One cannot do much about the moisture
content of grains in the field, but it is possible to influence the cost of
drying these grains after harvest. Clever engineering can perfect the drying
process for optimum results.
The outcome is not yet clear, but this plant will be ready when the market
asks for tailor-made products. Multi-flexibility is the key word for Jan Janssen
of Dutch feed compounder SaWeCo and initiator of a unique cooperation between
feed mill equipment manufacturers.
With increasing use of extruded products in
aquaculture, cooling of the pellets is not enough to bring the moisture content
down to the desired level. Dryers are becoming more and more popular. Paul
Douglas from Aeroglide emphasises that dryer design is of major importance in
establishing an energy efficient drying process.
Compound
feed is often pelleted or otherwise heat treated to form or sanitise the feed.
The hot product cannot be stored immediately and needs to be cooled first. This
process is more or less taken for granted, but is still an important part of
feed processing.
One of the
critical processing steps in the production of extruded dry pet food is
cooling. The cooling step is required after the drying and liquid-coating
processes to remove excess heat. If not enough heat is removed, condensation
can occur in the product storage bins or in the product package.
The strict
quality control standards imposed on extruded petfoods means that a precise and
continuous drying process should be applied, to achieve low moisture, long
shelf life products. Flavoured coatings are also commonly applied after
extrusion, so an extra drying step and cooling should be added.
Wenger Manufacturing recently announced the production of the 600th DDC
(Differential Diameter Cylinder) Preconditioner to come off the Wenger assembly
line since the product was patented and introduced in 1987.
Three major developments can be distinguished when discussing developments in
animal feed manufacturing during the past decade: innovation and cost control,
consumers playing a leading role and safety beyond all doubt. In this article,
especially written for the 10 year anniversary of Feed Tech, Harm Klein of
Tebodin CCE elaborates on these events and how they have affected compound feed
manufacturing.
Spray-drying is
a beneficial technological treatment to improve the utilisation of homogenised
mixtures of mi lk products and vegetable oi ls as high quality feed ingredients
for weaned pigs. This is the conclusion of Schothorst Feed Research in the
Netherlands
after a series of experiments. Sara Llamas-Moya and Jan Fledderus present the
results.