Feed costs for livestock holdings are one of the largest cost component of milk and/or meat. Trioliet is continually working to improve its feed systems for cattle farmers to minimise the feed lost on the way from the silage (store) to the stall. Unfortunately, today's cattle farmers still have to contend with considerable feed losses on the way from the silage to the stall.
The most important reasons of feed losses are:
- structural losses through mechanical processing, cutting and mixing;
- heat losses due to a rough, uneven and too large silage unloading surface;
- feed remaining on the feeding rack too long;
- spillage losses during loading and transporting.
There are still many gains to be made. Trioliet provides cutting and silage discharge systems that leave behind a smooth silage cut surface, which results in a slower build-up of heat. In addition, the knives ensure that the structure of the feed is not affected and that the nutritional value of the feed is maintained. Moreover, Trioliet has a broad range of self-loading feed mixers, which are loaded directly from the silage store to the cutting surface. You will experience no loss due to spillage when using a self-loading mixer feeder since you need not drive back and forth with a separate loading machine. As a result, your farm yard stays clean and no leaching takes place.
10-15% silage loss from silage stock to barn
Various measurements show that losses from silage discharge (from the silage to the stall) average approximately 10-15% in practice. Where these losses are reduced by half, the average Dutch dairy farm with 90 dairy cows can save €9,000 annually (€100/cow). There are also further savings to be made from having a cleaner farmyard and less leaching. Self-loading feeder machines significantly help to keep the farmyard clean and sustainable. In reality, a large amount of feed is also lost at the feeding rack through heating as it is often only filled once per day.
By transporting the feed from the silage to the stall less often (not every day), losses due to spillage can be significantly reduced. Automatic feeding systems, where fresh feed can be fed several times a day without extra work, are the most obvious solution. Yet the Triotrac self-propelled feed mixer also has a cutting and loading system that leaves a particularly clean silage face, preventing heat from building up and feed from being lost. Trioliet mixer feeders with this type of cutting system are unique.