[AT] Weighing feed ingredients (Metering)

Larry D. Goss rlgoss at evansville.net
Sat Mar 19 07:49:36 PST 2005


It probably didn't make the news in TMCOTKU, Farmer, but there was a
humongous auction this week of farms over in Posey County -- 1200 acres
with five residences and all equipment and personal property.  The owner
was apparently defrauding several banks and the whole property went on
the block.  The sale realized $5.3 million.  The indebtedness totals
$6.3 million.

A four-hopper metering mill is what I had experience with years ago.  It
also had a separate section for metering the trace materials (such as
medication) in with the feed.  If I remember correctly, there were four
metering augers for that section as well.

But once again, I'm kind of amazed that people are metering grains by
weight rather than by volume.  The last I knew, the major variations in
weight are caused by moisture content, and I didn't think there was any
nutritional value in water.  Why is weight being used?  I'm serious. It
doesn't make sense to me and I don't understand it.  Probably all of you
guys are more experienced at this than I will ever be, and I'd like to
know what the thinking is concerning weight vs. volume in feed mixing.

On another topic -- I'm in the process of installing a Wi-Fi network
here at home.  I was talking with a friend last night and he asked me if
I was planning to invoke encryption and security on the network.  I told
him I was, and he said, "Good!"  He then went on to explain that he
opened up his laptop at his home this week and found that he was setting
in a hotspot.  His neighbor (about 250 feet away) has Wi-Fi and is
operating unprotected.  My friend broke into his neighbor's hard drive
and left him a message on his computer warning him to put up some
firewalls.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Indiana
Robinson
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 8:15 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: RE: [AT] Weighing feed ingredients (Metering)

On 18 Mar 2005 at 16:26, Greg Hass wrote:

> Don't know the "official version", but here's my version:
> 
> I assume you are referring to metering ingredients by volume instead
of by 
> weight.  About 20 years ago I purchased a Clay meter/mill.  It was 
> electrically driven and had 4 variable rate augers to mix in 4
ingredients 
> at one time.  The idea was to weigh the ingredients for a given amount
of 
> time and then calculate the setting so that they would be mixed in the

> right proportions.  This process worked OK for several years but
things 
> began to change.  Initially I would grind corn and add a complete 
> supplement.  By this time it had become more economical to buy soybean
meal 
> as the base ingredient and mix in various mineral pacs to provide the 
> mineral requirements for the various hogs being fed.  Most of these
were 
> only mixed at a rate of 50 lbs./ton so it became harder to calibrate
for a 
> small amount.  Also I was mixing as many as 4 kinds of feed in one
day, 
> making it very difficult to keep switching the types of mineral.
Another 
> problem was that the loads of soybean I was purchasing were varying
widely 
> in ther density, further throwing off the calibration.  Soybean meal
price 
> shot up to over $400/ton so that if you were off as little as 20
lbs/batch 
> it was costing you either $4 too much or your ration was incorrect.  I

> finally decided I needed a feed mixer and scale.  I ended up
purchasing a 
> mixer from a guy that was selling them at the National Machinery Show.
The 
> one I bought mixes 500-lb. batches and will fit on the platform of a 
> standard 1000-lb. platform scale.  I still used the original Mix/mill
for 
> grinding, however the metering augers were only used to regulate the
flow 
> of grain into the hammermill.  It was amazing to note the variation
between 
> loads of feed.  The mixer has windows every so far so you can see the
level 
> of the feed.  On a 500-lb batch I have noticed as much as 4-inches 
> difference in the height of the feed in the mixer due to differences
in the 
> load of corn.  Also some of the newer way was too put wormer in the
batch 
> of feed.  Due the small amounts required it was almost impossible to
meter 
> that small an amount into the batch.    In summary, with margins
getting 
> tighter, feed and supplements getting more expensive, and government 
> regulations becoming more stringent, one must almost weigh the feed to
get 
> an economical ration.
> 
> Greg Hass



	Great information Greg. I did notice that you failed to mention
which farm enterprise we 
should be in to make us a good living without all the complications...
;-)   Seems to 
be a real shortage of those...
	You grow a lot of edible beans if I recall correctly and raise
hogs. Assuming that if 
for some reason you were to start over tomorrow that you would still
farm... If you could 
pick and choose and had the money what crop/critter (if any) mix would
you pick?

-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish
Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. Here 100
years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net

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