Grinding feed

coonie minnie · Feb 10, 2021

Grinding feed seems like a popular post here, and so I thought I'd share some pictures of grinding today. Our grinder is made from a Bryant hammermill that came out of a local feedmill. Originally powered by two electric motors (1 100 hp, 1 30 hp) we made a drive train -mostly from parts from a Fox forage harvester and blower- to power it by tractor.

I can do a load of corn (maybe 375 bu) in about 40 minutes. I get it down to about 400-500 microns, or powder. Today I did 2 loads of wheat and one of corn. @ more of corn tomorrow morning will fill the bin.

coonie minnie · Feb 10, 2021

I forgot pictures!

NY 986 · Feb 10, 2021

Interesting.

Janicholson · Feb 10, 2021

That is very nice. Milling grain to powder at that rate on the farm is very productive. Jim

fastfarmall · Feb 10, 2021

Kinda looks like a roller mill at first glance!

jon f mn · Feb 10, 2021

That's quite a mill! Probly make the 400 smoke pretty good. Lol. What do you feed it to and how do you feed it? You grind corn in one bin and wheat in the other? Looks like a big operation.

4520BW · Feb 10, 2021

I ground a batch Sunday before the weather got bad.

Jwwj · Feb 10, 2021

3 hp runs as fast as you can feed it. with a 5 yo kicker on the side

Northvale PA · Feb 10, 2021

Why powder? What eats powder?

tomstractorsandtoys · Feb 10, 2021

That is impressive compared to my Deere 400 and a 3020. Seems to take as long as you to just grind 80 bu. Tom

fastfarmall · Feb 10, 2021

Unless they make pellets out of that fine grind!!!

mschwartz · Feb 10, 2021

That is a lot faster than the roller mill operation I have! Can roll a ton of grain in about 15-20 minutes, takes me longer to get tractor out and belted up correctly. 1947 MM RTU running a late 1800’s or early 1900’s Carley mill. Mike

coonie minnie · Feb 11, 2021

It goes to dairy cattle in a TMR.

coonie minnie · Feb 11, 2021

We have 350 milk cows. The wheat does go in one bin, and corn in another.

coonie minnie · Feb 11, 2021

Tom, we had a mill like that... the 3020 ran it quite a bit, but so did the 70 and the G.

coonie minnie · Feb 11, 2021

Nice seeing a Minnie at work!

jon f mn · Feb 11, 2021

Is there a reason for grinding that fine? Not many feed wheat and I've heard you need to be careful with it. What is your mix? I'm interested since I can grind my feed fine too but in the old days we didn't so if there is a good reason for it I'll do it.

coonie minnie · Feb 11, 2021

I'm trying to get the most from the corn I feed... with dairy, passage rate is fast as cows will eat 60 lbs of DM per day. Fine grinding makes for better availability with less coming through the cow undigested. Dairy also has more forage typically than a finishing steer, which helps buffer the "hot" corn.

A steer diet would typically be a lot of more coarsely ground corn and some minimal roughage. I'd argue that in today's world of $5 corn that a steer feeder might be better off with more roughage and finely grinding, but I'm not a steer guy, and I'm sure they'd tell me how little I know.

I typically feed 3-4 lb of ground wheat per head per day... it is a little faster digesting than ground corn, and seems to boost our protein test. It's also a good market for my wheat, as the cows don't dock for test weight

INCase · Feb 11, 2021

pretty clever attaching the grinder to the RV so you can right the RV off (ha ha, nuk nuk nuk)

Little hairy leaning over the belt to load it though....

jon f mn · Feb 11, 2021

Lol, dockage sucks. I know wheat can be used for feed and I'm not sure why they said you had to be careful not to use too much. I just remember that a full wheat diet wouldn't be good. But that was a long time ago. I raise oats to mix with the cattle feed and also grind in a couple bales of hay in each batch to mellow the corn some for my beef. Back at home dad always raised some oats and some barley and mixed both of those into the mix for the dairy cows. Our cows were not top producers but did well. I have considered wheat because it would be easier to sell any extra than to sell oats. Thanks for the info, always interesting to me how others do things. Can I ask where you are?

coonie minnie · Feb 11, 2021

I'm in South East WI. Too much wheat in a ruminant's diet can cause a sticky mess, kind of like rising bread dough, causing bloat etc.

Feeding wheat to hogs (monogastric) is more common, especially in the plains of Canada if prices make it a good value relative to corn.

Grinding feed

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