WO1999019214A1

WO1999019214A1 - High density combination dry hay and haylage/silage livestock feed-making apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1999019214A1
Application number: PCT/US1998/021356
Authority: WO
Inventors: John M. Gombos; Moshe Leashno
Original assignee: A.C.X. Trading, Inc.
Priority date: 1997-10-10
Filing date: 1998-10-09
Publication date: 1999-04-22
Also published as: AU9795998A

Abstract

An apparatus for making a mixed feed livestock cargo unit suitable for long distance shipping mixes dry fodder such as hay with fermented silage such as haylage in a ratio proportioned to produce a mixed feed product having a net moisture content in the range of approximately 15 % up to about 40 %. The mixed feed product is compressed in a compression apparatus (16) and then sealed for shipment. Preferably, the mixed feed product is compressed directly into an airtight bag at the bottom of a vertical compression chamber (200) in the compression apparatus (16). The dry fodder in one embodiment has a moisture content of approximately 8 % up to about 15 % and the fermented silage has a moisture content of approximately 40 % up to about 70 %.

Description

HIGH DENSITY COMBINATION DRY HAY AND HAYLAGE/SILAGE LIVESTOCK FEED-MAKING APPARATUS

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains to the formulation, packaging and shipping of high density livestock feeds and more particularly to an apparatus for packaging a high density livestock feed comprising fermented fodder for long distance shipping and handling with minimal spoilage. Conventionally, livestock fodders have been packaged and stored in a number of different ways. One of the most common is in the form of hay, in which the fodder is cut and sun dried, and then is typically baled. Another common form of livestock feed is silage or haylage, in which feeds such as corn or alfalfa are cut, chopped and ensiled in a high moisture condition so as to ferment. Another form of livestock feed is pellets or cubes of fodder that have been finely chopped and extruded ~ this form is preserved, stored and shipped in a dry state. Each form of feed has its own advantages and disadvantages.

For long distance shipping, especially overseas, preservability and economical shipability of livestock feed are critical issues. Historically, only dry feeds - hay and cubes or pellets - have met both criteria. Pellets have a relatively high density, and preserve adequately as long as they are kept dry, but are expensive to produce. Baled hay is a somewhat less expensive form of feed, and stores and ships well as long as it is kept dry, but hay is also less dense so its relative shipping cost it higher than for pellets. In the last decade, however, it has become common for hay bales to be double compressed to increase shipping efficiencies. In particular, it has become commonplace to ship double-compressed baled hay from the United States to foreign countries that lack adequate feed production capacity, such as to Japan.

In order to be stored as hay, and even more importantly, for long distance shipping, the hay must be thoroughly dried. Otherwise, the hay can mold, mildew, oxidize and spoil, and can heat and possibly even ignite due to spontaneous combustion. For transoceanic shipping in enclosed cargo containers, the hay should have a moisture content of less than about 12%. Double compressed baled hay typically weighs in the range of 20 to 30 pounds per cubic foot.

Dried hay has several drawbacks. One drawback is that the curing process reduces the feed value of the hay, and the feed value continues to deteriorate gradually over time. Another drawback is that dry hay is not as palatable, nor as digestible, as fresh hay. Pellets and cubes are not any better in this regard. Livestock fodders have also commonly been stored in the form of silage, such as chopped corn or sorghum, or haylage, which is wet cut. For convenience, this type of feed will hereinafter be referred to collectively as silage, except where haylage is specified. The storage mechanism for silage is entirely different from that of dried hay. The fodder is ensiled, that is, it is cut and packed tightly into a silo or storage pit, plastic bag or other sealable container, and is preserved by fermentation. Silage-type feeds must be stored with a very high moisture content, over 40% and preferably around 60% water. Fermenting the chopped, wet fodder in an essentially air-free environment forms acids and alcohol which aid in preserving the silage.

Silage has several advantages over dry hay. First, the silage method of preserving the feed maintains a very high proportion of the initial nutrient value of the feed. Moreover, the ensiled feed maintains a high nutrient content for a long period of time. Second, the silage is very palatable and very digestible by livestock. Because it is moist and tender, cattle can chew silage or haylage easily; the feed is very tasty; and it can be digested easily by cattle. Silage-type fodders are, therefore, a very desirable livestock feed, particularly for dairy and feedlot herds.

Silage-type feeds suffer, however, from two main disadvantages. One disadvantage is that, containing a very high percentage of water, such feeds are very heavy as well as bulky, and therefore uneconomical to transport over any significant distance. The other main disadvantage is that silage can spoil within a matter of hours when exposed to the air.

Some livestock feeders have tried blending silage or haylage with dry hay to improve the quality of the feed. Because the silage can quickly spoil, however, such blending is generally done where the blended feed product is to be consumed. Heretofore, no techniques have been known for packaging and preserving silage-type feeds for economical shipment. The usual techniques that have been developed for preserving and packaging food stuffs, such as freezing, canning and vacuum packaging, are used for packaging the food stuffs in small quantities. They do not appear to be practical and are not known to applicants to have not been used for storing or shipping large bulk quantities of fermented livestock feeds.

One company, AgBag Corporation, has developed a system for ensiling livestock feed in an elongated plastic bag as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,424,051 ; 4,337,805; 4,310,036 and 4,308,901. The AgBag system appears to be limited to use on the farm, due to the large size, bulk and weight of the silage-filled storage bags, and not economical for long distance shipping. Also, due to the large size and bulk of the filled silage bags, it appears that handling of such containers without damage would be difficult. Also, it is unlikely that unloading machinery capable of handling such packages would be available at foreign ports.

As a result, notwithstanding the significant advantages of silage-type feeds over dried hay pellets and cubes, all transoceanic exports of livestock feeds known to applicants have been in the form of single or double compressed dry hay bales, or in the form of extruded, essentially dry pellets or cubes of hay or silage. Accordingly, a need remains for a way to package and ship livestock feed which has more of the advantages of both baled hay and silage and fewer of the disadvantages of each type of livestock feed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the invention is an apparatus for producing a livestock cargo unit comprising a blend of dry hay or other fodder and moist haylage or silage which are intimately mixed together and then highly compacted into a watertight bag. The blended dry fodder and haylage/silage feed product is mixed in a ratio that produces a net moisture in the range of 15%- 40%, preferably within the range of 25%-30% and ideally at about 30% net moisture. This is approximately two and half times the moisture content of dry hay and about half of the usual moisture content of silage. The ratio of components in the blended feed product is preferably 62% by weight of typical dry fodder, such as dry baled hay of about 12% moisture, and 38% by weight of haylage or silage having a typical moisture content of about 60%, but precise proportions can be varied to control the net moisture percentage of the blended feed product. Optionally, vitamins, minerals or other nutrients can be added to the blended dry fodder and haylage or silage. The blended feed product is compressed into fixed volume units, which are packaged in durable airtight bags at a density of approximately 40 pounds per cubic foot. For ease of handling, a preferred size of bag is about 2.5 cubic feet, which contains about 100 pounds of blended feed product. The filled bag is preferably airtight, and may be evacuated to remove as much oxygen as possible and thereby avoid oxidation of the feed. Alternatively, any oxygen remaining in the bag at the time of closure can be displaced by flashing back with a suitable inert gas, such as CO₂ or N₂, or a mixture of inert gases. A further alternative is to use a gas permeable bag to contain the compressed blend of forage materials and to stack a plurality of the filled closed bags in a larger airtight shipping container. The entire container can also have the oxygen displaced therefrom by an inert gas. To produce the blended feed product, dry fodder, typically previously-baled hay, having a moisture content of about 8% up to about 15%, is mixed with silage (and/or haylage) containing 40%-70% moisture in a ratio proportioned to produce a net moisture content in the mixed feed product that is the range of 15%-40%, preferably about 30%. The preferred proportions, for hay at 12% moisture and silage at 60% moisture, is 62% dry fodder to 38% silage. These components are mixed for a sufficient time to distribute the moisture content of the silage uniformly throughout the blended mixture. In production quantities in a batch process, this mixing requires a residence time in the mixer in the range of 10 to 20 minutes, typically about 15 minutes. The apparatus comprises a mixer having two inputs, one for dry hay and the other for silage or haylage. The mixer is preferably a batch-type mixer having an output which discharges to a meter box that levels the flow of mixed feed product and relays the feed product to a compressing apparatus. The mixer can include a scale for weighing the material as it is blended in the mixer. The compressing apparatus can also include a scale. Controls responsive to these scales can be used to control the flow rate of material through the system, as well as the final weight of the bagged feed product. The inputs to the mixer are preferably in the form of a pair of floor drag conveyor portions. One of these portions, that used for inputting haylage or silage, can include an extruder to reduce the moisture content of the input haylage or silage.

The invention solves a number of problems in the prior art. It provides a very palatable, digestible and nutritious blended feed product. The haylage or silage moistens the dry fodder to make it more palatable and digestible, and contributes a high nutrient value to the blended product. The dry fodder reduces the moisture content of the overall blend of feed product, and increases the overall net feed content on a per gross ton basis well above that provided by conventional haylage or silage. At 40 pounds per cubic foot and 30% moisture content, the total dry matter content per cubic foot rivals that of the dense, double compressed hay (typically 22 pounds per cubic foot and 12% moisture content), making it economical to ship as well as a more desirable feed product. Packaging the blended feed product in a highly compacted condition, with a relatively high moisture content contributed by the silage, and little, if any, residual oxygen, minimizes oxidation and avoids spoilage and heating of the feed product.

An important advantage of the invention is that it retains a relatively long-fiber length in the feed product. In contrast, cubing dry hay reduces the fiber length of the hay to under 4 inches.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing features and advantages of the invention will be better understood by referring to the following drawings:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a system for blending, compacting and packaging dry hay and silage in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation view taken along lines 2—2 in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 A is a side elevation view of the mixer 22, with interior auger details shown in dashed lines;

FIG. 3B is an end elevation view of the mixer of FIG. 3 A, showing the axial arrangement of the augers in dashed lines;

FIG. 3C is a perspective view of the mixing chamber of FIG. 3 A;

FIG. 3D are side elevation views of the different augers shown in the mixer of FIGS. 3 A and 3B; FIG. 4 is a side view of the compression apparatus and bagging station of the bagging apparatus; and FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the multi-station bagging apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a preferred embodiment of a system 10 of apparatus for implementing the invention. The system 10 comprises hay/silage infeed and mixing apparatus 12, compression apparatus 16, and bagging apparatus 174, together with interconnecting conveyors.

The mixing apparatus 12 comprises a mixer 20 having two input conveyors, a first conveyor 22 for infeeding dry hay and a second conveyor 24 for infeeding silage or haylage. Optionally, the second conveyor includes an extruder 26 for reducing the liquid content of the input silage before blending. The input conveyors 22, 24 are conventional horizontal floor drag- type conveyors. The illustrated mixer is a batch-type mixer supported on a scale 21 for weighing the input proportions of dry hay and silage as the mixer is filled. Alternatively, the mixer can be a continuous-type mixer and the input proportions of dry hay and silage can be metered by metering apparatus associated with the input conveyors.

The preferred form of the mixer 20 is shown in FIGS. 3A-3D. The mixer includes a mixing chamber 70, better seen in FIG. 3C, having an open top, inwardly tapered sidewalls 72, 74 and parallel endwalls 76, 78. A drive housing 80 is mounted on one endwall. Two upper augers 82, 84 and two lower augers 86, 88 are journaled in the opposite endwalls 76, 78. The augers are driven by a drive assembly (not shown) in housing 80. The upper augers 82, 84 are spaced along upper portions of sidewalls 72, 74, respectively, and the lower augers 86, 88 are spaced close together at the bottom of mixing chamber 70. The augers are arranged as shown in FIG. 3D to accommodate the introduction of dry hay and silage from the infeed conveyors and to output mixed feed product from the discharge conveyor.

The mixer 20 has an output which discharges via a first transfer conveyor 28 to compression apparatus 16. The transfer conveyor 28 is angled upward to discharge the blended feed product into a vertical compression chamber or chute 200 of compression apparatus 16. FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of compression apparatus 16 which includes a vertically- oriented hydraulic compression ram 202. Conveyor 28 feeds the blended feed product from the mixer 20 through an inlet 204 into the vertical chute 200 below ram 202. The bagging apparatus 174 is positioned below the chute 202. The bagging apparatus 174 operates on the principle of a carousel-type device. It can be oriented to operate on a vertical axis, as shown in FIG. 5, or can be rotated to operate on a horizontal axis to accommodate a horizontal discharge of the blocks of feed product. Preferably, the bagging apparatus includes a bag placing station A, a product receiving station B, and a vacuum pack and sealing station C. At station A, a bag is placed on the rotating platform. Once the platform has been rotated, station B is positioned directly under a vertical chute 200, as shown in FIG.4, and bagging sleeves 184 position the bag directly under chute 202. Blended feed product is fed into the chute 200 at inlet 204, filling the bag and partially filling the chute. Preferably, the upper edges of the bagging sleeves 184 are flush with the bottom edge of the vertical chute to prevent spillage of loose feed product. Once the vertical chute is filled with a predetermined amount of loose feed product, the vertically-oriented compression ram 202 compresses the blended feed product into the bag. Preferably, the blended feed product is compacted in the range of from 1 V to 4 times its original volume. The filled bag is then rotated to station C where it is sealed, and preferably evacuated. At the last station the bagged feed product is released onto a conveyor 180 for movement to another location for containerization.

At the end of mixing, some of the moisture from the silage is transferred to the dry hay. Additional moisture may transfer as the mixed feed product resides in the bags. The raising of the moisture content of the hay causes it to also ferment in the bag where air is excluded. This fermentation certainly increases the palatability and digestibility of the hay. The stiffness of the hay fibers is softened and this probably makes it easier for cattle to chew and digest. Furthermore, the additional fermentation appears to increase the nutrient value of the hay. A higher protein content appears present in the blended feed product after fermentation than appears present solely because of the mixture of input hay and silage.

Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be apparent that the invention can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. We claim all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

Claims

WE CLAIM:

1. An apparatus for compressing and packaging a blended livestock feed, the apparatus comprising: means for mixing hay and silage into a blended livestock feed having a moisture content between the moisture contents of hay and silage; a compression chamber having first and second openings; means for conveying the blended livestock feed into the first opening of the compression chamber from the mixing means; a bagger comprising: a livestock feed receiving station adjacent an opening in the compressor chamber for receiving the compressed blended livestock feed from the compressor chamber into a bag, and a sealing station comprising means for sealing the compressed livestock feed into teteg and means for compressing the blended livestock feed that is within the compression chamber into the bag.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the bagger further comprises a rotating platform capable of moving the bag between the livestock feed receiving station and the sealing station.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the bagger further comprises a station adjacent the livestock feed receiving station for positioning the bag in the bagger.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the livestock feed receiving station comprises at least one bag sleeve for holding the bag.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the means for compressing the blended livestock feed comprises a slidably ram that extends within the compression chamber.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the compression chamber is oriented vertically over the bagging station and includes a vertically-slidably ram that extends within the compression chamber.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mixing means comprises a batch-type mixer.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the mixing means comprises a continuous-type mixer.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising a first input conveyor for infeeding dry hand to the mixer and a second input conveyor for infeeding silage or haylage to the mixer.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a first input conveyor for infeeding dry hand to the mixer and a second input conveyor for infeeding silage or haylage to the mixer.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sealing station further comprises means for evacuating air from the bag containing the compressed livestock feed.

12. An apparatus for compressing and packaging a blended livestock feed, the apparatus comprising: a batch-type or continuous-type mixer capable of mixing hay and silage into a blended livestock feed having a moisture content between the moisture contents of hay and silage; a compression chamber having first and second openings; a slidable ram extending within the compression chamber; a conveyor belt operatively connected to the mixer and capable of conveying the blended livestock feed from the mixer to the compression chamber through the first opening in the compression chamber; and a bagger comprising a livestock feed receiving station adjacent the second opening in the compressor chamber for receiving the compressed blended livestock feed from the compressor chamber into a bag; whereby the slidable ram compresses the blended livestock feed that is in the compression chamber into the bag.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a sealing station comprising means for sealing the compressed livestock feed into the bag.

14. An apparatus for compressing and packaging a blended livestock feed, the apparatus comprising: a batch-type or continuous type mixer for mixing hay and silage into a loose, fibrous blended livestock feed having a moisture content between the moisture contents of hay and silage; a vertically oriented compression chamber having an upper end and a lower end, the upper end of the compression chamber operatively connected to the mixing means for receiving the loose, fibrous blended livestock feed, a vertically-oriented slidable ram extending within the compression chamber; and a bagger comprising a plurality of stations comprising: a bagging station positioned at the lower end of the compression chamber for receiving the loose, fibrous blended livestock feed into a bag; and a sealing station comprising means for sealing a body of compressed livestock feed into the bag, thereby forming a sealed bale suitable for shipping; whereby the ram compresses the loose, fibrous blended livestock feed into the bag in the bagging station.

15. An apparatus for compressing and packaging a blended livestock feed, the apparatus comprising: means for mixing a plurality of livestock feeds comprising hay and silage into a blended livestock feed, the mixing means comprising an input site; means for inputting the plurality of livestock feeds into the input site; bagging means for compressing the blended livestock feed into a compact unit and sealing said unit in an airtight bag; and a conveyer for conveying the blended livestock feed from the mixing means to the bagging means.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the bagging means comprises: a compression chamber having two ends; a bag chamber connected to one end of the compression chamber, the bag chamber comprising a bag; a compression ram for compacting a volume of the blended feed product in the compression chamber into the bag; means for sealing the bag containing the compacted blended feed product; and a conveyor for conveying the bag containing the blended feed product from the bag chamber to the sealing means.

17. Apparatus for compressing and packaging a blended livestock feed, the apparatus comprising: a mixer for mixing hay and silage into a blended livestock feed, the mixer comprising a first input site and a second input site; a first input means for inputting hay into the first input site; a second input means for inputting silage into the second input site; a bagger for compacting the blended livestock feed into an airtight bag and sealing said bag; and a conveyer for conveying the blended livestock feed from the mixer to the bagger.