Consolidation in the feed and agricultural supply industry continues to affect the state and region. Venerable New England grain supplier, Blue Seal Feeds, began in 1868 as the H.K. Webster Company, with a small grist mill in Lawrence, Mass. It grew into one of the largest feed companies in the Northeast. In 1988 Blue Seal was acquired by Kent Feeds, a Midwestern feed company founded by G.A. Kent in 1927 with a small mill in Iowa. Kent Feeds has grown into the conglomerate Muscatine Foods Corporation, based in Muscatine, Iowa. The founder’s grandson Gage Kent is now CEO and chairman of the board of Muscatine Foods Corporation.

            When Kent Feeds bought Blue Seal from the Webster family, it established corporate headquarters for the Northeast-based subsidiary in Londonderry. In 2008 Blue Seal acquired New York-based I.L. Richer Company. That same year it bought out United Cooperative Farmers, Inc., known as New England Feeds.

            UCF was an historic New England farm supply cooperative founded in 1927 in Fitchburg, Mass., by a group of Finnish farmers, with roots in the 1910 founding of the United Cooperative Society of Fitchburg. The Finnish immigrant farmers had taken over old, run-down farms in the region extending over the state line into the New Ipswich area, and formed cooperatives for purchasing supplies and marketing their products. UCF had grown into a major competitor in the New England feed industry, with mills in Fitchburg and Auburn, Maine.

            The recession, and the severe downturn in the dairy industry in 2009 and into the first part of 2010, combined with unprecedented volatility in grain markets have created a challenging business climate for livestock feed suppliers. Last year Kent Nutrition Group combined Kent Feeds, Blue Seal Feeds, and another subsidiary Evergreen Feeds of Oklahoma, into one unit with two divisions—feed and pet. Consolidation of back-office functions such as accounting and marketing began in 2010. The next step was the recent closing of the Londonderry Blue Seal corporate headquarters. The Londonderry building is currently operating as a sales office, but the property will be put up for sale.

            Rich Dwyer, president of Kent Nutrition Group Feeds Division, says the company intends to continue to be successful in the dairy, equine, country lifestyle livestock and pet markets in the Northeast. The only mill Kent has closed is in Bainbridge, NY, where the company had two mills within a 45-mile radius. The Blue Seal mill in Bow will continue to operate, Dwyer said in a phone call from his offices in Muscatine, Iowa. Offices at the Bow mill will house human resources staff supporting the Northeast region and some of the Midwest. 

            Reductions have been made to the dairy sales force, Dwyer explained, with separations including technical nutrition support. Some sales and customer service staff are now working from home offices.

            Dwyer said the company’s strong dairy nutrition teams in Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana will provide support to New England sales staff. Looking ahead, Dwyer sees grain market volatility as the greatest challenge for the livestock feed industry.

            Iowa may be a long way from New Hampshire, but the executive secretary who answered the phone at the Kent Nutrition Feed Division president’s office was Barbara Townsend Soenksen—of the Lebanon Townsend family, and related to the late former Commissioner of Agriculture Howard Townsend.

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            Hot, humid weather sharply reduced attendance the first three days of Stratham Fair. The fair, which is run by the Stratham Volunteer Fire Department, put up a misting tent where people could cool off, plus several small misters around the tree-shaded grounds at Stratham Hill Park, and provided large coolers of drinking water. Families around the show rings watching 4-H livestock competitions expressed gratitude for the large trees shading the rings and animal housing.

Lorraine Merrill, Commissioner                                                             
(reprinted from the Weekly Market Bulletin published by the Department of Agriculture, Markets, & Food, July 27, 2011)