Influence of using additives on quality of pelletized fodder

Abstract

The animal husbandry sector has had a great increase in the last decades, mostly due to extensive population growth. One of the sectors that has registered an extensive growth is the zootechnical sector, which had to meet the constantly growing food requirements from human populations. Green fodder is one of the main and most healthy animal feeds, but has the disadvantage that it is not available all year long and it has to be preserved. In order to be able to ensure healthy and nourishing animal feed throughout the entire year it is necessary to find ways to preserve green fodder in order to maintain its quality and nutritional properties. One of the ways to preserve green fodders' properties is to process them and turn them into pellets. This operation helps maintain homogeneity and store fodder in better conditions. The fodder pelleting process is largely influenced by the physico-chemical properties of the feed and the binders or additives used. The paper presents the experimental researches conducted for pelleting green fodder (alfalfa, wheat and rapeseed stalks) aimed to be used as animal feed and bedding, with and without using additives (corn starch and sugar beet). Following the experiments, series of analyses were performed to assess their quality. The use of additives was found to have a beneficial effect on the main quality attributes of animal feed pellets: better aspect, length, improved nutritional quality (from 3965.56 to 3989.08 by adding sugar beet), improved durability (from 87.2 to 94.5 % by adding corn starch), etc. This study has demonstrated the existence of direct proportionality (influence) between the pelleting process, main raw materials and the additives used and the quality parameters of animal feed pellets.

Pellet Production from Woody and Non-Woody Feedstocks: A Review on Biomass Quality Evaluation

“…The effects of paraffin, corn starch, and dolomite on the quality of wheat straw pellets were investigated by Gageanu et al [97,98]. They found beneficial effects of these binders on the pellet length, surface, and shape.…”

Effects of Wet Fermented Soybean Dregs on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Pellets of Corn Stover

“…The physical and mechanical properties are the evaluation indexes of the quality of forming materials [ 7 ]. However, the molding quality of corn stover is poor and the utilization rate is still low [ 8 ]. Therefore, seeking effective additives is necessary to improve corn stover forming quality.…”