Feed is often the single most expensive variable in pig and poultry farming. With cereal quality and price per ton fluctuating greatly, many farmers are opting to grow and mix their own feed.
The greatest input cost to any pig, egg or poultry production farm is a feed which is why Big Dutchman Southern Africa is so passionate about the Big Dutchman Feed Mill solutions. A feed mill provides farmers with the opportunity to work with a tailored feed mix based on the most animal-effective and cost-effective ingredients available. In addition, feed mills provide greater farm security in terms of bio-hazard management, ingredient quality management and feed availability management.
Big Dutchman technology such as Big Farm Net empowers you with feed-level data from your Big Dutchman feed mill so that you can always ensure the availability of quality feed for your animals. With experience in Southern African countries since 1966 and global experience since 1938 Big Dutchman Feed Mills takes the best global feed mill technology and adapts it to support Southern African farmers taking climate, labor, feed ingredients and local infrastructure into account.
Key benefits to installing a Big Dutchman Feed Mill include.
The opportunity to create farm specific feed mixes for increased animal productivity
Reduced input costs
A controlled and stable feed channel
Reduced transport costs
Intimate knowledge of ingredient quality and quantity
The opportunity to sell excess feed to other farms
Holistic farm management where animal waste can be used to fertilise feed
Pigs and poultry are incredibly sensitive so, ensuring you have the right equipment to effectively clean the crops you want to use in your feed is important.
The Big Dutchman offers two different drum cleaners, which remove stones, sand, and large material from the crop.
Step 2: Milling the crop into feed
Key to the success of any feed is the even distribution of ingredients throughout the finished product. The Big Dutchman Hammer Mills are specifically designed to ensure:
The different ingredients are added to the feed at different times during the milling process. This ensures all the ingredients in the feed are a similar size.
Farmers can choose a fine or more structured feed dependent on usage.
Dust filters keep the feed as hygienic as possible.
Longevity of the equipment is built into the design to ensure even wearing of screens and parts.
Step 3: Mixing the feed
There is an exciting capacity to include unique combinations of ingredients into home-grown feed for optimal animal health and productivity. Ensuring your pigs and poultry receive an even mix of these ingredients is key to productivity results.
The Big Dutchman Dry Mixers provide farmers of any size, with accuracy and versatility by enabling an even distribution of cereals, soya, dry minerals, vitamins and fats throughout the feed.
The Big Dutchman's horizontal and vertical dry mixers are designed to be easily installed and accessed with low wear and short mixing times.
Feed management
Fresh water supply
Ventilation
Temperature control
Efficient waste removal
Bio-Security
Waste utilisation
Step 4: Storing the feed
Safely storing the feed in an environment that ensures the highest levels of sanitation and hygiene is critical for the health and wellbeing of the animals.
The Big Dutchman has an exciting range of indoor and outdoor silos that are tailored to the specific needs of each farm.
In addition to the various standard equipment farmers need to make and store home grown feed, Big Dutchman also has a variety of specialist equipment that enables farmers to tailor their feed mills to their specific requirements.
These include: A variety of specialist filters | Hoppers for the storage of specific ingredients such as dry minerals Pelleting equipment for the pelleting of finished feed
Recent Projects
George, Eastern Cape Feedmill
This Big Dutchman client is a very successful layer farmer in George in the Eastern Cape. Big Dutchman recently commissioned this feedmill and were involved in the quoting, layout, specifications and commisisoning with our colleagues from Germany. The client primarily uses this feedmill to produce feed for his own farm of 600 000 Layer Hens and […]
Big Dutchman recently completed a feed mill project for a client in Winterton KZN to facilitate better feed costs for his pullet rearing farm. Big Dutchman completed the design, layout, installation and commissioning for the farmers feed mill which will facilitate feed for both farms in Winterton and Mooiriver. The feed mill is running successfully […]