A MAJOR new $100 million feedmill has been proposed for Tamworth with plans showing it could produce more than 17,000 tonnes of chicken feed to cater for the city's growing poultry industry.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Tamworth - which has dozens of poultry farms and is home to chicken giant Baiada - would house the new Tangaratta Feedmill off Wallamore Road, on the edge of Taminda.
The huge development by Tangaratta Stockfeeds - which is part of the Baiada Group - would include storage silos, a boiler house, bunkers, a new milling tower as well as a maintenance workshop and administration building.
The project has been deemed a state significant development meaning it will get the final nod from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
The plans have just been publicly released by the state planning department, after being lodged earlier this year.
READ ALSO:
If given the nod, it could process up to 17,500 tonnes of poultry food a week.
Baiada provides the feed for all Baiada-owned poultry facilities in the region.
The proposal has a capital investment value of about $100 million, and the developer said the project "closely aligns" with council's Blueprint 100 vision for Tamworth which identified "the meat and food processing sector has significant potential to expand".
"The proposed development directly responds to the forecast increase in poultry production with the region, which cannot be achieved without a commensurate increase in feed production," the scoping report said.
![The current Tangaratta Feedmill is off Wallamore Road in Tamworth and would be decommissioned once the new feedmill is built. The current Tangaratta Feedmill is off Wallamore Road in Tamworth and would be decommissioned once the new feedmill is built.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/3FRrb3AuBjKJGNhBeTSDxy/e37ba5a6-d522-4d15-8232-e33a97bbe890.png/r0_0_876_493_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The new state-of-the-art feedmill would ultimately replace the smaller, existing feedmill on the site which has been there since 1975.
The developer said the project would "facilitate the forecast growth of poultry production in the New England region to support Baiada's Oakburn Processing Plant", not far away.
The current feedmill on site has approval to produce 10,000 tones of food per week, and would be decommissioned, but not dismantled, to remain a back-up if the new mill failed.
Construction on the new mill is expected to take between 12-15 months, with an additional 12 months needed for the decommissioning. The developer said the build would create about 100 construction jobs.
The existing feedmill already has 15 full time positions but the new production would bump that to 22 full time equivalent positions, and would need to operate 24-hours, seven days a week "to respond to periods of demand".
The developer says there would be 90 heavy vehicle movements a day from the site with 45 trucks in and 45 out.
But once the mill is at full capacity, and the old mill decommissioned, that would rise on average to 63 heavy vehicle trips in and then the same out per day, on a 24/7 basis.
The company says the majority of the trips would occur between 6am to 10pm, but on average seven trucks per hour would run on 24/7 operations.
Baiada is one of the city's biggest employers, with more than 1000 staff including agency and contractors.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News