Small Animals - How to Process Animal Feed

Haven learned the nutritional value of crops and the nutritional requirements for the small animals to be raised, this lesson focuses on the actual process of the feed.

 

Objectives

1. At the end of this lesson, it is expected that the student or small scale farmer will know the basic details for processing those foods used in the portions designed by the Benson Institute. Such foods will be used in the Family self-sufficiency subsistence programs for farmers.

2. It is expected that the small scale farmer will build simple machinery for processing the food and creating balanced portions.

Preparation

Before teaching this lesson, the instructor must build machines such as a soy toaster, a mixer, and become familiar with their use. The machinery must remain in the school Process the project, and be used as permanent educational material.

The soy toaster must be built following the guide described in the video “THE SOY TOASTER” prepared by the Benson Institute.

The instructor must also have a sample of the toasted soy, a sample of the ground corn and a sample of the toasted-ground soy. It is preferable that he stores the samples in glass containers so he can hand them to the students for observation. The samples should not weigh more than a pound each.

Also, he must have drawings or photographs of the soy toaster, the model mixer and a grill being used for toasting grains.

Concepts to be taught

1. Legumes such as soy must be heated up at a temperature of 110°C for 3 minutes. This will destroy anti-quality elements that the raw grain may contain. Anti-quality elements can reduce the grain’s quality when they are fed to mono-gastric species such as poultry and pigs. For ruminants such as goats, soy does not require treatment.

2. To accomplish a better digestion of the ingested grains, their grinding is necessary.

3. A proper mixing of the balanced food is necessary to guarantee a homogeneous diet, specially with reference to vitamins and minerals that contain very fine particles.

Introduction

To attain the maximum yield from farm animals ( besides creating portions considering detailed nutritional value, as well as the requirements for the species to be fed), we must be very careful with the physical part of the diet, which includes precise weighing of each ingredient, the toasting and grinding of the soy, the grinding of the corn, the size of the particles of calcite or grit, and the total homogeneity of the entire diet.

All these are factors can greatly reduce the quality of the diet if they are not carefully managed, even once the diet has been mathematically well calculated.

Concept #1

Soy that is to be used in diets for poultry or pigs must be heated up at 110°C for three minutes. Soy, just like many other legumes, has lecithin and other anticoagulants such as the tripsine blocker (protheolithic enzyme from the pancreatic juice). This prevents an optimal use of proteins in foods. Fortunately, these anticoagulant factors can be completely destroyed at high temperatures. Any thermic procedure (boiling, toasting, baking, etc.) which guarantees at least 3 minutes at 110°C, destroys these elements (#1).

Any method that is used, should permit the later grinding of the grain so that it can be mixed with the rest of the ingredients. Considering these factors, the most adequate methods are the toasting or baking (toast the soy in open containers or in an oven) (#2).

When toasting soy, we must be very careful not to burn the grains. Excess heat can be as harmful as feeding it raw. Over heating causes reactions that form compounds between sugars and amino acids which cannot be digested by mono-gastric species.

Considering that in the majority of the places (where the Family Self-sufficiency Model is being implemented) the availability of fuel is limited, the materials used as fuel must be used wisely.

Since tortillas are the staple food in the areas where the model is being implemented, we recommend that after toasting or heating the tortillas up, the people use the “comal” (grill), which has been previously heated. With the remaining fire they can toast between 3 to 4 pounds of soy. Toasting soy under these conditions will take from 12 to 15 minutes. While the soy grains are on the grill, they must be stirred continually until they have a dark brown color and both ends of the grain have a darker color (almost black). A good way to determine how toasted the grain is would be to first toast small amounts and taste it. When the grain is raw it has an unpleasant taste, somewhat bitter. The same occurs when the grain has been over-heated. After becoming familiar with the taste and appearance of the toasted grain, it will not be difficult to determine the right time to retrieve the grain from the grill.

If we consider that it takes from 30 to 40 pounds of food per month to feed 12 egg-laying hens and 24 broilers, it would be necessary to toast soy approximately 10 times per month. If this is done right after heating up the tortillas, it won’t be necessary to spend extra money for fuel.

Also, places that bake bread can use those ovens for toasting the soy once the bread has been taken out. The amount of soy to be toasted will be determined according to the size of the oven.

When an oven is used it is not necessary to stir the soy constantly, but it will be necessary at first to become familiar with the time it takes to toast the soy and how it looks once it is ready. Generally, it takes between 12 to 20 minutes to toast 5 to 10 pounds. It is important to remember that when placing the soy in the oven all the grains must be exposed directly to the heat. This means that the grain on the baking sheets will not be any higher than two layers.

Another alternative is the building of a soy toaster. To build a toaster it will be necessary to get discarded materials such as iron tubes, 1 metal container with a 50 gallon capacity (it will be used to transport fuel), and a welding shop for assembling.

Detailed instructions for building the toaster are available in the video “Soy toaster”.

One inconvenience the soy toaster designed by the institute presents is its limited fuel efficiency. This is one of the reasons why its construction and use are limited to areas where fuel is abundant.

The soy grain does not need to be toasted when feeding ruminants such as goats . This is due to their digestive physiology which is considerably different from that of the mono-gastric species. The abundance of micro-flora and micro-fauna in the rumens destroys all the anticoagulants found in the grain.

Learning Activity #1.

Build a soy toaster if conditions permit. Otherwise, toast soy on a grill, and familiarize students with the appearance of the toasted grain, processing time and taste.

Concept #2

The grinding of the grain facilitates digestion, and as a result, the diet’s nutritional efficiency improves as well. (#3)

In their natural state animals such as hens, pick their food directly from the ground. This food is stored in their crop where it is moistened and softened. The main digestive activity starts in the gizzard where the grains are ground to be blended later with the rest of the digestive juices. This process requires a good amount of energy drawn from the food. On the contrary, when the animal is fed inside its pen and its food has been previously ground, the use of energy drawn from the food is minimum and most of it is destined for eggs or meat. This is the purpose of grinding up food before it is fed to the poultry.

The size of the particle will greatly depend on the size of the bird to be fed. One day old chicks will be fed a finely ground diet. Egg-laying hens or chickens in their last weeks of fattening can eat larger size grains. (#4)

In general, it is recommended that the diet be as homogeneous size wise as possible. Poultry species have a tendency to pick the larger particles and discriminate smaller particles, among which we find the vitamin-mineral mixes. When uniform sized particles are served, poultry will ingest the totality of the food and discrimination will be reduced.

The most common and efficient method of grinding is performed with the hammer mill. Unfortunately this method is extremely costly to be implemented amongst small farmers.

For the most part, each community has a mill for either dried grains such as wheat, corn, barley, rye, broad beans and others, or for wet grains such as corn for tortillas. Either of these two types of mill can be very well be used for grains destined to the animals’ diet in the familiar self-sufficiency model.

It is also important to include a source of minerals in the diet, which consistency and particle size can be ground by the poultry’s gizzard. This must be obtained in the proper size. Some grain mills do not have enough resistance as to grind calcite or molluscan shells without getting extremely worn out.

Learning Activity #2

Grinding up 4 pounds of toasted soy and 6 pounds of corn on manual mills and in communal mills to establish differences as far as time and grinding quality.

NOTE: The Benson Institute is currently developing a family mill, and hopes to be able to distribute it soon to those families involved.

Concept #3

Mixing the diet homogeneously is very important so that the animals can receive all the necessary nutrients in every portion of the food they ingest. (#5)

Once the diet has been mathematically calculated, the ingredients have been prepared (whether toasted or ground), and we have within our reach all the previously weighted components, we can proceed to mix them to obtain a diet ready feed the animals.

The process of mixing must be carefully considered. It should never be done directly on the ground.

There are two ways of mixing the diets: Manually or mechanically. Mechanical mixing is highly recommended because we can obtain an excellent finished product. Manual mixing is not as recommended and will only be used in cases when mechanical mixing is not possible. In cases when manual mixing is necessary, it must be done on cement floors perfectly clean. The area where the mixing is to be done must be protected from the wind.

The process is as follows:

In the first place, all the ingredients must be weighted accurately: ground corn, toasted and ground soy, calcium carbonate or ground shell flour, calcium diphosphate or bone flour, vitamins and minerals, and salt depending on the type of animal to be fed (#6).

We then place all the corn on the floor and we make a hole on the top forming a cone with a steep on the top part. We pour all the soy and then take 4 or 5 pounds from the pile and put them in a separate container and will then mix them with the vitamins, minerals and the salt. The mixing will be done by hand until it looks homogeneous. We then pour the calcium carbonate in the pile as well as the vitamin-mineral-salt mix. Next, aided by a big shovel we transfer the pile shovel by shovel from its original pile to another pile until a new pile is formed. When all the ingredients have been transferred, we return them to their original position and repeat the action another 8 to 10 times. We them put the mix into containers where it can be safely stored dry and out of the reach of rodents or other animals that could pollute it. We should also store it in a fresh, dry place away from the influence of the sun’s rays.

Mechanical mixing is faster and more efficient. For the feeding of animals a mixer can be built. It could be used by all members of a community since it would probably only take ten minutes per person per portion sufficient for a month.

To build a mixer, we’ll begin from the same materials for the soy toaster. The building of a mixer is simpler. We need to build the base out of wood or metal. The 50 gallon metal tank must be perforated on both ends in opposite places 180° in such a way that the main axis crosses the entire reservoir diagonally.

The loading and unloading opening for the ingredients must be located on either end on the side opposite to the axis opening, in such a way that when it is necessary to unload the mixer, the mix can come out easily and be collected in sacks to be stored. The loading and unloading door must have a plastic seal that will aid in safely and firmly closing the door after loading. It also eliminates the risk of the grains falling out when the door opens.

The mixing time will be of approximately 4 to 5 minutes for 50 to 100 kg of raw materials. When loading the machine it will always be convenient to put the corn first, followed by the soy and finally adding the mix of vitamins, minerals and salt.

Learning Activity #3

Weight the ingredients required for a 50 kg diet for chickens, or egg laying hens. Mix ingredients on a cement floor. Do the same with 100 kg in the mixer.

Observe the differences in time, effort and homogeneity of the mix.

List of figures for: How to Process Animal Feed

(Click on the magnifying glass of any image for enlargement)

1. Drawing showing the toasting process.

2. Drawing showing the grinding process.

3. Drawing showing forms of grinding.

4. Drawing showing the ground feed.

5. Drawing showing homogeneous mixture of the ground diet.

6. Drawing showing nutritional diets.