Currently, the market of micronutrients is rapidly developing, and its own grain raw materials makes the purchase of such a thing as a mini-feed mill a necessary investment. Depending on the capacity of the installation, it pays for itself in about 4-12 months.
Description of Constructions
Mini-factories of different manufacturers ("Dose", "Prok", "Ku" and "Treasure") have almost the same design and operating principle.
They include such components:
- hammer mill equipped with a hopper;
- vertical screw mixer and container for receiving and mixing raw materials;
- BMVD with crushed key grain product;
- Remote Control;
- electric drive.
Any feed mill mini-plant has a special device that traps metal impurities and stones. Depending on the manufacturer and the configuration of the device, its performance can be 150-1300 kilograms per hour.
Characteristic "Prok-150"
This manufacturer is one of the most common. The Prok-150 feed mill mini-plant includes a frame where there is a crusher with a grain hopper, mixers with a funnel for premixes. It has a special dust filter, as well as a nozzle to help unload feed.
Principle of operation
The technological process of feed production through this plant is carried out as follows:
- Fill feed grain into the hopper;
- there it is separated from stones and metal impurities, then it goes into a hammer mill;
- then sifted to the desired fraction through the pressure in the fan;
- in crushed form, the product passes through the wire into the mixing hopper;
- together with compound feed, mineral additives trapped in 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 takes 15-20 minutes;
- at the end it is unloaded by means of an unloading nozzle;
- the dust that appears during mixing and crushing enters a special filter.
Productivity of the device of this brand is 150 kilograms per hour.
Description of the Dose 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 that are placed on a platform scale. If they are present, the process practically does not differ from Prok-150, but in this case, the mixing of feed and grain grinding takes place continuously. If the first hopper is fully loaded, it works in mixing mode.
The crusher, when switching, helps to grind the grain. It also contributes to the filling of the second mixing hopper.
When the feed mixture is unloaded in finished form, the process is repeated after reconnecting the crusher. The Doza Agro mini-feed mill has a capacity of 1,000 to 3,000 kilograms per hour.
Feed Sizing
Mini feed mill, regardless of manufacturer, works the same. The key node is the crusher. It works by means of an electric motor, grain is crushed there.
And the mixer homogenizes the crushed particles and additives from vitamins, proteins and minerals.
The particle size can be adjusted depending on what requirements are imposed on the feed for a particular animal. So, the diameter of the holes in the crusher sieve is as follows:
- 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, for the convenience of unloading, a conveyor or screw conveyor is installed.
They are needed for the purpose of loading the finished compound feed into bags, vehicles or a distributor. And in order to make the whole process as automated as possible, and to eliminate the human 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 additionally be equipped with a granulation device so that the feed becomes more nutritious and easy to digest, and at the same time it is convenient in terms of storage.
It is most often ordered by farms that breed:
- fish
- rabbits;
- a bird;
- pigs;
- cattle.
Thanks to the granulation process, feed losses can be reduced and their storage time extended.
By hot processing the granules, 99 percent of the colonies of molds that produce toxins can be eliminated.
When cooled, they become stronger, since excess moisture is removed. Small non-granulated fractions are separated from the products and returned to production for further 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 installation capacity is up to 1000 kg / h. If it exceeds the figure of a thousand, then you need to look at 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 the feed can be produced with a small margin. This will allow not to use the plant on a daily basis 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 main livestock specialist or the head of the livestock workshop.
If you read the reviews of such employees, you can identify the following advantages of using units:
- the quality of feed increases, the mixture becomes more uniform;
- halving labor costs and avoiding manual work;
- increased milk yield in cows;
- the possibility of changing the recipe and the separate preparation of feed for each group of animals;
- quick payback period of a mini-factory (about six months for an expensive device);
- improving the quality of products purchased by wealthier 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 far from all cases it is possible to achieve that the mass is homogeneous. And to do this manually is problematic, since the human factor plays a role. As a result, if the additives are not mixed thoroughly, then one animal gets too many of them, while the other does nothing at all. And such a phenomenon is not uncommon.
The only way to get rid of this is to use a mobile feed mill. Some people 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 for renting equipment, a decision is made to redeem it, since the payback period of the plant is very fast.
A small proprietary feed mill is a practical and profitable solution for both large farms and small family milk and meat production facilities. It all depends on what animals live on the farm.