In the early 1960s, Bob and Bonnie Hall purchased a small feed mill in Lexington to serve area farmers and livestock producers. Over the past 55 years, and with the help of their two children, Lee and Julia, the Hall family has grown Hallway Feeds into a global enterprise that helps fuel the equine industry. The company’s customized horse feed blends are distributed throughout North America, as well as to markets in Europe, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Bob and Bonnie Hall founded Hallway Feeds, then known as Farmers Feed Mill, in 1964. Bonnie Hall passed away in 2017.
Employing 31 people, Hallway Feeds produces an average of 200 tons of feed daily at its manufacturing plant on West Loudon Avenue. Hallway Feeds’ blends have fed 13 of the past 23 Kentucky Derby winners, including American Pharoah, Justify and Animal Kingdom; as well as, at some point, the winner of every Grade 1 race in North America. More recently, its products nourished a filly sired by American Pharoah that sold for a record-breaking $8.2 million at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The company’s products also feed many of the Thoroughbreds that will race at Keeneland during its upcoming fall meet, Oct. 4–26.
“There’s a lot of pride in knowing that people in those markets have sought out this feed company in Lexington, Kentucky, because of the influence we’ve had in the Thoroughbred industry,” said Lee Hall, the company’s vice president.
“There’s a lot of pride in knowing that people ... have sought out this feed company in Lexington, Kentucky, because of the influence we’ve had in the Thoroughbred industry." —Lee Hall
While the business has evolved over the decades, the Hall family and their values remain steadfast—excellent customer service, a relationship-based culture, faith and a commitment to quality. The company’s ability to embrace change within the framework of its founding principles is a big reason why, in August, Commerce Lexington recognized Hallway Feeds as its Small Business of the Year during the 2019 Salute to Small Business Awards. Mayor Linda Gorton also stopped by recently to visit their manufacturing and distribution plant where, last May, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivered a speech on economic development during a Lexington visit.
Adam Padgett
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, shown here with, from left, former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin and general manager Jeff Pendleton, visited Hallway Feeds in May.
But lasting success is not without its challenges. As Lexington transitioned from a rural economy to a more urban-centric one, animal and tobacco production decreased, leaving the Hall family with fewer livestock to feed. And when many of the dairy farms that once surrounded Lexington disappeared and horse farms began to grow in prominence, Hallway Feeds recognized a new opportunity.
“The market kind of forced us to change and the good Lord showed us a path to get there,” Lee Hall said.
Agriculture is embedded in the DNA of the Hall family. Bob Hall—everyone calls him Mr. Bob—is descended from ancestors who have farmed in Scott County since the late 1700s. The farm he lives on today has been in the family since the 1870s.
In 1964, Bob Hall, with the encouragement of his wife, Bonnie, purchased a local feed mill called Farmers Feed Mill. “My wife said if you’re going to be working this hard, you should be doing it for yourself,” Hall said.
Initially, they made feed for all animal agriculture in the Central Kentucky region. Kentucky had 133,038 farms in 1964, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture census, and there were plenty of customers. Lee Hall recalls when even the land where Kroger Field sits today was farmland owned by the University of Kentucky.
While in college at UK, Lee also recalls driving past rows of tobacco warehouses that lined South Broadway. “When your windows were rolled down, you would smell tobacco,” he said.
The mill introduced its Hallway Feeds brand and made its first custom blended horse feed in the mid-1970s. The company moved to its current production facility in 1986. In those days, horse nutrition was a one-size-fits-all proposition. Now customized feed is a norm in the industry—pioneered largely by Hallway Feeds—and the company can mix in any number of additives and customize proportions in its drug-, antibiotic- and medicine-free feed.
“Horseracing is a sport. You’re raising an athlete,” Lee Hall said.
For this reason, Hallway Feeds pays particular attention to every link in its supply chain.
“We have a single supplier for every ingredient, and we have long-standing relationships with all of our suppliers," said marketing and sales manager Anthony Koch. "All of our corn comes from one farm in Indiana. All of the alfalfa is from a farm in Ohio. All the oats are from one supplier out west. It’s the ultimate in traceability and how we know we’re getting the best ingredients.”
In addition to the ability to adjust feeds based on the nutritional needs of their horses, customers also appreciate the responsive communication and ongoing relationship they enjoy with Hallway Feeds. “One of the things that makes our business unique is the accessibility that our customers have to us as a business,” Lee Hall said. “They can walk in the door or call and they can speak directly with the owners of the company.”
In 2015, Hallway Feeds installed an automated production system to help receive and manufacture its feed. In 2018, its added three robots on the packaging and stacking lines to help with the bagging process.
“Our maintenance team used to carry hammers and grease guns. Now they carry hammers, grease guns and a laptop so they can plug in and tell us what’s wrong,” Koch said. “When I started, if we ever bagged 100 tons of feed in a day Mr. Bob bought us all lunch. The other day, we bagged over 247 tons of feed.”
Family meals are still a common occurrence at Hallway Feeds, as are celebrations for birthdays and work anniversaries. Additionally, the company runs just one shift—from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday—so that employees can spend more time with their families.
“Mom and Dad set the foundation for the tenets that guide us today,” said daughter Julia Hall, whose official title is Vice President of First Impressions. “That’s accessibility to us; that’s an arm of service—treating people as family … is a good thing.”
Those close relationships also help instill a sense of pride.
“Our employees know, on a Monday morning after a big stakes race, that our products fed the winner, or the first three finishers or a Triple Crown winner,” Lee Hall said. “This is our community—we grew up here, we live here—we want to see it succeed and maintain its unique culture.”