JP2966383B2 - Mixed feed livestock loading unit - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to the formation, tying and transportation of high-density livestock feed, in particular high-density livestock feed consisting of fermented fodder, and long-distance transport and long-distance handling with minimal spoilage. And a method and apparatus for bundling the above-mentioned livestock feed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Livestock feed has been conventionally bundled and stored by various methods. One of the most common is in the form of hay, in which case the foliage is cut and dried in the sun, and then bundled in a conventional manner. Other common forms of livestock feed are silage or haylage, in which feed or other hay-type crops such as corn or purple sesame are cut and minced and fermented. Store in a humid condition in silos. Another form of livestock feed is finely chopped and extruded pellets or cubic foliage, which is stored, stored and transported dry. Each form of feed has its advantages and disadvantages.

[0003]

In long-distance transportation, especially overseas transportation, the preservability of livestock feed and transportation economics are important matters. Historically, only dry feed in hay form or in cubic or pellet form met both criteria. Pellets are relatively dense and are properly stored while kept dry, but are expensive to make. Bundles of hay are somewhat less expensive in feed form and are better stored and transported while they are dry, but they are less dense than pellets due to their lower density. Transportation costs are high. However, during the last decade it has become common to double the hay bundles to increase transport efficiency. It has become common to transport doubly compressed hay bundles, especially from the United States, to other countries that cannot produce adequate feed.

[0004] For storage as hay, and more importantly for long-distance transport, the hay must be completely dry. Otherwise, the hay will mold, oxidize, rot, and generate heat, which can be burned by spontaneous combustion. For overseas transport in closed cargo containers, the moisture content of the hay should be less than about 12%. Double compressed hay bundles typically weigh 20
~ 30 pounds / cubic foot.

[0005] Dry hay has several disadvantages.
One is that the hay loses its value as a feed through a drying and preservation step, and the value of this feed continues to decline gradually over time. Another disadvantage is that dried hay is less flavorful and less digestible than fresh hay. From this viewpoint, pellets or cubes are less preferred.

Livestock fodder has generally been stored in the form of silage, such as chopped corn or sorghum, or in the form of a haileage, which is a moist cut hay. For the sake of simplicity, in the following description, this type of feed will be generically called silage, except where it is specified as haileage. Silage storage mechanisms are quite different from those for dry hay. The fodder is silaged. That is, the fodder is chopped and tightly packed in silos or storage pits, plastic bags or other sealable containers, and stored while fermented. Silage-type feed must be stored at very high humidity, such as 40% moisture, preferably about 60% moisture. The fermentation of wet cut foliage in an environment in which air is substantially free generates fermentation of acids and alcohols that aid in silage preservation.

[0007] Silage has several advantages over dry hay. The first advantage is that the silage method of preserving the feed maintains a very high proportion of the initial nutritional value in the feed. In addition, silaged feeds maintain high nutritional value for extended periods of time. A second advantage is that the silage is very tasty and is easily digested by livestock. Because the silage is moist and soft, cows can easily chew the silage or haileage, the feed is very delicious and the cows can easily digest. Thus, silage type fodder is a highly desirable livestock feed, especially for dairy livestock that consume large amounts of feed.

[0008] However, silage type feed also has two main disadvantages. One is that the feed is heavy and bulky due to its very high moisture content, and is therefore uneconomical for transporting significant distances. Another drawback is that silage will rot within hours if exposed to air.

[0009] Some livestock feed suppliers have attempted to improve the quality of feed by mixing silage or haley with dry hay. However, since silage spoils prematurely, mixing is generally done where mixed feed products are consumed. No technology is known for bundling and storing silage-type feeds for such economical transportation.

[0010] Despite the fact that silage-type feed has considerable advantages over hay in the form of dry pellets and cubes, all foreign exports of livestock feed known to the applicant are single or double. It is in the form of hay or silage in heavy pressed dry hay bales or extruded and substantially dry pellets or cubes.

Therefore, there remains a need for a method of bundling and transporting livestock feed that has many of the advantages of packaged hay and silage, and that has less of a disadvantage for each type of livestock feed.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One feature of the present invention is to intimately mix dry hay or other forage with a moist haley or silage and to provide a tightly packed blend or mixture in an airtight bag. It is a livestock carrying unit provided. 15% to 40% forage with blended dry fodder and haileage or silage
, Preferably between 20% and 35%, ideally about 30%.
% To produce a net moisture content. This is approximately 2.5 times the moisture content of dry hay and about half the normal moisture content of silage.

The ratio of dry hay to silage is varied to control the net moisture percentage of the blended feed. Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients can also be added to the blended dry feed and to the haley or silage.

[0014] The blended feed product is compressed into fixed volume units, each of which is approximately 650 kg / kg.
Density of m ³ are packed in airtight bags and durable.
The preferred size of the bag is around 0.0 for easy handling.
7 m ³ , containing about 45 kg of blended feed.

[0015] The filled bag is preferably airtight and evacuated to eliminate as much oxygen as possible, thus avoiding oxidation of the feed. Optionally, the oxygen remaining in the bag when closed is, for example, CO2
_It can be evacuated by flushing with a suitable inert gas such as ₂ or N ₂ or a mixture of inert gases.

A second feature of the present invention is a method for producing the above-mentioned feed product. In the first step, about 8% to about 15%
Of dry foliage, typically pre-lumped hay, having a moisture content of between 15% and 40%, preferably about 30%, within the mixed feed product. It is mixed with a silage (and / or a haage) containing a% to 70% moisture. These components are mixed over a considerable amount of time to evenly distribute the silage moisture throughout the blended mixture. For mass production in a batch process, this mixing operation can take from 10 minutes to 2 minutes.
Requires a residence time in the mixer of 0 minutes, typically about 15 minutes.

The feed mixture is then metered and supplied to a compression device. The feed is discharged from the compression device into a durable, liquid-tight and preferably gas-tight bag, whereby the bag is filled with a compressed hay / halage blended at a density of about 650 kg / m ³ . The filled bags are then sealed, evacuated and stacked.

[0018]

1 and 2 show a preferred embodiment of an apparatus system 10 for practicing the present invention. System 10 includes hay with interconnecting conveyors.
The apparatus includes a silage feed mixing device 12, a hay / silage mixed flow leveling device 14, and a compression device 16.

The hay / silage feed mixing device 12 comprises a mixer 20 having two input conveyors, a first conveyor 22 for feeding dry hay, and a second conveyor 24 for feeding silage or haileage. Have. The second conveyor 24 is a liquid ejection device 2 for reducing the amount of silage liquid to be input before mixing.
6 optionally. The input conveyors 22 and 24 are conventional horizontal floor drag type conveyors. The mixer shown is a batch type mixer supported on a scale 21 for measuring the input ratio of dry hay to silage when the mixer is filled. Optionally, the mixer may be a continuous type mixer, and the input ratio between dried hay and silage may be measured by a measuring device connected to the input conveyor.

A preferred embodiment of the mixer 20 is shown in FIGS. 3 (A) to 3 (D). The mixer 20 has a mixing chamber 70 as shown in FIG. 3C, which has an open top and inwardly tapered side walls 72,74.
And end walls 76, 78 parallel to each other. A drive housing 80 is mounted on one end wall.
Two upper mixing screws 8 are provided at both end walls 76 and 78.
2, 84 and two lower mixing screws 86, 88 are axially fixed. These mixing screws are driven by a drive assembly (not shown) within drive housing 80. The upper mixing screws 82, 84 are connected to the side walls 72, 74.
They are spaced from each other along their respective upper parts. The lower mixing screws 86, 88 are spaced apart at the bottom of the mixing chamber 70 while approaching each other. These mixing screws are arranged to receive the dried hay and silage introduced from the supply conveyor and output the mixed feed product from the discharge conveyor.

The mixer 20 has an output for discharging via a first transfer conveyor 28 to a leveling device 14 having a weighing box 30. The first transfer conveyor 28 is angled upward to discharge the mixed feed product into the weighing box 30 from above. The weighing box 30 weighs out the mixed feed product to the second transfer conveyor 32. The second transfer conveyor has a leveling machine 34 that leveles the flow of the mixed feed product before relaying the feed product to the filling and bagging device 16.
Otherwise, the second transfer conveyor is similar to the first transfer conveyor.

Compressor 16 receives the mixed feed product and compresses it into a dense block, which is then discharged to a bagging device (not shown). The compression device 16 preferably has a device for compressing the mixed feed product in the three stages shown in FIGS. 4 (A) to 4 (D). The first or pre-compression stage 14 includes a gravity feed hopper 40 for receiving the mixed feed product discharged from the second transfer conveyor, and a vertical mixing screw system. The vertical mixing screw system has a pair of mixing screws 42 located along one side of the gravity feed hopper 40 to provide a receiving space 44 for mixed feed products. The receiving space 44 has a width approximately equal to the diameter of these mixing screws. The mixing screw 42 rotates about a vertical axis parallel to each other and feeds the hay and silage mixture downward into the first hydraulic ram compression chamber 48.

The first hydraulic ram compression chamber 48 has a first hydraulic ram 50 oriented to operate in a horizontal direction. The pressing plate 5 is provided on the operating rod 51 of the first hydraulic ram 50.
2 is attached. The first hydraulic ram compression chamber 48 and the pressing plate 52 have a rectangular cross section. First hydraulic ram 5
When 0 is extended as shown in FIG. 4 (B), the pressing plate 52 moves the feedstuff from beneath the mixing screw 42 into the small volume second compression chamber 54 in a lateral direction. This action further compresses the mixed feed product. The pressure plate 52 has a top shield that extends rearward within the first hydraulic ram compression chamber 48 so that when the first hydraulic ram 50 is extended, more feed is not supplied downward by the mixing screw to the rear of the pressure plate. It has a plate 53.

The second compression chamber 54 communicates with an inlet chamber (not shown). A second hydraulic ram 56 is attached to one end of the second compression chamber 54, and the second hydraulic ram 56
It is oriented horizontally at right angles to zero. The second compression chamber 54 is also rectangular and is swept by a rectangular or square pressing plate 58 mounted on an actuation rod 57 of a second hydraulic ram 56. When the second hydraulic ram 56 extends as shown in FIG. 4 (C), the compressed feed is moved laterally to the first hydraulic ram 50 into a bag filling chamber 60 described later. The pressure plate 52 surrounds one side of the second compression chamber 54 during the compression phase until the pressure plate 58 is retracted as shown in FIG. 4D.

The bag filling chamber 60 has a gate mechanism 62 and a sealed exhaust device 64 for evacuating the bag when the bag is sealed. The gate mechanism 62 has a pair of ram-operated sliding gates 66, 68, which are closed when the first hydraulic ram compression chamber 4 is closed.
8 and an end wall of the second compression chamber 54. These ram-operated sliding gates are used to store compressed feedstuffs in the bagging room 6.
Opened to be expelled through 0.

The compression device 16 includes a scale (not shown),
A controller may be provided to control the final weight of the bagged feed product and the flow of material through the system in response to these scales. Further, these control devices also sequentially execute the above-described compression step and bag filling step.

FIG. 6 shows the mixing performed in the above apparatus for making a hay and silage mixed feed product according to the present invention;
The flow of compression and bagging is shown. First step 1
In 10 the dry foliage, typically pre-bunched hay, ranges from 15% to 40%, preferably 20% to 3%.
Silage (and / or) in a ratio that produces a net water content in the mixed feed product in the range of 5%, more preferably about 30%.
Or Haileage). The input moisture content of the dried hay is about 8% to about 15%, and the input silage contains 40% to 70% moisture. Preferably, the moisture content of the hay is about 12% and the moisture content of the silage is about 60%. At these suitable moisture levels, dry foliage 6
The mixing ratio of 2% to 38% silage is the water content of the mixed feed 3
Exceeds 0%. These components are mixed for a considerable amount of time to evenly distribute the silage moisture content throughout the blended mixture. For high volume production, this requires a residence time in the mixer ranging from 10 to 20 minutes, typically about 15 minutes.

The feed mixture is then metered and fed into a compression device. In a weighing step 112, the blended feed product is weighed to a fixed volume and the feed product is passed while undergoing the weighing shown in step 114. The scale measures the weight of the feedstuff when the feedstuff is volumed in the compression device and stops feeding once it reaches a predetermined weight, for example about 45 kg.

Preferably, the compression device is as shown in FIG.
Feed as shown in steps 116, 118, 120 of
The mixture is packed in multiple stages.
It is not so limited. Mixed hay and silage
Approximately 265 kg / m ^ThreeInto the compression unit at a density of
And preferably 500 to 700 kg / m^Three, Even better
Approximately 650 kg / m^ThreeCompressed to a density of Bundle
About 650kg / m^ThreeDensity of this density
A mixture of hay and hay is a standard overseas shipping container
Preferred because it substantially fills the
No.

In the final stage of compression, shown in step 120, the compressed feedstuff is packed into a liquid tight bag.
In a preferred embodiment of the process shown in FIG. 6, the bag is also airtight. The filled bags are vacuum sealed at step 122 and then drained and stacked at steps 124 and 126.

In step 122, the filled hermetic bag is evacuated to remove as much oxygen as possible, thereby avoiding feed oxidation. Optionally, any oxygen remaining in the bag upon closure may be evacuated by flushing with a suitable inert gas or mixture of inert gases, such as CO ₂ or N ₂ . It has been found that there is no need to evacuate oxygen from the bag by evacuation or replacement. The limited amount of oxygen remaining in the bag, which is sealed with a dense mixture of hay and silage, is quickly consumed by the mixture without harm, and then as long as the bag remains undamaged, There is no mold.

The loading unit of the hay and silage mixture, preferably having a moisture content in the range from 15% to 40%, has a weight in the order of 45 kg or in the range from 40 to 50 kg. Packages of this size can be quickly handled by hand or by the loading and unloading equipment customarily employed in docks and breeding grounds where the product is used.
The airtight bag is therefore very unlikely to be damaged during handling.

As an alternative to the described compression bagging, a blend of hay and silage as described above may be formed and the mixture compacted into a dense bale tied with twisted yarn. The high density bale may then be placed in a plastic bag and sealed to prevent spoilage.

Referring to FIG. 7, steps 110 to 120 are the same as those of FIG. 6, except that no airtight bag is used and the bag is not evacuated prior to sealing. This alternative embodiment uses a gas permeable bag to contain the compressed blend of fodder material.

After filling, the bag is closed (step 13).
0), filled and closed bags are stacked in a large hermetic shipping container (step 132).
The entire container is preferably evacuated at step 134, but the oxygen may optionally be evacuated therefrom with an inert gas.

Preferably, the hay and haley blend is bundled in a plastic bag weighing up to about 50 kg, although somewhat larger sizes may be used. For example, the mixed feed product may be bundled in bails having a weight of about 500 kg and a size appropriate to substantially fill the cross-section of a standard container with four stacked bails. These bails can be accommodated in larger airtight bags to prevent spoilage of the wet mixture.

The present invention solves many problems in the prior art. This provides a very tasty, digestible, nutritious blended feedstuff. Haleys and silages moisten dry foliage, making it flavourful and digestible, and provide high nutritional value to the blended product. Dried fodder reduces the water content of the overall blend of feed products and increases the total net feed per gross to much higher than provided by conventional haley or silage. 650 kg / m ³
At a moisture content of 30%, the total amount of dry matter per cubic foot is comparable to that of dense, double-compressed hay, making transport as economical as more desirable feedstuffs. Hermetically packing the blended feedstuff in a very compact state with the relatively high water content provided by the silage and little or no residual oxygen, minimizes oxidation and minimizes feedstuff Avoid rot and heat.

An important advantage of the present invention is that it retains a relatively long fiber length in feedstuffs. On the other hand, making dried hay into a cube reduces the fiber length of the hay to less than 10 cm.

Although the principles of the invention have been described and illustrated in preferred embodiments of the invention, it is possible to modify the structure and details of the invention without departing from the above principles.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a system for mixing, densifying, and bundling dried hay and silage of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an elevation view along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3A is a side view of the mixer 22 showing details of the internal mixing screw by a dashed line, and FIG. 3B is an end view of the mixer of FIG. 3A showing an axial configuration of the mixing screw by a dashed line. (C) is a perspective view of the mixing chamber of (A),
(D) is a side view of the different mixing screws shown in the mixers of (A) and (B).

4A is a plan view of the compression bagging apparatus of the system of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 4B to 4D show successive stages of operation of the compression bagging apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 5-5 in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow of a process of mixing, densifying, and bundling dried hay and silage of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates the flow of an optional embodiment of the process of mixing, densifying, and bundling dried hay and silage.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12: Hay / silage supply and mixing device 14 ... Hay / silage mixed flow leveling device 16 ... Compression device 20 ... Mixer 22 ... First conveyor 24 ... Second conveyor 70 ... Mixing chamber 82, 84 ... Upper mixing screw 86, 88 ... Lower mixing screw 28 ... First transfer conveyor 30 ... Measuring box 32 ... Second transfer conveyor 40 ... Gravity feed hopper 42 ... Mixing screw 48 ... First hydraulic ram compression chamber 50 ... First hydraulic ram 54 ... Second compression chamber 56 ... Second hydraulic ram 60 ... bagging room

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-58-31945 (JP, A) JP-A-9-19263 (JP, A) JP-A-58-76023 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int) .Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23K 3/00-3/04

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] Claims 1. A livestock loading unit suitable for long-distance transportation, comprising a livestock loading unit comprising a mixture of dry foliage and fermented silage, wherein the foliage and silage are between 15% and 40%. Wherein the mixed feed product is compressed to a density of 500 to 700 kg / m ³ and the compressed mixed feed product is excluded to exclude air. A livestock loading unit further comprising a sealing means for sealing the animal. 2. The livestock loading unit for a mixed feed product according to claim 1, wherein the sealing means for sealing the compressed mixed feed product comprises a sealed airtight bag. 3. A livestock loading unit according to claim 1, having a weight in the range of 40 to 50 kg. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said dried foliage comprises hay and said fermented silage comprises haley.
A livestock loading unit according to claim 1. 5. A method for producing a mixed feed livestock loading unit suitable for long-distance transport, comprising: a fermentation step of fermenting fresh foliage to form a fermented silage; Mixing the fermented silage and the dry foliage in a ratio proportioned to produce a mixed feed product having a range of net moisture content;
Preparation method of and a sealing step of sealing the compression step of compressing the mixed Go飼 fee product, the compressed mixed feed product in a shipping airtight container. 6. The dry hay and fermented silage wherein the mixing step produces a mixed feed product having a net moisture content in the range of 20% to 35% and a density in the range of 500 to 700 kg / m ^3. The production method according to claim 5, further comprising a mixing step of mixing a.