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At the modern stage of manufacturing animal farm products, the industrial technologies are on the rise alongside with the farm economy. Taking into consideration that the majority of existing farms reduced their livestock to minimum, the necessity arises to restore the undeservingly forgotten “grandpa’s" technology of feeding animals and poultry with wet fodder mixes and to give it a second chance using modern feeding equipment and new feeding technologies.

For as long as the science of animal feeding exists there has been this problem of how to feed animals: with dry fodder or with wet fodder. One cannot give a Yes-or-No type of answer here, because each of these methods has its advantages and drawbacks and can be applied under certain technological conditions.

First and foremost this relates to the number of livestock in a farm. Let’s look back in the history. In pre-industrial era in small farms the classic feeding technology was applied combining dry fodders and wet mixes. At pig farms the wet fodder mixes were preferred, and in cattle farms, besides those, coarse fodder was supplemented with wet mixes with concentrated additives increasing the fodder effectiveness. Given the level of fodder production equipment everyone was happy (both people and animals) with such fodders. When industrial technologies were first introduced, they required significant increase of livestock number in the first place, which meant high animal concentration on limited areas and high farming. This made it necessary to entirely change cattle breeding schemes including the feeding technology. Thus the dry feeding method became the only way to provide the most mechanized and automated feeding operations, especially in pig and poultry farms dramatically reducing manual labor and energy consumption.

However, the industrial technology satisfies the needs of people, and doesn’t take into consideration the physiological animal digestion processes.

First of all, the key feature of dry feeding is high concentration of dry matter in fodder mixes. On the one hand, it is good taking into consideration the nutrients supply to the animals, provided that they have enough water to wet the dry fodder in their stomachs. However, for normal digestion the fodder particles need to change their structure (to absorb water), besides, dry fodder feeding takes additional time and energy on behalf of animals, which changes the digestion processes.

We just need to recall the stomach problems of people eating dry food all the time. Or why is it recommended to start lunch with the first course (soup), and then have the highly concentrated second course (meat, fish, etc.)? Digestion is a very complex process, and we listen to our doctors’ advice.

In stock raising we make the animals eat dry concentrated fodders, changing their digestion processes, and then fight gastritis and other diseases, especially with young animals, spending money on expensive veterinary medicines.

Secondly, with dry feeding mycelial fungi and their metabolic products – mycotoxins, as well as parasites can get to the animals digestion system, which increases the chances of animal poisoning. This problem can be solved with the application of special thermal processing (crushing, extrusion, granulating, etc.), but not every farm can afford the expensive equipment necessary for these purposes.

Thirdly, dust particles contained in dry fodder in unspecified quantities affects the respiratory system. This is especially important for feeding newly born animals. The only technologically grounded method is fodder mix granulating, but it is also connected with additional energy expenditures.

These disadvantages of dry feeding can be eliminated with the introduction of wet mixes. Their production implies fodder blends scalding. However, the thermal treatment not only destroys important nutrients, but also decontaminates the fodder removing harmful ingredients.

When switching to wet feeding, one should also consider this method’s drawbacks. Pathogenic bacteria grow more rapidly in wet medium, which limits the wet mixes shelf life. Besides, this technology requires additional expenditures on energy resources.

However, the modern fodder production equipment and fodder additives allow to eliminate these disadvantages.

Unique technological equipment designed by specialists of TEKMASH Institute R&D Enterprise (Kherson, Ukraine) belongs to such means of production.

A TEK unit is intended for flow medium thermal heating based on hydrodynamic phenomena with the lowest possible consumption of energy resources. It has a wide application range: heating, including commercial and residential facilities heating, pasteurization and liquid products mixing.

TEKMASH Institute R&D Enterprise developed a soy processing technology (peas and other crops can also be processed), which enables to combine crushing and thermal treatment in anaerobic conditions thanks to the hydrodynamic phenomena in a specially designed nozzles. Steam and conventional heat exchangers are not used in this technology. The operating principle implies direct energy conversion with 90% efficiency.

TEK-SM equipment is unique because it combines three separate technological processes in one production cycle: crushing, thermal processing and mixing (the cycle duration is 40-50 minutes, the temperature reaches 230°...248°F or 110°...120°С)

Conventional equipment, especially thermal processing units (scalders, extruders, granulators, etc.) require complex technical solutions and significant energy resources consumption (powerful mechanical devices, electric motors and power-consuming equipment for superheated steam production or water heating).

The offered technology is based on the production of concentrated soy additives in the form of creamy and pasty products, which keep almost all the vitamins and mineral compounds contained in soy beans, unlike soy cake and soy flour.

The equipment consists of an electric or diesel driven pump, a reservoir where the ingredients are loaded (soy, water, additives) and a special nozzle where the crushing and heating processes take place. The automatic sensors control the necessary technologic temperature.

The equipment is protected by patents in Ukraine and Russia. Several international patent applications have been filed for the design and technology.

Products	Price per mt, USD
Cow milk	139 - 176
Cow milk whey	65 - 83
Soy milk manufactured from soy flour	52 - 59
Soy milk manufactured on “soy cow” equipment	22 - 31
Soy milk manufactured by TEKMASH Institute R&D Enterprise technology	12 - 13

The offered technology for the production of soy beans based on TEK-SM hydrodynamic units allows:

to raise the farm profit margin almost by 50% owing to growth increase and fodder cost reduction;
to keep all nutrients contained in soy beans owing to the unique processing technology;
to cut the net cost of soy milk almost 4 times comparing to the milk cost produced from soy flour and 2.2 times comparing to conventional steam extraction technology;
to reduce energy consumption 3...5 times comparing to widely spread "soy cows" manufactured abroad;
to add mineral additives and necessary medications in fodder production process.

The introduction experience for this equipment in Ukraine showed high profit margins and high level of adaptability for real-life conditions at any farm.
Another promising TEKMASH technology application is the production of wet fodder blends from grain and leguminous plants. Addition of vitamins and mineral additives will provide the possibility to produce wet balanced fodders.

Collection of Lectures from the 2nd International Conference “Ukraine. Mixed Fodders -2004”, Kiev, April 6-8, 2004