There is an uncertainty in the market for grain forcing the meat/milk producers to review alternative feeds to a larger extent, in order to get control over the feed costs. This has led to that the meat/milk producers need to have a good knowledge regarding how the different feeds influences the animals and which technical equipment to use for handling. For those that produce their own feedmix, there is a need to put interest in new crops and their characteristics to be able to get the knowledge of what is required for their own production. It is beneficial to keep an open dialogue with advisors to be updated in new crops and new technology for feeding.
When mixing feed at farm level, the legislation is not very clear since it the target group is large scale mixing plants. We have brought up the most important rules and regulations from the EU parliament Council as well as the ones from the Swedish Board of Agriculture (SJV), regarding feed mixing on farm and factory level.
We have studied beans and pea at two different moisture levels, in order to evaluate how the moisture level affects the distribution of particles when milling with a plaitmill and a hammermill. The evaluation has been performed at the farms using their existing equipment where selected samples were taken. These where then sieved in order to distinguish the different fractions with respect to moisture contents and the different mills. The result from the test shows that there is a small difference between the hammer- and platemill concerning the distribution of particles.. At milling pea and beans with moisture content of aprox 18%, the milled material had a larger proportion of larger particles than dry (14% MC) pea and beans.
When rolling a mixture of small and large seeds as rapseeds, grain, peas and beans it necessarily with a 3-roller mill. First the larger seeds are being cruched and in the second part all seeds are milled. This pre-grinding of the larger seeds (peas and beans) are required in order to avoid disruptions of the raw material into the mill. It is important to clean the seeds s...
