‘Top or the Rockies’ alfalfa cubes are well on their way to being an international success. They are selling in WalMart and Sam’s Clubs stores, and feed stores in over thirty states.  Alfalfa cubes are also selling in foreign countries as well, among them Sweden, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the United Arab Emirates where horse breeders are seeking to increase endurance in their Arabian breeds for equine performance events.

Although most ‘Top of the Rockies’ brand alfalfa cubes sell as horse feed, Manzanola Feeds also provides feed to a zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, and the cubes are sold in smaller bags as hamster feed.

And it is no wonder, Southeastern Colorado’s alfalfa is legendary for its high protein content and quality feed properties. ‘Top of the Rockies" alfalfa cubes are made out of new crop alfalfa hay (alfalfa produced during the current growing season). Freshness insures higher protein quality.

The alfalfa is chopped at the farmer’s stack and trucked to the plant where it is dumped into an outside pit. Then the chopped alfalfa is metered inside via a conveyer where it is mixed with water and a mold inhibitor. The chopped mixture is then dropped into the cubing machine where it is compressed into one by three-inch cubes. The cubes come out of the cubing machine at a temperature of around 105 degrees, and are then sent out to a chamber to cool for twenty minutes. At that time the cubes are sent via a conveyor to another warehouse where they are bagged and stacked on pallets to await shipping.

Melvin Neugebauer of Manzanola, Colorado and his brother Marty Neugebauer of Holly, Colorado, the owners of Manzanola Feeds have been producing alfalfa cubes for over twenty-five years, recently expanding operations to include a Lamar, Colorado facility as well. "Urbanization of the front range has increased the marketing of our product in these areas," said Melvin Neugebauer adding that the cubes do not long remain in storage, "We make ‘em and ship ‘em."