A corn cob by any other name
By Kevin Schnepp Staff writer

A bunch, no matter how you size it This mountain of corn cobs at The Anderson's in Delphi required about 700 semi truck loads to form, or around 14,000 tons of cobs, according to Curt Brown from the mill. Two other mounds at the mill combined weigh in at another 14,000 tons. Brown said approximately 90 percent of the cobs come from local suppliers such as Select Seeds in Camden or Flora Seeds. The mill is the only one of its kind in Indiana. Although not the largest supply of cobs the mill has stocked, more were accumulated this year than typical due to demands for more corn for ethanol production. Brown said stocking more cobs was no problem. "Nothing is wasted," he said. "The material has many great uses." Those uses include food, medicine, bedding and makeup. Comet photo by Kevin Schnepp

If you've been north of Delphi lately, you may have noticed the cob piles at The Andersons Cob Mill have grown to be larger than usual this year. Or you may not be familiar with the large brown man-made mountains or why they exist. Either way, there's a good chance you're familiar with some products which have corn cobs in them.

Don't leave your coffee in the truck Corn cobs tend to lock together and can be difficult to unload after being shipped. Local cob hauler Mike Eikenberry's trailers have "walking beds" that assist the unloading process. When semi loads such as the one pictured arrive at The Anderson's Cob Mill in Delphi without the convenience of walking floors, they are hoisted to assist the dump procedure. Eikenberry's wife, Myrna, told the Comet the walking floor system helped ease her mind about the unloading process. "It's nice not to have to see the truck up there like that," she said. "But it works when it's needed." Comet photo by Kevin Schnepp

Curt Brown of The Anderson's said 90 percent of the cobs at the mill came from local seed companies such as Select Seeds in Camden or Flora Seeds.

Once unloaded, the cobs are stored in large piles until needed for processing. He said the two large piles and one small heap weighed approximately 28,000 tons combined. It required about 1,400 trucks to haul them.

The mill processes most of its cobs for use as laboratory animal beding. Other uses include pet bedding, cat litter, fur cleaning products, floor-drying material, chemical/pesticide carriers and sand blasting material. On rare occasions the business has supplied cobs for the production of cosmetics. Cobs are shipped worldwide in bags, trucks or on railcars.

The Andersons is the only cob mill in Indiana. Three others exist in the Midwest.

Cob hauling company Tri- State Cob Ltd., also in Delphi, ships cobs to Pennsylvania for use at mushroom farms.

Brown said the demand for corn increased this year to support ethanol production, which made the cob piles grow larger but did not affect prices much.

"The cob business is fairly steady," he said. "The prices don't fluctuate as much as corn does."

New bagging equipment the cob mill installed during the past year made a positive impact on production efficiency according to Brown. He said the mill's parent company in Maumee, Ohio moved its cob processing facility to the Delphi mill, which allowed the mill to avoid being shut down.

The mill has a good location and that helped in the decision according to Brown.

"It's good the company sees the value of what we do here," he said.

Whether more uses are found for corn cobs in the future, the most important feature of cobs is that it is completely useable.

"Nothing is wasted," he said.