Business of the Week – Colorado Mills

You help your community thrive when you shop locally!

Be sure to read The Prowers Journal each week when the Lamar Chamber of Commerce
and The Prowers Journal highlight a featured Business of the Week.

This week we are proud to spotlight Colorado Mills.
Give them a call at: 719.336-5882

Colorado Mills is located at 505 East Hickory Street with office hours of 8 am to 5 pm Monday thru Friday. Colorado Mills takes pride in being one of Lamar’s drug free work places and offers an above standard benefits package to its 38 employees. Rick Robbins is the General Manager.

Colorado Mills was founded in 1999 by four families from southeastern Colorado to fulfill a local need for a feed mill. Since its inception as a feed mill, Colorado Mills has developed into an oilseed processing facility and in 2010 expanded to include a food- grade vegetable oil refinery.

In a typical year Colorado Mills purchases 30-35 million pounds of Nusun and High Oleic sunflower seeds from growers in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The majority of the seeds purchased by Colorado Mills are grown within a 250 mile radius of Lamar. These oilseeds are processed and refined into a natural, hexane free food grade sunflower oil.

Most consumers do not realize that hexane, a known toxin, is used to extract the majority of the oils that are consumed, such as canola, soybeans, corn, cotton, peanut, and some olive oils. Although most of the hexane is removed, trace amounts still remain in the majority of oils sold on the market today.

Unlike the majority of vegetable oil producers, Colorado Mills does not use hexane or other harsh chemicals at its oilseed crushing plant. Colorado Mills utilizes an all natural mechanical extraction process to produce a healthier, natural crude oil without any traces of harmful by products. Colorado Mills produces a variety of food grade vegetable oils including, safflower, canola, and corn with sunflower oil as their primary product.

The crude oil is then refined into a high quality cooking oil. The refinery at Colorado Mills is Kosher and organic certified. To help maintain a premium quality, the refinery undergoes an annual third party audit performed by AIB International, Inc. and has been recognized for its high standard of food grade manufacturing practices.

The sunflower and other vegetable oils produced by Colorado Mills can be used in a large variety of applications. Use as a frying oil, in salad dressings and for baked goods are a few examples. Dietary studies by two separate universities have proven sunflower oil made from Nusun and High oleic oilseeds is healthier than olive oil for human consumption. The natural expeller pressed vegetable oils contains zero trans-fat and low levels of saturated fat. Major snack food companies that prefer a healthier oil to produce their products are the primary purchasers of the vegetable oils produced by Colorado Mills.

Colorado Mills produces very little waste by incorporating the oilseed meals as an ingredient for their feed production. Meal is what is left of the oilseeds after the oil has been extracted. High fat oilseed meal is the main component of the various feed types produced by Colorado Mills. They produce up to 800 tons of feed per week for cattle, goats, sheep, horses, and swine. Quality show feeds, range cubes, specialty feeds for growing and finishing calves and custom mixes are also available.

Livestock feed at Colorado Mills is sold by the bulk ton or in pre-packaged 50 pound bags. A trucking service is available to deliver bulk feed orders to customers and is regularly used by patrons within a 250 mile radius of Lamar. Colorado Mills also supplies products to several feed stores in Eastern Colorado.

The unique feed produced from oilseed meal at Colorado Mills is very palatable to livestock. Customers continue to report that cattle fed range cubes from Colorado Mills tend to stay in better condition, produce healthier calves, wean larger calves, and have longer reproductive life with higher conception rates.

Colorado Mills is proud to be part of the agricultural community, and will continue to strive to support and improve the economy of southeast Colorado.

Pictured in order above: Kevin Swanson, Amber Yoho, and Rick Robbins.