How do US feed companies reduce production costs?

Although the farmers' direct feed prices have risen year after year, they have not stopped the meager profit trend of the feed industry. In the past year, even a small number of small and medium-sized feed enterprises have been forced to stop production. The reason is that raw material prices continue to increase, labor and other auxiliary costs increase, product homogeneity is serious, and competition is intensifying. In this situation, in addition to the above uncontrollable factors, it has been suggested that reducing costs in the production process is also a good strategy for feed enterprises to “winter”. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

Recently, Kim Koch, a professor at North Dakota State University who is dedicated to feed processing technology and equipment research, supervising the division of feed production operations, and designing and implementing livestock feed research, introduced to reporters the US feed companies to reduce losses and save costs in various production stages. There are many ways to learn from it. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

Receiving raw materials GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving livestock

The receipt of raw materials into the factory is the first process of feed production in the feed mill, and is also an important process to ensure the continuity of production and product quality. The raw material receiving capacity must meet the production needs of the feed mill, and adopt appropriate and advanced technology and equipment to receive raw materials in time, reduce the labor intensity of workers, save energy, reduce production costs and protect the environment. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

In the interview, KimKoch told reporters that in the United States, the raw material entering the factory to receive this step has been fully mechanized, effectively ensuring the efficiency of the raw materials entering the plant. Take bulk corn as an example. A large truck can load 24 tons of corn. There are two flow tubes under the big truck. The truck is directly parked in the raw material warehouse for automatic quick unloading. The average speed was 3 minutes to unload 80 tons of corn. In China, most of the feed mills are still in the stage of manual unloading. The average cargo can be unloaded from 30 to 60 tons per day. In addition, the truck will have a 360° sampler at the same time as unloading, on the one hand to ensure a more reasonable and comprehensive sampling, on the one hand to ensure "synchronous discharge, simultaneous sampling". This is not possible in China. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

KimKoch said that the feedstock receiving materials in the feed mills are very large, so the receiving capacity of the feed mill receiving equipment is generally three to five times that of the feed mill. The domestic feed enterprises' raw material storage warehouses are not as large as this level, which is one of the factors that interfere with the receiving and storage of raw materials. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

Crushing process GNg China feed industry information network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

According to KimKoch, there are two main types of crushers commonly used at home and abroad: hammer mills and counter mills. Among them, the hammer mill is more common in China, and it can be divided into a semi-screen type and a full screen type. Most hammer mills are vertically rotating, and some are horizontally rotating. They work similarly, but the horizontally rotating hammer mill requires more power. The roll mill can be classified into a single roll, a double roll, a triple roll, and a four roll depending on the number of rolls. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

KimKoch believes that the combination of a hammer mill and a roller mill will be more efficient. He made a comparison. The power of the roller-hammer combination pulverizer is 130 kW, the sieve aperture is 5.5 mm, and the final pulverization size is 450 microns. The pulverization can be 40 tons per hour (usually 10 tons to 15 tons in China). The electricity consumption per ton is 0.26 US dollars/ton, and 4 sieves and 1 group-2 hammers are consumed each year. The power of the hammer-type pulverizer is 1.12 million, the sieve aperture is 3 mm, the final pulverization size is 700 micrometers, the pulverization is 30 tons per hour, the electricity consumption is 0.31 US dollars/ton, and 24 sieves and 4 hammers are consumed each year. . GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

It can be seen that the performance of the roller-hammer combination pulverizer is superior. “But it’s not that the smaller the particle size, the better. Because different materials such as grain, seed, beans, and fiber have different degrees of crushing, different animals have different requirements on the crushing size of the material. For example, the sow’s crushing size of the feed is Requires 600~1000. Manufacturers should pulverize materials according to the needs of different animals for feeding. The principle is to facilitate digestion and absorption of animals.” KimKoch added. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

Mixing Process GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - Based on Feed, Serving Livestock

The feed mill relies mainly on mechanical mixing to achieve mixing purposes. Therefore, KimKoch mainly introduced the use of mainstream hybrid machinery abroad. He said that the horizontal ribbon mixer is the mainstream mixer of the feed mill and is divided into single shaft and double shaft. Among them, the horizontal double-axis paddle mixer is widely used in large feed mills and premix feed mills because of its fast mixing speed, high mixing efficiency and good mixing uniformity. The fly in the ointment is the large area and power. High consumption and large supporting power. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

The most outstanding advantage of the horizontal twin-axis paddle mixer is that the mixing speed is fast. The mixture contains a total of one hundred thousandth of the trace component feed. Each batch only needs to be mixed for 1 minute, and the uniformity of the mixture can reach the full price. Uniform quality requirements for materials. This mixing time is only about 1/3 of the time required for the horizontal ribbon mixer. Due to the short mixing time, the combined power consumption per unit of production is also low. In addition, the mixing uniformity coefficient of variation CV ≤ 5% of the model; the maximum amount of liquid added can reach 20%; the fullness coefficient can be adjusted within the range of 0.4-0.8. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

Granulation Link GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - Based on Feed, Serving Livestock

In the granulation process, KimKoch emphasizes the moisture content of the material and the saturation of the vapor. He believes that the highest moisture content of the material is 17.5%, preferably no less than 13%. The higher the saturated steam, the better, but due to the limitations of objective conditions, it is best to control the saturation to 90%. However, the current domestic saturated steam can only reach 60% to 80%. He said that if these two indicators can be controlled, the gelatinization degree of starch will be better, the less anti-nutritional factors in the feed, the palatability of the feed will be enhanced, and the feed-to-meat ratio will be reduced. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

Warehousing and transportation links GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving livestock

According to KimKoch, PDI (Pellet Durability In-dex) is one of the most important indicators reflecting the quality of pellet feed. It can be used to measure the relative ability of pellets in the pellet feed to resist breakage during transport and handling. The larger the PDI, the stronger the anti-crushing ability of the particles, the better the particle quality and the higher the feed utilization rate. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

In addition, at this stage, KimKoch highlighted the problem of mildew in feed. He suggested that in addition to controlling the moisture content of the feed into the warehouse (such as the moisture content of the seed such as corn should be controlled below 13%, the moisture content of the cake should be controlled below 8%), the relative humidity of the environment must be controlled to not exceed 70%. The temperature does not exceed 10 °C. Once aflatoxin is found in the feed, it should be removed immediately to prevent spread. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry

In short, in KimKoch's view, manufacturers should try to allocate resources as much as possible in the whole feed production process to reduce losses and save costs. This mainly includes three points. One is to completely implement every step in the feed production process to achieve the goal, without waste; the second is to ensure the effectiveness of production without additional loss; the third is to ensure the effectiveness of the production machinery. Sex, manufacturers should master the various production data of machinery in detail, such as electricity consumption, etc., the cost reduction is to start from every seemingly simple and small link, to benefit from the subtleties. GNg China Feed Industry Information Network - based on feed, serving animal husbandry