Gehl #50 Feed Grinder Puzzle

eye4iron · Oct 26, 2015

Just bought a feed hammermill. I have it on a Farmall H. At 540 PTO speed and without a screen in it the shelled corn comes out more fine than
cracked. If I put the screen in it (hole about the size of a dime) It doesn't make much difference. The old owner used it to grind up ear corn cob and
all with the same screen. Do I need a smaller screen to have larger cracked corn? I'm thinking that the screen i'm using now allows the corn to move
in and out of the screen back into the hammer area. I'm scratching my head. Any ideas?

paul · Oct 27, 2015

That has to feed slow!

We always used a screen something close to an inch holes for out ear corn and oats mix. And I thought that was slow feeding.....

Dad used a slightly smaller screen for chicken and hog feed, but is was a little kid back thrn not sure what size.

Paul

farmerwithmutt · Oct 27, 2015

Also slow the mill down less revolution less time to hit the corn

MMDan · Oct 27, 2015

You are not going to crack corn real coarse with a Gehl grinder. The hammermill in a Gehl 50 has 66 hammers in a 16" wide mill so the hammers are much closer than other brands. When we used ours to do corn for sheep or calves we either used a 1" screen or none. It didn't really make much difference in the final result.

eye4iron · Oct 27, 2015

Thanks for the advice. We did slow it down but it started to back up in our horizontal tube before the collector. The feed is fine and ok to use for the steers. Just didn't want it too fine. Heard that could be bad but never heard why.

LAA · Oct 27, 2015

You don't want large cracked corn for your steers because as with whole shell corn they will not digest but around 55% and excrete the rest, small calves will thoroughly chew whole or rough cracked corn but larger cattle do not. If you were steam flaking or rolling then whole corn or equivalent is fine. The reason to be careful feeding finely ground corn is because of overeating and compaction in the rumen, this is most likely to happen when first starting cattle on feed but once they are established on full feed it rarely happens even if ground corn is the only ration other than hay. When starting cattle on finely ground corn it helps to add something to bulk up the ration, grind some hay with the corn or oats, your screen with the holes the size of a dime ought to make a good grind for all classes of cattle as long as it is fed correctly. It also important to make sure cattle have plenty of pasture, hay, or other roughage and are grain fed after having a chance to eat their roughage each day.

fastfarmall · Oct 28, 2015

I couldn't said it better, but thats why mother nature made ear corn, That cob has it's place.

Gehl #50 Feed Grinder Puzzle

eye4iron

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paul

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farmerwithmutt

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MMDan

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eye4iron

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LAA

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fastfarmall

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