There are two key reasons for high-energy consumption, low throughput and a rise in temperature of ground materials coming from a hammer mill.
Numerous studies on growth and digestibility have demonstrated the benefits of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) degrading enzymes in poultry and pigs, which have led to a wide adoption of feed enzymes in the feed industries. On the other hand, all enzymes are live proteins with specific 3-dimensional structures and may be denatured by heat processing, which always poses a problem for incorporation of the enzymes into feeds when it comes to industrial applications.
Tilapia is the second-most important group of farmed fish after carp. It is farmed in at least 85 countries, with the major part of the production coming from Asia (China) and Latin America (Ecuador, Honduras and Costa Rica).
Crude glycerol is a by-product of the biofuels industry, which has the potential to be used as a feed ingredient in animal diets. However, little is known about glycerol's nutritional value or how it impacts feed quality and feed processing efficiency. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of glycerol on production efficiency of a pellet mill. In all three experiments, diets were manufactured, pelleted, and data collected at the KSU Grain Science Feed Mill. All diets were steam conditioned to 85ºF and pelleted at 150ºF using a CPM pellet mill equipped with a 4 mm x 32 mm pellet die.
We conducted three experiments to determine effect of particle size, mill type, and added fat on flow characteristics of ground corn. In Experiment 1, corn was ground with either a hammer mill or a roller mill to produce six samples with different particle sizes. The particle size for the corn ground with a roller mill ranged from 1,235 to 502 microns with standard deviation ranging from 1.83 to 2.03. Particle size for corn ground with a hammer mill ranged from 980 to 390 microns with standard deviation ranging from 2.56 to 2.12. All samples were dried 12 hours to equalize moisture content. Soy oil was then added at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8% to each sample.
