Osky H&S owners acquire Lynnville location

Channing Rucks, The Oskaloosa Herald, Iowa
·2 min read

Oct. 29—OSKALOOSA — H&S's Oskaloosa location will be expanding and offering more services in-house after a local acquisition by owners Byron and Cindy Eekhoff.

The Eekhoffs have owned and operated the Oskaloosa H&S Feed Store since they bought the location in 2004.

"We purchased the Osky store in 2004 and expanded the retail side of that, then relocated it to where it is today," Byron Eekhoff said. "We've been serving area cattle producers and pet and horse and acreage owners ever since."

As of Oct. 1, the Eekhoffs have expanded their business by opening Diamond Trail Feed in Lynnville at the former Renaud Feed Center Inc. Byron Eekhoff says that in opening Diamond Trail Feed, he hopes to continue the work of Dennis and Melanie Renaud in supplying ground and mixed feed to both the existing customer base in Lynnville and customers of H&S in Oskaloosa.

"This will be an extension of the Oskaloosa store," Byron Eekhoff said. "It'll be a manufacturing extension, so we'll be able to grind and mix feed here for not only the customer base that Renauds have developed, but also our H&S customers will be serviced out of here."

The new acquisition will allow the Eekhoffs to grind and mix their feed in-house. Previously, the grinding process was outsourced and then sold to H&S customers.

So far, the Eekhoffs have hit the ground running.

"We have not had any interruptions to service," Byron Eekhoff said. "That was important to us. The mill ran day one, and it ran up until we took over. We're running it every day since. We're continuing to run the mill, operate the mill while we're upgrading it."

Those upgrades include changing some existing equipment, removing old equipment and bringing new equipment in, all to make the mill more efficient and flexible so it can serve more customers, Byron Eekhoff said. Going forward, Byron Eekhoff wants to focus on being a "small batch cattle feed mill, serving customers with straight truck size loads of feed instead of semis."

"We're just going to try to keep the people the same here and the products that they've offered here the same," Byron Eekhoff said. "We're going to add some other products here, such as Purina Mills."

The Eekhoffs are looking forward to continuing to serve the area's feed needs from both of their locations.

Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com.