about the star milling company
A HISTORY OF QUALITY AND GROWTH
On the left standing in front of the palletizing robot is Bill Cramer, President of Star Milling Co. Next is his cousin, Todd Cramer, manager of Manchester Feeds out in Poston, AZ, where they make all of the hay pellets, and Bill's father Richard Cramer, Star Milling CFO. |
The Cramer family's involvement in agriculture began at Walnut, California in the 1920s. Olin Cramer owned a 3000 chicken egg farm in which he made his own feed. Now, more than 80 years later and through the effort of his father Richard, current Star Milling President and owner Bill Cramer is proud to say that the mill now feeds about 2.5 million chickens in southern California along with countless numbers of fish, rabbits, pigs, horses, dogs and most anything else that eats.
Yet even with such tremendous growth Bill Cramer said the character of the company has not changed dramatically -“It’s still family owned, with a personal commitment to quality and good manufacturing practices.” “In fact,” Bill said, “ you really need to know the family history to know the business.”
Bill’s father, Richard got his start in the egg business in the 1950’s after graduating from college, in the 60’s he began producing feed not only for his own farms, but for others as well. Then, in 1970, he bought Star Milling Co. in Perris, California from Homer Thomas. This modern commercial mill had just been built about 8 years before and was in a great location where the family business could be relocated from the old mill in Anaheim.
Since that purchase back in 1970, the mill has continued to grow and diversify. In 1988, to expand their line, the extruder was put into place for the manufacturing of dog food, cat food, and commercial fish food. Many other additions to the mill have been made including new electrical and computer systems that increase automation along with added storage in the form of large grain tanks for corn and warehouse additions for finished sack feed. Even a fully automated bagging system was put in place in 1992 that uses a robot to palletize all the sacks.
Our hay pellets are made at Manchester Feeds in Poston, AZ, managed by Bill's cousin, Todd Cramer.
“The mill continues to change as the demographics around us change”, Bill says. As commercial feeding is reduced through the relocation of the large dairy and poultry farms in the region, a heavier emphasis is being made to serve commercial aquaculture, project animals and home livestock, along with companion animals such as horses, dogs and cats. Star Milling has the equipment and the technical knowledge to produce a wide range of feeds for many species that other manufactures just aren’t able to do. Bill also recognizes that it just isn’t the mill itself that produces the feed, “people here are very loyal, and very conscientious,” he said.” everyone takes their job very seriously and has a true concern for the customer.”
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