DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF CORN STALK SHREDDER FOR ANIMAL FEED
Nigeria’s livestock population is one of the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa, however different factors limits the full exploitation of the various agricultural sectors especially the livestock sub sector. The availability, quality and quantity of livestock feed has always been a challenge. Poor feed management, especially those of the bulky and fibrous crop residue is one of such constraints. Manual crop residue slicing is part of crop residue management as practiced by most livestock farmers is one of such management practices. This process is laborious, expensive and time consuming. To alleviate this, a Corn Stalk Shredder¬ was designed, developed and its performance was evaluated using corn stock. Prime mover speed, feed rate and feed thickness were varied using factorial design with three replications. Results obtained shows that the maximum mean shredding capacity of the shredder of 558.32 kg/h was attained when the shredder was fed by 6 kg of corn stalks with an average thickness of 250 mm at a speed of 2500 rpm. The study revealed that the interactions of this parameter were also significant on the capacity of the shredder but were not significant on the size of the feed stalks. It also indicated that the operational speed of the shredder was significant on the length of cut of the shredded corn stalks. It is recommended that crop residue to be shredded should be kept at the optimum storage temperature of the crop.
Authors : Saleh, A.
Category : Open Access Volume (Issue) : 9(1) Date Uploaded : 10th May 2023