The feed mill industry in the Philippines has been relying heavily on equipment supply. From Europe from the 70s to the 90s, the influx of new suppliers came in during the 2000s. The suppliers primarily base their specifications on existing processes specifically designed for their requirements, environmental conditions, and machine availability.
During the last 20 years, all types of design and equipment are now readily available everywhere and easily accessible on the web. This now opens all doors to a more tailor-made and lower-cost approach suited for each country, requirement, condition, etc. The only piece needed to complete this approach is the proper engineering company with the appropriate ability and experience.
Definition and Tips
Feed milling solutions that suit the Philippines mean the proper exact flow process, equipment delivery, building design, operations execution, and every other perspective that should arrive at the least building, operating, and maintenance cost on producing feeds daily.
TIP 1: Engineering Team
Each feed milling entity should have its engineering team, who can design, build, and operate the mill. Both requirements should be satisfied and filled in by a proper 3rd party team that is similar or even better experienced. Much like putting up a hotel, you would need an adequate hotelier so your group can kick off operations right away – assuming the group has zero to minimal experience only. This we can call in our industry a “Feed Miller” who can take on the job.
TIP 2: Flow Process
You can only apply flow processes from other countries (Europe, China, Turkey, etc.) in the Philippines if the justification or marketing process is different. There will always be a flaw that never seems to suit the likeness of the Philippines’ operation standard. Our flow process follows a very automatic system yet covers very labour-intensive operations.
A good example is the system of intake lines of raw materials. A plant always has a standard intake line of 2.5 times the line capacity. It is not fully maximized since the intake process in our country entails manual input from labourers- resulting in a slower intake system instead of bulk pouring automatically from its truckloads.
A more layman’s explanation would be our malls’ automatic parking payment and ticketing system. Some high-end malls now apply the automatic paying machine, but right beside it is personnel who manually assists, take the cash, and manually input it into the automatic paying machine. The perfect analogy – convert it to feed milling terms – and you get the perfect example of an automatic yet manual system.
To solve this, you must design the flow to be simplified and basic. However, the equipment you apply within the primary system should be heavily high-tech and high-end. That way, when the plant runs, the equipment takes all the needed operational standards not handled by the manual system.
TIP 3: Maximized Storage
There is a strong need for both Silo and Warehouse storage in any feed mill in the Philippines. Our raw materials supply and storage management should cater to the bulk and bagged deliveries. Never only one over the other. The trick, however, is on the maximization of each storage technique. The key is to have the proper conveyance from the storage silo or warehouse to exactly the dosing silos of the mill. The intake facility placement should be adequately engineered and precisely based on the specific locations of the storage facility.
One proper engineering design placement will determine years of efficiency and cost savings versus double/triple/quadruple handling raw materials. We should veer away from the idea of plotting the standard warehouse and silo nearest the feed mill, put the conveyors, and let the warehouse workers plan/schedule the movement inside. It would be best if you settled this even from the design period of the mill and complete site development stages so that the movement of raw materials is thoroughly planned out at the minor handling terms possible.
TIP 4: Conditioning Process
The conditioning process differs in many ways and is applied in various methods. In our country, depending on which school of thought or equipment provider was involved during the engineering process. In most cases in feed operations, a standard double conditioner can do the job for the conditioning process. We should be careful with our process applications as not all feed types need the newly trending sanitizing system now being applied in other countries.
The long-term conditioner is already quite outdated and is not even mainly used by other modern techniques. A proper sanitizing system should be used if there is a need to sanitize the mill before pelleting. Otherwise, a regular double conditioner is the most practical and applicable approach in the Philippines.
TIP 5: Automatic Pelletizer vs Labourers
Robotic palletizer has very high operating and capital expense to consider. To simplify, a simple, straightforward calculation of operating expenses on maintaining/running/managing a robotic system versus 3-4 helper workers will be enough. Considering the lower labour rate in our country is essential compared to other areas with higher labour rates (with the need for automated systems). We should never forget that our country utilizes an “automatic system” with a manual approach.
TIP 6: Post vs Pre-Grind Mentality
For the Philippine feed processing industry, we need to accept the pre-grind process of feed milling is a thing of the past and would be better with big capacity mills. It is already studied, analyzed, and determined that the post-grind system will yield lower overall operating and maintenance costs if applied to mills with fewer than 30 tons per hour capacity. Unfortunately, the old school of thought is still used even to this date in the application of pre-grind on small-capacity feed mills.
The fundamental reason is that the equipment delivery and process supply by China or Turkish manufacturers follow an older European process. There is a need for better education on the post-grind approach, which is still considered a more efficient approach while maintaining the highest level of batch quality in any feed production process.
TIP 7: Modern Optimization
New trends on liquids, powder, and post-pelleting approach.
The modern way of optimizing the feed mill process differs from the usual production line but on the post-pelleting areas. We are still educating and learning that You can achieve the best approach to maximize feed profitability and nutrition in many ways, most notably with coating applications.
A modern, efficient food-grade approach in the pellet coating process is as important as the actual nutritional feed formulation. The mechanical function and the proper dietary system in the coating process will drastically improve the effects on the end user. Unfortunately, the market here is still catering more to the commercial aesthetic features of the feeds rather than actual performance. So the need for more open-mindedness on the “not too good looking feeds – but high in nutritional value” should be applied primarily to own-use/farm owners who plan to integrate, build, and produce their own feed types.
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