diff --git a/mctcore/src/main/java/gov/nasa/arc/mct/gui/FeedView.java b/mctcore/src/main/java/gov/nasa/arc/mct/gui/FeedView.java
index 6b03bb4f..36ef9455 100644
--- a/mctcore/src/main/java/gov/nasa/arc/mct/gui/FeedView.java
+++ b/mctcore/src/main/java/gov/nasa/arc/mct/gui/FeedView.java
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@
 import gov.nasa.arc.mct.components.AbstractComponent;
 import gov.nasa.arc.mct.components.FeedProvider;
 import gov.nasa.arc.mct.services.component.ViewInfo;
-
+import gov.nasa.arc.mct.util.property.MCTProperties;
+
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -36,10 +37,13 @@
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.Semaphore;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
-
+
 import javax.swing.SwingWorker;
 import javax.swing.event.AncestorEvent;
 import javax.swing.event.AncestorListener;
+
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 /**
  * This is the super class for feed displays. All feed views are painted by periodic feed data
@@ -49,10 +53,12 @@
  * <li>Override {@link #updateFromFeed(Map)} to refresh the view with the incoming data set.</li>
  * </ul>
  */
-public abstract class FeedView extends View {
+public abstract class FeedView extends View {
+    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(FeedView.class);
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
-    private static final int PAINT_RATE = 250; // paint rate in milliseconds
-    private static final FeedRenderingPool feedPool = new FeedRenderingPool(PAINT_RATE);
+    private static final int PAINT_RATE = getPaintRate();    
+    private static final FeedRenderingPool feedPool = new FeedRenderingPool(PAINT_RATE);
+    
     /**
      * The maximum number of data points that are returned from a data request. This will cause the
      * requests to be split into a number of requests that the client will need to merge as they are completed. 
@@ -420,5 +426,20 @@ public static Set<FeedView> getAllActiveFeedManifestations() {
     
     static void resetLastDataRequestTimeToCurrentTime() {
         feedPool.resetLastDataRequestTimeToCurrentTime();
+    }
+    
+    /**
+     * get Paint Rate from property file, or use the default value 250 milliseconds
+     * If the user input is in wrong format, log the error and use the default value
+     * @return paint rate
+     */
+    private static int getPaintRate() {
+        int paint_rate = 250;
+        try {
+            paint_rate = Integer.parseInt(MCTProperties.DEFAULT_MCT_PROPERTIES.getProperty("mct.feed.paint.rate", "250"));
+        } catch (NumberFormatException ex) {
+            logger.warn("Wrong input format for mct.feed.paint.rate. Need to input an integer. Defaulting to 250 ms.");
+        } 
+        return paint_rate;
     }
 }
diff --git a/platform-assembly/src/main/resources/properties/mct.properties b/platform-assembly/src/main/resources/properties/mct.properties
index bd29ff64..3e30c17c 100644
--- a/platform-assembly/src/main/resources/properties/mct.properties
+++ b/platform-assembly/src/main/resources/properties/mct.properties
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@ default.user.group=Users
 # Menu names can be overridden here
 mct.menu.this=File
 
+# Paint rate at which views of data feeds are refreshed, in milliseconds
+mct.feed.paint.rate=250
+
 # change the set of packages made available on the OSGI bootclass loader
 org.osgi.framework.bootdelegation=javax.xml.bind, \
 	javax.accessibility,\