ANN 121: Applied Animal Nutrition-I (2+1)

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF PELLETING

Advantages of pelleting

• Reduces wastage.
• Improves palatability.
• Increases the density of feed: – less storage space.
• Transportation:- Saves cost on transportation. Eg. Grass can be transported at 2 tons/lorry. The cost of transportation of grass is  more than the cost of grass.
• By pelleting, density is reduced to six times. Hence six times more fodder can be transported and cost of transporting is also less.
• Pelleting is more useful to process the by-products.
• Digestibility is increased by pelleting:
  • Gelatinization, heat, pressing  increases the digestibility .
  • It breaks the binding of cellulose and lignin so enzymes act on cellulose more easily and more cellulose is digested.
  • Free cellulose material is more hydrolysed by cellulase than when it is found with lignin.
• More uniform feed: – Hence there is no question of segregation.
• There is no selection on the part of the animal.
• Some waste material can also be incorporated effectively.
• There will be sterilization of the feed.
• Food passage time is reduced in the animal.

Disadvantages of pelleting

• Cost involved is more
• Non-availability of machinery and equipment.