The Equipment Manufacturers Committee (EMC) of the American Feed Industry Association has awarded Mississippi State University (MSU) a $5,000 annual scholarship for undergraduate students pursuing careers in the animal food industry, making MSU the eighth school in the program.
The award follows a May 7, 2026, groundbreaking ceremony for a new poultry feed mill on the university's Starkville campus. The facility will give students hands-on training in feed manufacturing and is expected to strengthen ties between the university and industry partners.
"Having a fully functional feed mill on campus will be an invaluable tool to help prepare students for a career in the animal food industry," said Gary Huddleston, AFIA's senior director of feed manufacturing and regulatory affairs. Huddleston credited Kelly Wamsley, an academic in Mississippi State's poultry science department, for her work as an advisor to AFIA's Production Compliance Committee and the EMC.
The EMC represents equipment manufacturer members within AFIA and supports regulatory, environmental and safety compliance efforts across the animal food industry. Funding scholarships for grain and feed science students has been a longtime priority for the committee.
The program's fund held steady at roughly $28,000 for years, with $1,500 awarded annually, before the committee launched fundraising initiatives in 2007 to expand it. Growth has continued through partnerships with the Production Compliance Committee and the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER), which administers the scholarship program and contributes $10,000 to it annually. In 2024, the Production Compliance Committee restructured its Feed Facility of the Year program so that all proceeds go to the scholarship fund.
The program now awards eight annual $5,000 scholarships to institutions with ties to AFIA. Besides Mississippi State, the current partner schools are Auburn University, California Polytechnic State University, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, North Carolina State University, North Dakota State University and West Virginia University.
"The EMC is thrilled to be able to expand the scholarship program through the hard work of the committee members and AFIA staff," said Jonathan Cowles, EMC chair and vice president of sales for WL Port-Land Systems. Cowles said the program has awarded $320,000 in scholarships since its founding.
About Mississippi State's new feed mill
Mississippi State University broke ground on a new poultry feed mill at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station's H.H. Leveck Animal Research Center, known as MSU's South Farm. 
Groundbreaking for Mississippi States new poultry feed millPhoto by David Ammon
The modular, containerized system, manufactured by Netherlands-based Ottevanger Milling Engineers, will give students hands-on manufacturing training while allowing MSU researchers to produce controlled test batches for trials. The compact system has a planned capacity of 2-3 tons per hour and will handle intake, grinding, mixing, pelleting and bagging.
"Feed and feed manufacturing account for most operational costs for poultry producers, and proper nutrition is essential to poultry health, growth and production," said Kelley Wamsley, MSU poultry science professor and MAFES scientist. Wamsley said the mill will complement the university's existing commercial facilities and give students a better understanding of the industry "from farm to fork."
The project was funded through gifts from Mississippi's poultry industry, including Wayne-Sanderson Farms, Cal-Maine Foods, Koch Foods, Pilgrim's Pride and others, guided by a feed mill advisory board established in 2020.
