Hammer mill screen size effect on pig performance investigated

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Publish time: 20th July, 2009      Source: www.cnchemicals.com
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July 20, 2009

   

Hammer mill screen size effect on pig performance investigated
   
   

   

The Australian Pork CRC has studied the influence of hammer mill screen size and grain source (wheat or sorghum) on the growth performance of male grower pigs.

   

   

Processing of grain prior to feed manufacturing is common practice to reduce particle size, thereby increasing the surface area of the grain susceptible to the pig''s digestive enzymes. The result is generally an improvement in nutrient digestibility and hence enhanced growth performance of the animal. Hammer milling is commonly used in commercial feed mills to reduce the particle size of the grain. The hammer mill utilises metal arms that grind the grain by pushing it through a metal screen, with particle size altered through the use of different screen sizes.

   

   

Given the increased utilisation of sorghum in pig diets, it is important to clarify whether hammer mill screen size will impact on production performance of growing pigs when offered predominately wheat or sorghum based diets.

   

   

The study showed that reducing the hammer mill screen size from three mm to two mm reduced average particle size of the grain. Pellet quality was reduced when sorghum was included in the diet, particularly when sorghum was processed through the two mm hammer mill screen. Growth performance was reduced when grower pigs were offered the sorghum based diets compared to the wheat based diets. It is likely that this reduction in performance was caused by an increase in feed wastage due to the poorer pellet quality of the diet. Lastly, reducing hammer mill screen size from three mm to two mm for the wheat based diet resulted in an improvement in overall feed efficiency of approximately five percent.

   

   

The results suggest that the three mm screen size should be used to maximise pellet quality if sorghum is to be included in grower pig diets processed through a hammer mill system. When sorghum is excluded from the diet, a two mm hammer mill screen will maximise feed efficiency when wheat is the predominant grain source.