Mini feed mill: key features and reviews

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The market for micronutrients is booming these days, and having your own grain feed makes buying something like a mini feed mill a worthwhile investment. Depending on the capacity of the installation, it pays for itself in about 4-12 months.

Description of structures

Mini-factories from different manufacturers ("Dose", "Prok", "Ku" and "Klad") have almost the same design and principle of operation.

They include the following components:

• hammer crusher equipped with a hopper;
• screw vertical mixer and container for receiving and mixing raw materials;
• BMVD with crushed key grain;
• control panel;
• electric drive.

Any mini feed mill has a special device that captures metal impurities and stones. Depending on the manufacturer and configuration of the device, its performance can be 150-1300 kilograms per hour.

Prok-150 characteristics

This manufacturer is one of the most common. Compound feed mini-plant "Prok-150" includes a frame where there is a crusher with grainbunker, mixers with a funnel for premixes. It has a special dust filter, as well as a nozzle that helps unload the feed.

Working principle

The technological process of compound feed production through this plant is as follows:

• fill the feed grain into the receiving hopper;
• there it is separated from stones and metal impurities, then enters the hammer mill;
• then sieved to the desired fraction by means of pressure in the fan;
• crushed product passes through the wire into the mixing hopper;
• together with the compound feed, mineral supplements captured by the auger are poured into the funnel;
• they move up and mix with the main raw material;
• from the top of the mixture goes down, the cycle occurs for 15-20 minutes;
• at the end it is unloaded through the unloading pipe;
• dust that appears during mixing and crushing enters a special filter.

The performance of this brand is 150 kilograms per hour.

Description of Doza Agro plant and others

Designs of different brands have maximum performance. One of them is the Doza mini feed mill. They have two mixing hoppers, which are placed on the platform scales. If they are present, the process practically does not differ from Prok-150, but in this case, the mixing of feed and grain grinding occurs continuously. If the first bin is fully loaded, it works in mix mode.

The crusher, when switched, helps to grind the grain. It also contributes to the filling of the second mixing hopper.

When the finished feed mixture is unloaded, the process is repeated after reconnecting the crusher. Doza Agro mini feed mill has a capacity of 1000 to 3000 kilograms per hour.

Setting feed sizes

A mini feed mill, regardless of the manufacturer, works the same way. The key node is the crusher. It works by means of an electric motor, grain is crushed there.

A mixer homogenizes the crushed particles and additives from vitamins, proteins and minerals.

The size of the particles can be adjusted depending on what requirements are placed on the feed for a particular animal. So, the diameter of the holes in the crusher sieve is:

• for feeding piglets - 1.8 mm;
• pigs - 2.2 mm;
• birds - 4-8 mm;
• cattle - up to 2 mm.

Do I need additional equipment

Most companies practice not only the production of mini feed mills, but also additional equipment for them.

Sometimes a conveyor or screw conveyor is installed to facilitate unloading.

They are needed in order to load the finished feed into bags, transport or distributor. And in order for the whole process to be as automated as possible, and to excludehuman factor, you can use operational bunkers that store protein and grain components, as well as those that store ready-made food for animals.

If necessary, the plant is equipped with devices to create a continuous process of mixing feed and grinding raw materials.

What is granulation?

The mini feed mill can be optionally equipped with a granulation device to make the feed more nutritious and easily digestible, while being convenient in terms of storage.

It is most often ordered by farms that breed:

• fish;
• rabbits;
• bird;
• pigs;
• cattle.

Due to the granulation process, feed wastage can be reduced and shelf life extended.

By hot processing of pellets, 99 percent of mold colonies that produce toxins can be eliminated.

When cooled, they become stronger as excess moisture is removed. Small non-granular fractions are separated from the products and returned to the production for subsequent pressing.

Power selection rules

A mini feed mill can have a capacity of 200 to 5000 kilograms per hour depending on the needs of the farm. If the number of cattle is from 200 to 400 heads, then the recommended plant capacity is up to 1000 kg/h. If it exceeds a thousand, thenneed to look after the plant at 2.5 thousand kilograms per hour.

It is not recommended to choose the power of the unit "back to back", it is better that the performance is such that feed can be produced with a small margin. This will allow you not to use the plant not daily and thereby extend its life.

Reviews

On farms, such a device as a mini-factory, as a rule, is chosen by the head of the enterprise, the chief livestock specialist or the head of the livestock department.

If you read the reviews of such employees, you can identify the following benefits of using aggregates:

• feed quality increases, the mixture becomes more homogeneous;
• halving labor costs and avoiding manual work;
• increasing milk yield in cows;
• possibility of changing the recipe and separate preparation of compound feed for each group of animals;
• quick payback period for a mini-factory (about six months for an expensive machine);
• improving the quality of products purchased by we althier customers.

Many farm owners say that they use special foreign technologies for the production of their feed, which were specially developed for them individually.

And at the same time they complain that not in all cases it is possible to achieve that the mass is homogeneous. And it is problematic to do this manually, since the human factor plays a role. As a result, if the additives are not mixed thoroughly, then one animal gets too much of them, and the other - nothing at all. Andthis phenomenon is not uncommon.

The only way to get rid of this is to use a mobile feed mill. Some buy them, while others prefer to rent. However, in both cases, everyone notes a sharp increase in the amount of ready-made food for animals. Very often, after a certain time of renting equipment, a decision is made to buy it out, since the payback of the plant is very fast. A small own feed mill is a practical and profitable solution for both large farms and small family production facilities for the production of milk and meat. It all depends on what kind of animals live on the farm.