Century celebration for horse feed specialist

Besides feeding show animals and derby winners with well-known horse feed such as Gro ‘n Win and EQ8 Gut Health, Buckeye Nutrition also has food for livestock, cats, dogs, birds and even lamas and guinea pigs.

 

“We feed all animals and we care about all of them,” said Vicki Hershey, quality assurance manager. She said associates are even allowed to bring their pets to work.

 

In 2007, Buckeye Nutrition received certification for Safe Feed/Safe Food by the American Feed Industry Association. “We’re really proud of that,” Hershey said.

 

The company celebrated its 100^th anniversary with a “class reunion” of past and present associates earlier this month.

 

The 100-year history of Buckeye Nutrition is an interesting one. In 1910, a flour milling operation was opened by the Pocock Family in Massillon.

 

The company, then known as The Buckeye Cereal Company, also acquired a grain-buying station in Dalton where they used the by-products from their flour ingredients to produce livestock feeds, which they named Buckeye Quality Feeds.

 

In 1943, a fire destroyed the main Massillon facility. The Pocock family sold the warehouse and feed mill in Dalton to management, who changed the name to Buckeye Feed Mills.

 

In 1969, tragedy struck again and the Dalton plant was destroyed by fire.

 

Because of Buckeye’s excellent reputation in the industry, 13 local and national companies produced Buckeye products for them until the new plant – which is in use today – could be completed.

 

In the 1980s, the high quality signature equine supplement Gro ’n Win led Buckeye to move into the international market. Queen Elizabeth of England ordered the product for her horses when she found that her horses on return from the US dropped larger foals.

 

Between 1996 and 2005, the company was bought and sold several times until it was acquired in September 2005 by Mars Inc.