The machine that we use to provide services is a Geringhoff grinding mill with silage press. It has been created as a result of cooperation of two factories: the German Geringhoff company and Belgian Hyplast company – a worldwide leader in manufacturing of silo bags for ensiling feed. The Geringhoff company provides a guarantee of quality and reliability, while Hyplast provides its years of experience in ensiling inside silo bags. The grinding mill with a silage press is a machine used for crushing dry and moist grain. The machine allows grinding the grain down to a desired granulation degree by adding or removing blades in the grinding module.
The machine consists of a charging hopper, blade grinding mill, undercarriage and tunnel onto which the silo bag is installed. The amount of grain fed to the grinding mill is dosed by means of the hydraulically driven screw located on the bottom of the charging hopper. The undercarriage enables transporting the machine along the public roads. The hydraulic brakes located on the wheels are used to adjust the force of loading the silo bag with material. Depending on the needs the machine can be fitted with tunnels having the diameter of 1.5 m or 2.4 m and the capacity from 80 to 200 tons. The machine can be optionally fitted with an additional hopper with an adapter enabling packing of chopped maize, brewery stillage, whole maize, sugar beet stillage and other material.
The application of technologies of preparation of moist feeds in silo bags enables significant reduction of costs. The service consisting in granulation, packing and preserving a single ton of moist grain costs about 55 Polish zlotys. It is an amount that includes all the costs, that is, tractor and its fuel, silo bag, grinding, packing into the silo bag and handling by an operator. To this there should be added the cost of the chemical or biological preservative. A chemical preservative in the recommended dose of 3 litres per ton costs PLN 19/t while a biological ones costs PLN 3/t. The cost of drying one ton of maize ranges from 90 to 130 Polish zlotys, depending on the type of fuel used. Additionally in case of drying grain intended for feed there should be taken into account the necessity of granulating the grain, which creates further costs. When comparing the costs of “dry” and “moist” feeding technology, a farm with about 500 porkers and packs 300 tons of moist maize can save up to 20 000 Polish zlotys.
The ground moist maize is a better and cheaper feed, characterized by high assimilation by animals. Its participation in the total nutritional dose may amount to 30-50 percent. The assimilation rate of feed prepared in such a way is higher in comparison to dry ground maize. The ground moist maize can also be applied when feeding pigs with dry feed. The amount of ground moist maize has to be adjusted in such a way that the moisture content of the final feed used does not cause clogging of pig feeding devices. Depending on the moisture content of the maize ground, its participation in the nutritional dose may amount up to 30 percent.
The moist grain is transported from the field to the machine and poured into the charging hopper by means of a loader or handling trailer. The grain falls from the hopper into the grinding mill where it becomes ground and then it is compacted by the screw in the silo bag. During compacting of the ground grain in the silo bag the chemical or biological preservative can be applied through the nozzles installed on the screw.
We provide the services employing the Geringhoff grinding mill with a silage press on the whole territory of Poland. The service can be carried out with the use of the landlord’s tractor or our own.