Disc mill for cattle feed: "With our Disc Mill, we can grind coarse and the cow eats more easily"

The Disc Mill delivers throughput and it is silent. It hasn’t been necessary to do any work with it since the first day of operation. It does the job!

"In Brittany, the use of the Disc Mill for cattle breeding is rare"

Here is the observation: "In Brittany, we most often provide our customers with crushers unlike in the  sectors of my colleagues, especially in the South-East, where the use of the Disc Mill is common. Many farmers produce their own feed on-farm."

Therefore, we went to Persquen, where we met with Ludovic, associate of GAEC Bouguennec, breeder of 120 dairy cattle. Being adept of XL GRAIN, he chose the SKIOLD Disc Mill to make the feed for his livestock. It has been in operation since October 2019, and Ludovic shared his experience with us.

He did a tour for us at his feed factory and operations.

The perfect Disc Mill for grinding XL GRAIN

"We chose the Disc Mill in connection to the XL Grain. The quality of the grinding is better." Previously, Ludovic used a crusher for his XL GRAIN, but he was not satisfied with the throughput. The grains passed through and arrived in whole condition on the feeding table, ended up in the dung and were therefore not valued. Today, with the SKIOLD Disc Mill, we no longer have a problem.

How do we use XL GRAIN? We mix 1 ton of barley with 300 litres of water and 25 kgs of XL GRAIN which are enzymes with urea in it. This allows us to valorise the proteins of the barley 4 to 5 times. The pH of barley goes from 6-6.5 to 9. The feed is buffered for cattle. They are given more barley without the risk of acidosis.

The Disc Mill is capable of making coarse grain

"Here, we can coarse grind with our Disc Mill. The cattle eat more easily. Compared to a pig where you set the disc distance to 0.1 or 0.5, we are at 1.5 for cattle, and we have not touched anything for a month and a half."

Optimum grinding

Before investing in the Disc Mill, Ludovic wanted to make sure of the grinding quality and the throughput of the mill. One day, Ludovic came to SKIOLD with sample bags. Alongside Anne, he met Stéphane, our Product Development Support at SKIOLD France, with whom he carried out various tests in relation to disc distance in order to find the optimum. In October 2019, we replaced the crusher with the disc mill.

Today, the Disc Mill (7.5 kW) is used for XL grain and to make 200 tons of feed per year. The feed production unit works 1 h to 2 h minimum per day. We make 3-4 types of feed:

• For dairy cattle
• For calves
• For beef cattle

The Disc Mill is real working comfort

Today, Ludovic notes a real working comfort, as "the Disc Mill delivers throughput and it is silent. It hasn’t been necessary to do any work with it since the first day of operation. It does the job. I have nothing to say.

The advantages of the Disc Mill:

• The work quality
• The speed
• The silent operation
• And the maintenance: You don’t have to do anything. There is only one place to grease, and otherwise you have to open and check the carbide discs from time to time."

The cattle no longer sort their feed

Previously, the cattle sorted their feed. It was impressive. They started doing this because they liked barley the best and then straw. Once there was even one that swelled because she was always sorting. Today, they no longer sort.

Installation by SKIOLD France

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Technical Information

• Persquen, France
• 110-120 dairy cattle
• 230 ha of UAA
• 37 to 38 litres of milk on average per cow
• Dairy reference: 1.5 million