Management
Mobile mixer, new tool in lowering feed costs
How do you get from where you are to where you want to be in the management of your dairy farm? That is more or less the scope of Heemskerk Feed Services in their approach to the dairy farmer. They recently expanded their activities into on-farm feed milling by purchasing a mobile feed mixer from manufacturer Tropper in Austria.

Applied nutrition
How to melt three cereals into one mixed package
Under the brand name optigrain the German feed milling company deuka introduces a newly developed piglet feed consisting of a combination of wheat, barley and corn. This is mechanically-hydro thermally processed into a mixed package with opticon technology.

Nutrition
Oils and fats indispensable in feed
There are many reasons to add fats or oils to animal diets. Nutritionally, fats are a concentrated source of energy and a source of essential fatty acids. Fats improve palatability, feed efficiency, reproductive efficiency, and the digestibility of certain protein-rich feeds, as well as alleviate heat stress. There is also evidence that certain fatty acid configurations have nutraceutical properties.

Processing
QC with NIRS for NACCP and GMP
All around the world today, government bodies and consumers alike are increasingly demanding higher standards in all aspects of feed production. To meet these demands while at the same time ensuring continued profitability feed producers need to have ready access to precise, reliable data to control their processes. Near Infra Red Spectroscopy is one of these useful tools.

Processing
From granaries to insectaries: NIRS helps human health
By using an automated single-kernel handling system coupled with a near-infrared spectrometer, entomologist James Throne and colleagues found they could pinpoint grain kernels that looked ordinary on the outside but harboured growing insects inside.

Processing
Versatility latest trend in modern big-bag filling
Since its introduction the use of big-bags or Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC) has soared. Flexibility, tailor made design, speed, hygiene and ergonomic operation are the latest trends in modern big bag filling systems.

Aquaculture
A revolutionary concept for shrimp feeding
Shrimp feed accounts for the highest portion of the production cost of farming, and lack of understanding of shrimps' eating behaviour makes feeding even more expensive. The present practice of feeding management in shrimp culture needs to be re-examined.

 
May 10, 2005