Feed Mill Safety: Check These On Your Next Safety Inspection

A good part of our career has been spent in ag-business/agribusiness operations, with a huge part of them being at feed mills- for both day and night shifts.  This episode covers a few big ticket items that we routinely see.  This list can help raise a red flag that there may be some significant risk that can lead to an injury on the horizon.  We hope this helps! 

Summary
In this episode of Safe, Efficient, Profitable, Joe and Jen break down mill safety risks. Core themes and topics discussed: housekeeping & dust control, bin cleanouts and confined space, alone-worker protocols & site security, auger/elevator hazards, and lockout/tagout realities. They emphasize seasonality (winter/ice, summer humidity, harvest chaos), contractor scheduling, and how documentation (permits) exposes program gaps. 

Action Checklist (use on your next mill walkthrough)

Verify dust/housekeeping program- anything requiring contractors, coordinate to manage seasons & contractor/part lead times. 

Spot-check bearings/heat and guard integrity at augers, hammer mills, headhouses etc

Review the last 5 confined space permits —do training, equipment, and rescue plans line up?  If not, give us a call!  www.allen-safety.com

Evaluate alone worker processes, check site security (fences, locks, access points near rail lines) and work in a plan to tighten things down where you're able.

Walk equipment that routinely must be cleaned out, troubleshooting is required, jams, etc and validate LOTO is correct- where to apply the lock, how and who is checking for power. 

Safety Training and Training-Style Floor-Based Safety Audits/Evals:  Allen-Safety.com 
Online safety training: AllenSafetyCoaching.com

Please Like & Share to support us putting out this free worker-safety content.

SEO Keywords: 

mill safety

feed mill safety

grain mill hazards

confined space in mills

auger safety

lockout tagout LOTO

housekeeping dust control

Secondary (long-tail / intent-rich):

mill housekeeping program for combustible dust

bin cleanout confined space rescue plan

rural mill security and lone-worker policy

elevator leg maintenance and guarding checks

MCC room lockout tagout without local disconnect

receiving pit confined space classification

seasonal mill safety winter ice and harvest

bearing heat monitoring in mills

dust program

hammer mills 

augers

feed mill safety checklist 

safety for small crews

This video is intended for educational purposes.  Solutions offered are not designed to take the place of an attorney or medical professional, and should not be taken as legal or medical advice.  It is recommended that viewers consult a safety consultant, medical provider or an occupational safety legal team as applicable to help navigate their specific circumstances.  

For educational purposes, videos may show the inside of manufacturing facilities, including meat and poultry production facilities, commercial farming, feed milling, and petrochemical facilities.  Images shown may depict individual lines and show trained employees working in their daily jobs, however these visuals may not be suitable for all audiences.  Specific job tasks shown are being completed by trained professionals, and should not be attempted without proper training and equipment under the supervision of a professional.  Viewer discretion is advised.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's topic op mill safety issues.
Okay, you know anything aboutmills.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Do actually Well, so do.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
I, so this ought to be a great topic.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I actually got a mill VPP once.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Anyway, a long time ago, here we go.
Welcome back to our channel.
Today we're doing op millsafety issues.
Okay, we have a lot of millsacross the country.
We do.
We've got a lot of locationsthat have mills, complexes where
they have plants, farms, themill attached.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I kind of like this one, because a lot of times it's
hard to get folks out to thephysical mill itself to support
them and they may only have likefive people that work there.
That's what I mean.
So, whether it's a third partyor it's just not in the budget,
sometimes it's hard to get alittle bit of extra help out
there.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
We do all this here and there's the mill in the
background, so all right.
So the first one's going to beis housekeeping.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I know everyone's like well, that's pretty easy.
Why would you have it?
Because it's still a problem.
It's the cleaning routine, it'sthe cleaning cycle.
It's winter, with labor andturnover and elevated work
issues, the housekeeping becomesa challenge.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, I think that that's a great point.
So, even if we are not havingto keep things in an explosion
proof manner, so we're nothaving to deal with certain
seals and class two div threethings, I think that it's
important to really be realisticabout when we have shortened
labor and we've got some otherthings going on.

(01:33):
So people, we all know it'swinter, everybody's sick,
everybody's kids are sick.
Now we're short even more.
Staying on top of some of thatdaily stuff when you're trying
to keep up with ordersAbsolutely Trucks waiting and
they're backing up now and we'retrying to go it does get to be
a challenge.
I know that there's a lot oflocations that have been
battling ice issues, so you'vegot most of your mills in rural

(01:54):
areas besides.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
So now that's where they're at or you get harvest
season, they're backed up, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Everything's kind of thrown into chaos with
everything.
So, yeah, I mean housekeepingtakes a back seat because we've
got all these other morepressing issues.
But just because you don't needto maintain things in an
explosion-proof type environment, you should still have a dust
program, you should still have ahousekeeping program, because
you never know when that buildupof dust, one auger or one

(02:19):
hammer mill is going to have aproblem.
Well, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Get a hole in the guard.
The next thing you know you gotproduct building up.
You get some bearing issues.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, you get some bearing sparks and stuff and
away we go.
Yeah, I mean especially withthe dry air in the winter too.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
One thing we see about the housekeeping is A lot
of it can be elevated work.
If it is, who's going to do it?
What times of year?
What's the scheduling look like?
Maybe I want to do it nextmonth, but the contractor,
whoever used to do it, is bookedfor three months.
I've got a plan that is part ofmy housekeeping schedules.
I go through it.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, I think that it's important to consider, like
I said, weather and time ofyear, because you may not call
getting things unclogged thatare up high.
So if you've got some cloggedlegs or anything like that, you
may not necessarily call thathousekeeping, but summertime,
when it's humid, especially inthe south, we'll see people put

(03:10):
elevation with a hammer beat upstuff, trying to break product
up and get stuff to startflowing again.
And so, whether you callhousekeeping, it's almost like
housekeeping, yes, keeping itclean, but also the repair and
maintenance side, AbsolutelyHousekeeping keeping things in
good condition so that they flowright, work right, we don't get
some of that seepage ofmoisture in there, seals and you

(03:31):
know stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
The other one's being clean outs and, by the way, we
do have a personal podcast thisweek.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
She's been needy this week, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
The bin cleanouts we will see.
Sometimes it's contracted,sometimes it's internal,
sometimes it's time of year,sometimes it's part of a
confined space, so there couldbe different factors going, but
we still see some opportunitiesof bin cleanouts.
Or maybe it's like the slope ofthe inside of it.
Well, we don't need a contractto clean that because it's not
really scary.
But we're going to slide downin here and try to clean that

(04:02):
out a little bit.
But should we really?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
I've seen how we can justify that it's not a confined
space because it adds a lot ofextra stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Because it's being cleaned out.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, and we have to do it, yeah.
So I think one of the biggestthings is that we really just
need to back up and evaluate howwe remove people from that
space Should they have a medicalevent.
It doesn't necessarily alwayshave to be the engulfment,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yes, sometimes the interpoints are way, way high
for some of the stuff they'redoing, or inspection of the bin
before they decide they want toclean it out, and there'll be
way up here.
You're like you got to get themdown from there to here.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yes.
So it's like it's not alwaysengulfment, it's not always the
air is crazy.
People can have a heart attackor a stroke at any time.
You just never know when thoseevents are going to happen.
And so, regardless, we justneed a way to remove that person
safely, and if we don't havethe right equipment or training,
we need to be trying to sourcea contractor that does

(04:55):
Absolutely.
And I will also tell you a bigtip off on if this is a problem,
because we all know at everymill this happens.
We have to clean the binsperiodically.
Your confined space permitsgive you away.
They give you away every time,and so that's the thing that we
just want to make sure is reallyshored up, is because, you know
, is making sure that they alldovetail nicely together with

(05:15):
our program, with our training.
It all fits nicely, becausethat's just one of those PMs
that we know routinely happen,that regulators know.
That's the first thing I canpull to see if we've got a
problem with a whole lot ofother stuff.
And now the citations just takeoff.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Another thing we looked at was the loan protocols
.
Now people say, well, how couldthat be?
Because there's a lot of timesat mills and farms there's one
person, one maintenance or oneperson kind of keeping
everything looked at on theweekend because there's not a
lot of crewing there, so you gotto have some alone and that may
be calling someone every sooften.
But you have to have some kindof protocol to make sure we're

(05:50):
checking on the people well,let's consider the, the mill
property itself.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
some folks have somebody that's out away from
the building, so so whetherthey're doing formulations or
whether they're doing, you know,bringing it, dealing with
trucks or scales or whatever,but we may have someone that's
in a building away doing tasksfrom the main mill itself.
That it's still on the propertyand they still are employed by
the mill.
They're kind of way out thereand they're sort of the first

(06:15):
contact for anybody coming onthe property and they're a
little bit exposed from asecurity standpoint than the
rest of the mill.
In addition to that, the otherthing I would say is going with
more of the security standpointa lot of the mills that we see
in rural areas, response timesto them are not real short,
generally speaking Correct, andwe don't have a great way to

(06:37):
secure them.
So, they're wide open railroadtracks, maybe from behind A lot
of them aren't fenced can driveon the property and walk right
in.
We don't have a way to lockdoors and stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Right, so that was.
My next one was security.
Oh well, there you go, so therewe go.
So we got that handled.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
I worked at a mill.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
That's right.
Protocols could also be wheresomebody's working at night
finishing up a project beforewe're done.
It could be that you knowthere's a contractor there and
that contractor is gettingrelieved at the end of the day
and I'm going to checkeverything they're doing.
So I'm by myself, you know,maybe I go in early and I'm
going to get the equipmentrunning and check everything.
I mean.
So there's there's these weirdtimes or maybe it's just I'm
doing a maintenance task and I'mkind of out there by myself and
we don't think about that.
Person's been out there forlike three hours.
What are they doing.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
A lot of times we do hot work outside the mill.
We have a shop away from themill where we do hot work and
things like that, because wedon't obviously want to really
do it inside the mill.
Any of those security functionsmost of the time.
If we are running 24 hours aday, the off shifts are thin on
people.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
We may have only two or three mats, and they're still
doing everything, still doingoutside, inside.
So the alone secured all kindof ties in together.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
When you're running around trying to do all the
tasks and you're checkingbearings and you're checking
heat and you're doing sensors.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
And it's cold.
You got to figure out how tothaw everything out.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yep, and you're also thing out, yep, and you're also,
you know, in the control roomand trying to run all this stuff
, and then you're going todifferent bend decks.
You may not notice ifsomething's off until way off,
absolutely all right, my uh lastone today.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Uh, for my meal safety.
What do you think it is?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I don't know, you covered elevated work.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Augers.
Yep, what you need to do is youneed to go, look at every auger
.
You have figure out what riskgoes with it, because augers
tell me a story.
Yeah, so if I go to a location,am I doing a sampling?
Where the guarding's right ornot for the auger?
Is the auger down below like areceiving pit, and is it
confined space?
Does the auger when thereceiving pit or the truck or

(08:37):
tractor or trailer or anythingbrings product in?
Now I've got to break it loose,but I've got to have the auger
running for some of that stuff.
So it's you look at augersoverall.
Look, I would take auger safetyand kind of kind of bring it
out and just treat it like it'salmost its own world, like, how
do we manage augers?

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Well, you, Well, you know it's a little bit different
on the ag side as opposed tothe manufacturing side.
We don't ever check theintegrity of any of the guards
that are on the stuff and we dowalk on top of the equipment a
lot Elevator legs.
You know all of that stuff, wewalk on top of all of this so we

(09:13):
have no idea when that's goingto give way or if it's not doing
good underneath because it'sbeing exposed to some moisture
content over time and product.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, so I tried it.
We spend time on these episodeslooking for control, to look to
get your mind opened up.
What are different?

Speaker 2 (09:30):
risks.
Where do you have augers?
Are you walking on them?
That's right.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Are they elevated?
Are you having to go down below?
What if it's a flat ladder andit's cold out?
And I see we did episode of afew weeks ago about look for
where a hose is.
Yeah, well, look, we're anauger.
An auger will tell you a storythat's that's guarding, and
that's bearings and that's heat.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
You know start asking well, why is their footprints
there?
Why is their hammer marks there?
What are we doing?
What are we accessing?
Should we be locking that out?
Are you taking taking the guardoff?
Why are you going into that pitdown there?
Well, should that really be aconfined space?
There's no staircase there, somaybe that's a confined space.
You know my receiving pits fornumber one, but that's where I
start.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
If I was asked to go to a location, it was a mill I
would start with augers.
Start looking around.
Now am I looking at security.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
That would be probably number two for me.
My number one would be I wouldbe looking for where they're
locking out, because most of thetime when the mills were
originally built, there are nolocal disconnects, so everyone
is going to the MCC room to lockout, are they?
Are they going to the MCC?

Speaker 1 (10:31):
room or control panel .
Are we doing?

Speaker 2 (10:32):
that?
Where are we locking out?
How are we checking for power?
That's a good one so lockout isa huge one to me in mills.
So you just want to check andreally ask some questions how
are we physically doing thelockout process?
How are we checking for power?
And then the next question iswho is checking for power?
Because that can be a differentperson than it is applying the

(10:54):
lock sometimes.
So you just want to ask some ofthose questions and see what
your company is good with andhow you want to manage that.
These are opinions.
Yep, these are our opinions,based on our experiences and our
comfort level with things andhow we've seen it regulated
across all the different States,because we have mills and most,
most States and in othercountries if you guys need some
more help or support.

(11:16):
As we've mentioned in the past,joe and I do a lot on the ag
side.
We don't always talk about itand we don't always have
pictures.
Most of the time is because wecan't bring in cameras to my
farms because I can't shower inwith those.
I don't have them when I'm atthe mills either, but we do do a
lot with mills, so if you needsome support, you need some help
you were looking for.
Maybe a one-day safetyevaluation Got you.
Allen-safetycom is where you'dgo for that.

(11:38):
Otherwise,allensafetycoachingcom is a
great resource Also.
I just want to remind you guys,liking and sharing these is so
incredible.
Yeah, let's like something,things and we'll do an episode
on this later.
But things I wish I would haveknown when I started being a
content creator is how hard itwould be to get folks to engage
with the channel, just becausewe don't all want to make a big

(11:58):
announcement Like, hey, maybe Ididn't know that or you know,
whatever.
But liking and sharing and allof that good stuff really does
help us.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Spoiler alert we are not turning a massive profit.
This is community service.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Community service and volunteer hours.
So, like I said, any little bithelps and we really do truly
appreciate it.
And until next time we'll seeyou later Stay safe.
Thank you for listening to safe, efficient, profitable a worker
safety podcast.
If you're looking for morein-depth discussions or
step-by-step solutions on all ofthe different safety and
regulatory topics, please visitus at wwwallensafetycoachingcom

(12:36):
for web-based virtual coachingand training, or at
wwwallensafetycom to book ourteam for onsite services,
training sessions to ordermerchandise, to learn more about
our team and what services weprovide in the field, or just
simply to request a topic for usto cover on our next podcast.
If you found today's podcasthelpful and would like to
support our podcast further,please help us by subscribing,

(12:58):
liking and sharing this podcastwith anyone that could benefit
from the information we coverhere, as that helps us to
continue to put out this freecontent.
Thank you.