Feed mixing

FEED MIXING
  • Preparing own feed will not only reduce the feed cost for the farmer, but will also reduce the medication cost, because he can avoid repetition of similar medicines in the feed and in water.
  • Moreover, own feed is fresh and he can efficiently utilise farm-grown and other locally available cheap but nutritious feed ingredients.
  • At the same time, preparing own feed involves an additional workload and capital investment.
  • Since most of the raw materials have to be procured in tons or even in truckloads, mixing own feed may not be feasible or economical if the farm is small and the monthly requirement of feed is less than 20 MT per month.
  • Those farmers whose monthly requirement of feed is in the range of 5-15 MT per month can arrange for custom mixing, if such facilities are available locally or, alternatively, a few farmers in an area can join together and start a common (co-operative)feed mixing unit.
  • Certain feed ingredient dealers have facilities for grinding and mixing of feed.
  • They will extend these facilities to the farmers at a reasonable cost, if the feed ingredients are purchased from them. The farmers can do custom mixing according to their feed formulae.
  • Sometimes certain feed manufacturers also extend custom mixing facilities to their farmer customers.
  • Before procuring various feed ingredients, the farmer should be aware of his monthly feed requirement.
  • After calculating the monthly feed requirement, the different feed ingredients have to be worked out.
  • For this, one requires knowledge of the nutrient composition of various feed ingredients and their inclusion levels. Local availability and the cost will also influence their inclusion.
  • Most often cereal grains are included up to 50-60 percent as the major source of energy; and vegetable protein sources like oil cakes and animal protein sources like fish and meat meal are included up to 20-25 percent and 10-12 percent respectively.
  • Agricultural by-products are added at 15-25 percent.
  • However, no single ingredient is to be considered as essential.
  • The balancing of nutrients with several ingredients is the aim. Minerals need not be added individually.
  • Identify the local season for each feed ingredient and purchase it when its price is low.
    • The ingredients purchased must be of good quality.
    • The ingredients must be dry with a moisture content of less than 10 percent and free from moulds and fungi.
    • The ingredients must be free from foreign matter and adulterants like sand, husk, cobs, etc.
    • The presence of immature and damaged seeds in the grains must be minimum (<5 percent).
    • The aflatoxin level in the ingredients must be less than 0.02 ppm.
    • The fish must be free from sand, salt, burnt fish and other foreign matter like shells, crabs, etc.
    • The mineral mixture must satisfy the ISI specificationsl.
Last modified: Sunday, 3 June 2012, 6:45 AM