DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF LIVESTOCK FEED MIXER

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assist. Prof., Ag. and Biosystem Eng. Dept. Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin EL-Kom, Egypt.

2 Prof., Ag. and Biosystem Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin EL-Kom, Egypt.

3 Prof., Ag. and Biosystem Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin EL-Kom, Egypt and Dean of the Faculty of Organic Agriculture, Heliopolis University, Egypt.

4 Assoc. Prof., Ag. and Biosystem Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Menoufia U., Shebin EL-Kom, Egypt.

Abstract

Small farms in Egypt often face challenges in meeting their daily feed requirements due to the continuous rise in feed prices and transportation costs. The main objective of this study was to fabricate, develop, and evaluate the performance of a prototype feed mixing machine tailored for small farms. The experimental studies focused on determining the effects of mixing duration, rotational speed, and rotation direction for mixing unit on mixing efficiency, machine productivity, power requirements, and specific energy consumption. The machine was tested and evaluated under four different mixing durations (5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes), four different rotational speeds (20, 25, 30, and 35 rpm), and two rotation directions for the mixing unit (clockwise and alternating between clockwise and anticlockwise). The 50 kg test mixture included crushed yellow corn (21 kg), cotton seed meal (11.5 kg), bran (11 kg), corn seeds (5 kg), limestone (0.7 kg), table salt (0.5 kg), sodium bicarbonate (0.15 kg), and vitamins and minerals (0.15 kg). The results show that the optimal efficiency (98.27% to 98.60%) was obtained at 30-35 rpm and 15–20-minute durations using both rotation directions. Power requirements increased with higher speeds. The maximum required power, 0.345 kW. Increasing the mixing duration increased specific energy, while rotation direction and speed had no significant effect. The maximum specific energy (2.37 Wh/kg) was observed at 35 rpm with a 20-minute, two-direction process. It is recommended to use a mixing duration of 15 minutes, with bi-directional rotation, and a rotation speed of 30 rpm.

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References

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