Anoka Independent Feed and Grain is one of Anoka's oldest family run businesses. Ernest Petersen, the first of the Petersens in the grain and feed business, lacked a formal education but was an astute businessman and always in charge of the company. He added the feed mill to the existing Anoka elevator in the late 1940s, grain silos were added in the early 1950s, and the office was added in 1954. In the early 1950s the mill had only two silos, and Ernest's sister Alice handled bookkeeping in the office while his son Fred began by hauling grain and delivering feed to area farmers. Ernest also owned an International Harvester dealership, three turkey farms, and a restaurant. He ran the business until 1993, when health issues led him to turn it over to his sons Fred and David, who ran the feed mill as well as the turkey farm. David left the business in 1999, and in 2009 Fred retired and his son Kevin bought the mill. By the late 1960s feed processing here had reached capacity, so metal grain bins were constructed. A spur rail line brought boxcars of corn and other grains for blending into feed, and the mill mostly mixed feed for farm animals while also carrying pet food and including several granaries on the property. Purchased in 1972, the business had the first round feed trailer in the nation, designed to unload very finely ground turkey feed through doors into an auger and a movable pipe. A storm in late spring 1964 was believed to have sparked a lightning fire that destroyed the old elevator, but the feed mill and office buildings survived. As Anoka County changed from farmland to suburbs, the business shifted from cattle and hog feed to specially blended feeds for hobby farms and poultry farms, along with pet foods, grass seed, and premium wild bird feed.