From large cattle ranches to backyard poultry flocks – and even to hens producing specialty eggs that are shipped across the nation. All of these animals need feed.
Today we’ll meet an innovative animal feed processing company that is growing rapidly to serve a wide variety of customer needs.
Shane Curry is the owner of Perry Milling Feed & Supply. He grew up in Waverly, attended Kansas State University and completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Emporia State University.
Curry built a successful career in the business world, rising to vice president at the Cerner Corporation. At one point, he managed approximately 3,000 people across multiple time zones – from the United States to Bangalore (India) to Dubai.
“I learned a lot, but it was 24-7, 365 days a year, and every time zone,” Curry said. As he and his wife Kelli were raising young children – twin daughters and a son – Curry began looking for a career with less travel.
He also maintained a small cow-calf operation near Oskaloosa. After all, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.
Curry purchased feed for his cattle from the local feed store in Perry.
“I approached them about selling and bought the feed mill in 2018,” Curry said. He left Cerner and focused on growing the feed business. In 2024, he purchased the feed mill in his hometown of Waverly.
Now, expansion continues. Curry is in the process of acquiring an 850,000 bushel capacity grain elevator and pellet mill at Emporia.
It may seem unusual to see a small‑town business acquire a facility in a larger city. After all, Perry is a town of 852 people and Waverly is a rural community of 574 people. Now, that’s rural.
However, Perry Milling’s growth has positioned it to pursue opportunities far beyond the scale of its hometowns.
With the acquisition of the Emporia facility, Perry Milling becomes one of the largest independent feed companies in Kansas. Employment has grown tenfold since 2018.
What is the key to this growth?
“It’s basic customer service,” Curry said. “We provide premier customer service and a high quality product. We have great employees and work hard to retain them.”
Perry Milling Feed & Supply is a feed store and much more, including a custom feed milling operation. The company sources grain locally and partners with farmers who grow specialty items such as peas and non-GMO roasted soybeans.
Perry Milling provides premium custom feeds, both bulk and bagged, as well as pet food and farm supplies. It serves all species, including cattle, swine, goats, sheep, horses, dogs and cats; and such specialty animals as llamas, alpacas, deer, rabbits and wild birds.
“We work with a lot of ranches in the Flint Hills, providing range cubes and mineral,” Curry said.
Animal health is a priority. Feed and mineral programs can be customized for production livestock and show stock.
“We’re closer to a nutrition company than your average feed store,” he said. “We handle both non-GMO and conventional products.”
Perry Milling continues to innovate: “We’ll soon be adding an organics division,” Curry said. “At Emporia, we plan to install a robotic bagging system that can handle 100 tons per day.”
At the Perry facility, construction is underway on a new scale and overhead bins to improve loading efficiency. The site is also home to Perry Milling Mercantile where local producers can market their goods.
The Waverly facility serves as a hub for specialty egg production. “We’re the feed company for Nourish Food Club in Michigan,” Curry said. That business ships low-polyunsaturated-fat eggs across the nation.
“There’s no customer too big or too small for us. We’re growing fast.”
For more information, see www.perrymilling.com.
From large Flint Hills ranches to backyard poultry flocks, all these animals need feed. We commend Shane Curry and all those involved with Perry Milling Feed & Supply for responding to market demand and making a difference with innovation and growth.
They are not just growing animals, they are growing a business.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
