Moisture content control of sheep feed pellet production

by Lanpu Industry LP SEO

Moisture is a key ingredient in the sheep feed pellet production, it is also a very important quality index of feed pellet quality.

Pelleted feeds is a kind of compound feed, which is agglomerated feeds formed by extruding individual ingredients or mixtures by compacting and forcing through die openings by feed pellet mill. These larger pellet feed are easier to handle, more palatable and usually result in improved feeding results when compared to the powdery feed, which is widely used in the sector of animal husbandry for feeding chicken, duck, cattle, sheep, pig and other kinds of animals.
Feed products are sold by weight. Producing feed products with high moisture content may negatively affect quality and nutrition which leads to mold growth and other moisture related problems. At the same time,too low moisture content of pellets will reduce the gelatinization and digestibility of starch. The hardness of pellets will affect the palatability of sheep and reduce feed intake. For the feed manufacturer,selling feed products at moisture content lower than what is necessary will cause they lose income as a result of unnecessary weight loss.
What effect moisture content in sheep feed pellet? Many factors affect the quality of feed produced in sheep feed pellet. Such factors include the raw materials and pellet processing.The various stages of the pelleting process affected by the water content include: grinding, mixing, conditioning, pellets making and pellets cooling. Maybe you are interested in feed extruder machine.
Raw materials moisture content
Moisture content is essential in the process of sheep feed pellet as it is required for intermolecular forces development. Due to the low temperature in winter and spring, feed manufacturers often use new harvest corn, which has a relatively high moisture content. After pelleting, the moisture content is about 13%, which can basically meet the quality control requirements. However, in summer and autumn, the moisture content of feed ingredients is between 11% and 13%. In addition to the high temperature, part of the moisture content of feed ingredients is lost in the process of crushing, pelletizing, and pre-treatment, resulting in the moisture content of finished feed products being 9% to 11%.
Feed Grinding Process
This process is vital for the sheep feed pellet production.it is found that the moisture loss of raw materials after pulverization increases significantly with the reduction of the raw material pulverized particle size. As the moisture content of the raw material increases, the crushing efficiency is also significantly reduced, and the energy consumption will also increase. The water loss during the crushing of raw materials is generally about 0.5%.The highest moisture loss for various fodder materials is 1%.
Feed mixing process
The moisture loss during the feed mixing process is very small and can be ignored.
Feed pellet processing
The circular mould of pellet mill has different aperture sizes, so the feed pellet products have different moisture content. Using the small aperture size circular mould, then the feed pellet has small diameter, and the pellet will has less moisture. But use the large size circular mould then the feed pellet has large diameter, and the produce has more moisture content. In the cooling process
Cooling is the last link of process. In the cooling process, the first thing is that ensure the moisture content can’t above the quality control standard. Then, control a suitable temperature. Ensure the products will not has bad influence because of the high temperature.
Packaging and store
It is also very important to manage finished products. Usually, the temperature of feed pellet can’t above the room temperature. It had better avoid direct exposure to the sun after packaging. If not, the moisture of pellet will migrate to the place where has lower temperature, and then the feed pellet will get mildewed easily.