Development of a Manually Operated Hydraulic Cattle Feed Block Making Machine

Abstract

Feed blocks, which are made by improving the nutritional status of agricultural by-products, are a proved solution to uplift the productivity of dairy animals in Sri Lanka. Though feed block making machines are locally available, their prices are unaffordable for small-scale rural farmers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to introduce an efficient and affordable feed block making machine for small-scale farmers. The newly fabricated machine consisted of hydraulically operated jack, mould and a piston fixed to an iron frame. The total cost of production was 43,000 LKR. Feed blocks were produced with the new machine using two separate mixtures of ingredients with four different compaction times. Mixture 1 contained 10% molasses apart from other ingredients and without cement, whereas mixture 2 replaced 5% of molasses with cement. The suitable compaction time for the mixture 1 and mixture 2 were 15 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively at 19265 kN m-2 maximum pressure. The actual capacity of the machine for mixture 1 prepared with 15 min compaction time was 3 blocks h-1, while it was 4 blocks h-1 for the mixture 2 prepared with 10 min compaction time irrespective to the gender. The post-compression expansion and durability of mixture 1 were 23.73% and 99.64%, respectively while the corresponding figures for mixture 2 were 18.64% and 99.82%. No change could be observed in appearance, colour and odour of the feed blocks within 30 days of storage. According to the results, this new machine is affordable to small-scale farmers and it can be successfully used to produce feed blocks for cattle..