provides to our customers and diligently stays abreast of new technologies by maintaining close relationships with our suppliers, attending industry meetings and studying peer reviewed articles within agriculture and animal science. We are always available and ready to address your questions, comments or concerns.
OUR CULTURE
Nutra Blend has a distinct culture. Part of our culture is our tireless commitment to service and quality. But our culture runs much deeper as we feel an obligation as part of the food production system to do more than simply distribute and blend quality products. A few years back, we turned this underlying sense of duty into an active program called Drive to Feed. The purpose of Drive to Feed is to help hungry children in some of the poorest regions of the world but also to help hungry kids living in the communities where our customers live, right here in the U.S. We also felt that people needed to know the truth about modern agriculture and the valuable role technology plays in producing a safe, abundant and economical food supply. The two messages, while separate, are invariably tied together as the food that modern agriculture produces is needed now more than ever to feed a hungry world. There are three initiatives that make up the Drive to Feed program; Drive to Feed Kids, Drive: No Boundaries and Drive the Message.
DRIVE TO FEED KIDS
One out of every five kids in the U.S. are food insecure, which means that aside from school, they do not know where and if they will get their next meal. Weekend, holidays and summer break means worry, uncertainty and hunger to millions of kids across the US; from urban communities to the back road of rural America. To help combat this issue, independent groups across the country have put together “backpack” programs where meals are put together, put in a backpack and handed to those kids most in need as they leave school every Friday. This is not a nationally funded program and typically consists of church groups, community groups or just a group of volunteers that share the same passion for helping kids. The funding for these programs must come from donations and unfortunately many are underfunded.
The Drive to Feed Kids was developed by Nutra Blend to help raise money for these backpack programs. We work with our customers to help financially support and organize fundraisers with all the proceeds going to buy food for the backpacks that feed hungry kids living in the community where our customers live and work. Nutra Blend also contributes directly to these funds through a program that gives back a portion of every dollar spent by customers buying ingredients and premixes from us. In the first three years, the program has helped to raise enough money for over 20 million meals.
An additional subsection of Drive to Feed Kids is a program called "The Main Course Project". People and especially children, need the specific amino acids found in animal based protein in order to properly develop. However, meat and milk are not often included in backpacks due to shelf life and cost. The Main Course Project donates hundreds of thousands of high quality nutrient rich, shelf stable meat sticks to these programs so they can be utilized by the kids that need them most.
DRIVE: NO BOUNDARIES
As bad as the hunger issue is in the US, there are parts of the world where thousands of children are dying every year from starvation and malnutrition. In the country of Haiti, as many as 1 in 14 children may die before the age of five from effects of malnutrition. In 2016, Nutra Blend decided that we needed to do something about it. We found an organization in Haiti that over the past 20 years has been saving the lives of Haitian children, Meds & Food for Kids. They have developed a product called Medika Mamba that is a peanut based product that also includes milk powder and vitamins and minerals. This “miracle food” has saved the lives of thousands of young children and best of all, it is sustainable as it is produced by Haitian farmers. The problem, however, is funds are needed to purchase ingredients and process those ingredients to become Medika Mamba.
For $69, enough Medika Mamba can be produced to take one child from the brink of starvation to being on the road to recovery. To help support this effort, Nutra Blend has an annual fund raising event where the feed industry gathers to generously give to support this effort. The first year, 2016, the Nutra Blend Drive: No Boundaries fund raising auction raised an incredible $1.45 million dollars, enough money to save the lives of 21,000 Haitian children.
DRIVE THE MESSAGE
The story of modern agriculture is truly phenomenal with the incredible advancements that have allowed farmers and ranchers to produce more food with less natural resources and reduce the overall carbon footprint of food production. All this has been done while dramatically improving the safety of our food supply. There is no other place on earth that can produce as much safe, affordable and sustainable food than what farmers and ranchers produce right here in the US. The problem is that only 2% of our population is involved in agriculture and that truly knows how and where their food is produced. The majority of the public simply doesn’t know or have been misinformed by those who either don’t know or have a personal negative agenda toward farming.
Nutra Blend felt that the people needed to know the truth, so Drive the Message was created to tell the country and the world the reality of modern agriculture. We knew we needed to do this on a large scale so we helped put together the one of the first Hollywood movie about modern agriculture called Ivy League Farmer. A second movie, Where the Fast Lane Ends was produced a year later and both are airing on cable networks to millions of viewers. Drive the Message has now moved into the TV realm by supporting a show called Chasing Down Madison Brown that is one of the top-rated shows on its network. This will allow the true message of modern agriculture to be seen by millions more TV viewers.