Lamar-Based Company Produces & Sells Non-Solvent High-Oleic Sun Oil, Plus Meal for Livestock Feed

       Business is booming at Colorado Mills.  The Lamar, Colo., company provides premium sunflower products, from heart-healthy oil to sustainable livestock feed.  They are also a zero-waste company, dedicated to sustainability, innovation and personal relationships. 

       Jody Kerzman visited with Kevin Swanson, Colorado Mills chief operations manager and NSA board member and Kent Wollert, Colorado Mills CEO, about their products.

Tell me a little history of Colorado Mills.

       Since 1999, Colorado Mills has been producing high-oleic sunflower oil.  We mechanically extract the sunflower oil, which means we don’t use any chemicals in the extraction process.  We press the seed, just like every other oil processor, but then we stop right there – at around 90% extraction.  We have always done it that way, and we think there’s an advantage to that, because it creates a cleaner label, which is becoming more and more important to consumers.

       At Colorado Mills, we crush 70 to 80 million lbs of sunflower seed annually, and we will sell 25 million lbs of refined sunflower oil this year.

       We are a zero-waste company, which means we use every bit of the sunflower.  The sunflower meal left over from the crushing process goes to produce livestock feed.  We produce more than 25,000 tons of livestock feed annually as well.

Let’s focus first on your sunflower oil. What makes it stand out?

       Our oil is very high in vitamin E and has a long shelf life.  Customers comment that it even extends the shelf life of their products once they use our oil in them.  Our oil is great for sauteing, frying, baking or as a flavor base for salad dressing and dips.

       We do not import any of the sunflower seed we use.  It’s all grown right here in the United States, in the High Plains region.  Our growers are spread throughout Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Where does your oil go?

       Our oil goes to customers from the East Coast to the West Coast and everywhere in between. We sell to snack food companies, pet food companies and some industrial customers.  The majority of our oil stays in the United States and Canada, but sometimes we sell into Mexico as well.  We also sell our high-oleic sunflower oil in smaller bottles on our website: comills.com/shop.

Now let’s talk livestock feed.

       We produce livestock feed with what’s left over after we press our oil. Colorado Mills produces feed for cattle, equine, swine, lamb, poultry and goats. It’s high in protein and fat.  We use sunflower as our base protein.  We do add some other proteins, but sunflower is our base ingredient.  We have some cattle customers who tell us, year after year, that their cattle stay in better condition over the winter when they feed them our feeds. They breed better in the spring, too.

Where do you sell your livestock feed?

       It’s more regional, mostly because of the cost and logistics to ship.  We sell most of our feed in the same states where we have growers, but also in Utah, South Dakota, New Mexico.  We run our own delivery system on most of our feed.  We use our own trucks to deliver that feed to states we’re going to anyway.  We have 87 retail outlets that distribute to Colorado, Texas and Kansas.  We sell our feed in 50-lb bags up to 2,000-lb totes, one-ton totes and also sell in bulk.

What new things are you working on in the livestock feed side of the business?

       We are always developing new and better feeds.  Right now, we’re working on a show finishing ration for beef.  We want to help FFA and 4-H kids finish out their steers and heifers.  It’s something we think we can add to the market.

       We are also developing new medicated and non-medicated feeds for cattle and goats.

Learn more about Colorado Mills on their website: comills.com