When it comes to manufacturers of animal feed products in Ireland, the name Corby Rock Mill is synonymous with quality. Across the poultry and ruminant range, the Quinn-family owned outfit is a market leader.
Corby Rock Mill was set up in 1975 by George Quinn principally to ensure high quality feeds for sister company Corby Rock Eggs. Now it has a thriving trade in poultry and ruminant markets throughout Ireland.
George Quinn’s grandson Mark is the company’s Technical Director and he explains “Corby Rock Mill has achieved the many certified accolades, as manufacturers of animal and poultry feed products. Our company works to the highest standards. We hold many accolades to produce quality feed stuff to include Board Bia, Department of Agriculture, Tesco, UFAS, ISO, Marks and Spencer’s and Lion code approval.”
Corby Rock’s stated aim is to become market leader with the quality and value of its products. “We’re never going to be the cheapest but we stand by our feeds in terms of quality. They are good, honest, feeds that perform very well,” explained Sales Manager Paul McArdle.
“We’re lucky in the fact that we’re able to produce a wide range of feeds, across poultry and ruminant sectors, and that’s one of our big selling points.”
Corby Rock pursues a policy of consistently keeping in touch with new developments in relation to new feed products within livestock and poultry production and their research has stood the company in good-stead in the past. Looking ahead to the future, research and development remains a cornerstone of their business model.
Mill Manager Damien Duffy elaborated further: “Corby Rock was the largest egg producer in the country in the eighties and supplied all the major supermarkets.
“Then in 1988 Corby Rock mill liaised with the Department of Agriculture to develop a method of pasteurising feed at the point of manufacture. The egg industry was after receiving a massive shock through the news that the British Minister for Health had highlighted health issues with eggs.
“George Quinn started to look across Europe for methods of heat treating feed and Corby Rock was the first company in Ireland to install heat treating equipment to pasteurise the feed.
“The Hygeniser was the first of its kind installed in Ireland and, following this, it was made mandatory in Ireland that all feed for layers be heat treated.”
From there Corby Rock became one of the leading manufacturers of poultry feeds in Ireland. They currently produce over 120,000 tonnes of poultry feed per annum and supplies a large number of egg and chicken producers in the country.
Corby Rock Mill has a large range of quality poultry feeds covering all systems of production within the poultry sector to include pellets, meal and mash form. The range of feeds covers breeder rearing and laying through to broiler production. Corby Rock Mill also covers commercial rearing feeds right through to lay. Along with these feeds Corby Rock Mill have other poultry range, this covers other species of birds.
Having the knowledge that the Quinn family have on egg and poultry production is a very valuable asset that Corby Rock Mill retains in their own rearing and egg production, this allows them to carry out trials on feeds and ensures they only produce the highest quality feed for their customers.
Corby Rock have a very close relationship with their poultry customers, always keeping up to date with performance coming from their feeds and this allows them to make any changes necessary to keep quality at its utmost.
The company’s state of the art milling technologies ensure consistent product quality and they provide a nutritional and advisory back-up service to ensure optimum production at all times.
A first class all-important delivery service to cater for all farmers needs while Corby Rock’s state of the art feed mill is complimented with a unique nutritional package incorporating a top class technical nutritional service and a well researched portfolio of the very best ingredients available.
Their technical nutritional team designs their nutritional package based on sound research and after in-depth consultation with their customers.
This ensures that Corby Rock Mill meets the nutritional demands leading to more profitable production and performance.
Their well researched nutritional package contains a unique range of ingredients that gives Corby Rock the edge over the competition.
So how is the market treating Corby Rock Mill at this point in time?
“Poultry is pretty steady, it is going extremely well, sales have progressively increased over the past few years,” Paul McArdle replied. “The ruminant end of things is determined by weather and fodder for the summer months. It’s coming under pressure at the minute with the price of beef and I feel in the short term quota restrictions will not help sales. Long term we would envisage the ruminant sales increasing.
“Another challenge is the volatility in the raw material market which has a knock-on effect on the price of the finished feed.”
It’s plain to be seen that Corby Rock is not known for resting on their laurels and the ever-burgeoning company is currently in the midst of expanding its operation at their Monaghan premises which is located on the Ballybay Road.
“18 months ago we put in automatic mineral caracals and a new press for pelleting feed in the ruminant mill and we’re currently in the process of expanding our poultry mill,” revealed Damien Duffy. “There is a two year expansion plan in place, we will be increasing our storage capacity for finished feed and raw materials, and have planes in place for new equipment to increase throughout through the poultry mill.”
There’s no sitting still at Corby Rock!
Corby Rock Mill
Ballybay Road
Monaghan
Co.Monaghan
Tel: +353 (47) 30099
Fax: +353 (47) 71452
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.corbyrock.ie
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 2 No 3, August 2014
