PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 20

PLANT PROFILE

it because honestly it took us a year to figure out how to do
it efficiently. It's labor intensive with many moving parts."
Muenster is up to 300 dry pet food SKUs for this
business line and quite a few customers are waiting on
freeze-dried to expand their private label offerings. The
company's goal is to offer as much as possible to each
store. "We are very diverse for as little as we are," Mitch
says. "We have to be because we are regional." Offering
more or different products is nothing new for the nearly
century-old company.

No one-trick pony

Over the course of 87 years, four generations of
Felderhoffs have had to pivot and adjust as markets
changed, business evaporated, and new opportunities presented themselves. Muenster Milling was opened in 1932
by the current owners' great-grandfather, Joe Felderhoff.
Joe was a sharecropper in Muenster and, with backing
from a couple of the local farmers, he began milling flour.
When Joe died unexpectedly, his son Arthur eventually took over the business and in time welcomed his son,
Ronnie, into the company. When flour became cheaper to
purchase in Kansas City than it cost for Muenster to mill
it, the company converted the mill to livestock feed.
At one point, Cook County, Texas, where Muenster
Milling is located, had 108 dairy farms, many of which
produced cheese. Muenster supplied feed to the majority of those dairies until the cheese plants consolidated
and formed a co-op with several of the other local dairies and built a large facility in Amarillo, Texas. Muenster
tried to replace the business lost by manufacturing livestock feed for beef cattle and for show animals. "We
made good product and business was OK, but all five
other feed mills in the area tried to do the same thing,"
Mitch says. "It was very competitive with low margins,
so Dad and Grandpa put in an extruder in 1989."
One of the first products they produced using a combination of extruded kibble, livestock feed and show rations was Emu and Ostrich feed. That business quickly
ramped up and Muenster was running around the clock
to keep up. Unfortunately, less than three years later, that
market died.
For the next five or six years, the company produced
whatever it could and settled into extruded horse feed.
Then in 1999, Muenster produced its first all-natural dry
dog food and that has been a primary focus until the
Top: Muenster's packaging capabilities range from a package size
of 1 oz. up to more than 25 lbs.
Middle: Muenster prints labels in-house for My Custom Pet Store
private label retail customers.
Bottom: Muenster's two warehouses can store more than 2,800
pallets of finished product.

20

PET FOOD PROCESSING | September 2019 | www.petfoodprocessing.net


http://www.petfoodprocessing.net

PET Food Processing - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PET Food Processing - September 2019

PET Food Processing - September 2019
CONTENTS
OFF THE LEASH - JOINT EFFORT
TRENDS - COMPLIANCE retooling
PLANT PROFILE - FREEZING IN TEXAS
FOOD SAFETY - Navigating FSMA inspections
REGULATORY - it's time
FEATURE EVENT - COLD KIBBLE
INGREDIENTS - BOOSTING the appeal
FORMULATION - THE PULSE ON PULSES
UNDERSTANDING DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY
EQUIPMENT - CUTTING them down to size
EQUIPMENT - NO STRINGS ATTACHED
OPERATIONS - improved EFFICIENCIES
PACKAGING - ADEPT AT ADAPTING
BEST IN SHOW
PATENTS TO PONDER
EVENTS
SIT, STAY, READ
AD INDEX
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - PET Food Processing - September 2019
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - PET Food Processing - September 2019
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 2
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 3
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 4
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - CONTENTS
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - OFF THE LEASH - JOINT EFFORT
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 7
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 8
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - TRENDS - COMPLIANCE retooling
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 10
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 11
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 12
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 13
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - PLANT PROFILE - FREEZING IN TEXAS
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 15
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 16
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 17
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 18
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 19
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 20
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 21
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 22
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - FOOD SAFETY - Navigating FSMA inspections
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 24
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 25
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 26
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 27
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 28
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - REGULATORY - it's time
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 30
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 31
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - FEATURE EVENT - COLD KIBBLE
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 33
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - INGREDIENTS - BOOSTING the appeal
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 35
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 36
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 37
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 38
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 39
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 40
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - FORMULATION - THE PULSE ON PULSES
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 42
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 43
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - UNDERSTANDING DILATED CARDIOMYOPATHY
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 45
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 46
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - EQUIPMENT - CUTTING them down to size
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 48
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 49
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 50
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 51
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 52
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - EQUIPMENT - NO STRINGS ATTACHED
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 54
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 55
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 56
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - OPERATIONS - improved EFFICIENCIES
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 58
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 59
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 60
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - PACKAGING - ADEPT AT ADAPTING
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 62
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 63
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 64
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 65
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 66
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 67
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - BEST IN SHOW
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 69
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 70
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - PATENTS TO PONDER
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - EVENTS
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - SIT, STAY, READ
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - AD INDEX
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 75
PET Food Processing - September 2019 - 76
https://www.nxtbook.com/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-november-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-september-2024
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-july-2024
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-may-2024
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-march-2024
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-january-2024
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-november-2023
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-september-2023
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-july-2023
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-may-2023
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-march-2023
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-december-2022
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-october-2022
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-september-2022
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/-pet-food-processing-june-2022
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-march-2022
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-december-2021
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-october-2021
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-september-2021
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-june-2021
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/pet-food-processing-march-2021
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2020_12_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2020_10_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2020_09_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2020_06_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2020_03_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2019_12_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2019_10_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2019_09_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2019_06_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2019_03_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2018_12_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2018_09_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2018_06_01
https://digital.petfoodprocessing.net/sosland/pfp/2018_03_01
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com