Feed mill planning tool

Feed Mill Equipment Comparison Calculator

Compare mash, pelleting and extrusion lines at the same capacity: indicative equipment investment, specific energy, processing cost per tonne, annual operating cost and cost per tonne over the asset life.

How do you compare mash, pelleting and extrusion lines before buying equipment?

Compare the three process routes on the same capacity and the same operating schedule, across four numbers: indicative equipment investment, specific energy in kWh per tonne, processing cost per tonne excluding raw material, and total cost per tonne once the investment is amortised over the asset life. Mash is the cheapest to install and run but limits product range and feed hygiene. Pelleting adds conditioning, a pellet mill and a cooler at moderate energy. Extrusion adds a preconditioner, extruder, dryer and coater, roughly triples specific energy and is required — not optional — for floating aquafeed, high-fat and fully cooked products. The product specification decides the route; this comparison shows what that decision costs.

Reviewed August 2026. Planning estimate — not a quotation.

Run the numbers

Capacity

Line capacityt/h

Operating hours per dayh

Operating days per yeard

Availability%

Operating costs

Electricity priceUSD/kWh

Labour cost per tonneUSD/t

Consumables per tonneUSD/t

Dies, rollers, screens, screws, lubricants, bags excluded.

Maintenance per year% of capex

Asset life for amortisationyears

Product

Route your product requires

Used for the RFQ handoff and the recommendation note. All three routes are always compared.

Result

Annual output (all routes): 40,800 t/year
Pelleting — total cost per tonne: USD 12.60/t
Extrusion premium over pelleting: USD 12.22/t
Pelleting premium over mash: USD 4.92/t
Indicative equipment investment: USD 1,450,000

Source: Calculated from the values you entered — no external price, nutrient or supplier database is used.
Date: Calculator reviewed August 2026; result calculated now from your inputs
Currency: USD — money figures are in US dollars as entered
Reliability: Preliminary planning estimate — not a quotation, not a guarantee.

Route comparison at the same capacity

Route	Cost per tonne	Energy / investment
Mash	USD 7.68/t total · USD 6.56/t processing	12 kWh/t · USD 550,000
Pelleting	USD 12.60/t total · USD 9.64/t processing	32 kWh/t · USD 1,450,000
Extrusion	USD 24.82/t total · USD 18.29/t processing	95 kWh/t · USD 3,200,000

Your inputs travel with the request so you never retype them. Nothing is sent until you review and submit the RFQ yourself.

What this tool calculates

Sizes annual output from capacity, hours, days and availability, identically for all three routes.
Applies route-specific investment factors and specific-energy bands to your capacity.
Calculates energy, labour, maintenance and consumable cost per tonne for each route.
Amortises the equipment investment over the asset life to give a full cost per tonne.
Shows the cost difference per tonne and per year between the routes so the product decision has a price on it.

What it cannot do

It cannot choose the route for you — species, product form and market requirement do that.
It excludes raw material, civil works, buildings, land and freight.
It cannot price a specific supplier's scope; investment figures are planning bands from comparable projects.
It does not model pellet durability, starch gelatinisation or flotation performance.

Who this is for

Buyers choosing a process route before requesting equipment quotations
Aquafeed and pet-food projects deciding between pelleting and extrusion
Existing mash producers evaluating a pelleting line
Consultants and lenders sanity-checking a project's cost per tonne

Input definitions

Line capacity (t/h): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 10 t/h.
Operating hours per day (h): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 16 h.
Operating days per year (d): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 300 d.
Availability (%): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 85 %.
Electricity price (USD/kWh): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 0.11 USD/kWh.
Labour cost per tonne (USD/t): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 3.2 USD/t.
Consumables per tonne (USD/t): Dies, rollers, screens, screws, lubricants, bags excluded.
Maintenance per year (% of capex): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 4 % of capex.
Asset life for amortisation (years): Entered by you. Default used for the worked example: 12 years.
Route your product requires: Used for the RFQ handoff and the recommendation note. All three routes are always compared.

Methodology

Annual output = capacity t/h × hours/day × days/year × availability. For each route: equipment investment = capacity × route investment factor per t/h; energy cost per tonne = route specific energy × electricity price; processing cost per tonne = energy + labour + maintenance + consumables (maintenance is taken as a percentage of investment spread over annual output); amortised cost per tonne = investment ÷ (annual output × asset life). Total cost per tonne excludes raw material.

Assumptions

Investment factors are planning bands per t/h of installed capacity for the process island plus its immediate ancillaries, not for the complete plant with intake, storage and loadout.
Extrusion energy includes drying, which is the single largest difference against pelleting.
Labour is entered once and applied to all routes; in practice extrusion typically needs more skilled operators.
Maintenance is a straight percentage of investment per year — die and roller wear on pelleting and screw and die wear on extrusion are inside that figure.
No financing cost, tax or depreciation treatment is applied.

How FeedMatch builds and reviews its calculators

Worked example — 10 t/h, aquafeed under consideration

Inputs

Capacity 10 t/h, 16 h/day, 300 days/year, availability 85%
Electricity USD 0.11/kWh, labour USD 3.2/t, consumables USD 1.5/t
Maintenance 4% of investment per year, asset life 12 years

Outputs

Annual output about 40,800 t
Mash: lowest investment, about 12 kWh/t
Pelleting: mid investment, about 32 kWh/t
Extrusion: highest investment, about 95 kWh/t including drying
Extrusion carries roughly USD 8–12/t more processing cost than pelleting at these prices

How to read it. If the product is sinking poultry or cattle feed, the extrusion premium buys nothing. If it is floating fish feed, the premium is the cost of entering the market at all — and the comparison becomes extrusion against not doing the project.

Limitations

Route investment bands vary widely by origin, specification and automation depth. Use them for shortlisting, never as a budget.
The comparison assumes all three routes can make your product. Where the specification requires flotation, high fat or full cooking, only extrusion qualifies regardless of cost.
Cost per tonne is not a quality measure — pellet durability and hygiene value are not priced here.

All figures are indicative planning estimates for budgeting and supplier discussion. They are not quotations, guarantees or professional engineering, nutritional, legal or financial advice. Have results reviewed by the responsible professionals before you commit capital.

Sources and data

Inputs: every number comes from what you enter. Default values are illustrative only, not market data.
Method: the arithmetic described under "Methodology" above, applied to your inputs. No external price, nutrient or supplier database is used.
Last reviewed: August 2026, by FeedMatch Group.

What can change the result?

· Product mix and recipe changeovers
· Grinding and mixing cycle times
· Pelleting or extrusion rate per recipe
· Shifts and effective operating hours
· Downtime, maintenance and process efficiency

AI agents may use FeedMatch calculators to structure preliminary feed requirements and RFQs. Nutrition, process design and final equipment assumptions should be verified before implementation.

Frequently asked questions

Is extrusion more expensive than pelleting?

Yes, on both counts. Extrusion equipment typically costs around two to three times a pelleting line of the same capacity, and specific energy is roughly three times higher once drying is included. The comparison only matters where both routes can make the product. For floating aquafeed, high-fat diets and fully cooked pet food, extrusion is a requirement, not a cost option.

When is a mash line enough?

Mash suits on-farm and near-farm production where feed is consumed quickly, transport distance is short and the species tolerates mash. It has the lowest investment and the lowest energy. It gives up pellet durability, bulk-density advantages in transport, feed hygiene from thermal treatment and a large part of the commercial market that buys pellets.

What is a realistic specific energy for a pelleting line?

Around 25 to 40 kWh per tonne for the whole process line at typical poultry and swine formulas, with the pellet mill itself taking the largest share. Fine grinding, hard formulas and small pellet diameters push it up. Compare supplier claims on a whole-line basis at your recipe, not machine by machine at a reference product.

Do these investment figures replace supplier quotations?

No. They are planning bands per tonne per hour drawn from comparable projects and are intended for shortlisting a route before quotations exist. Real pricing depends on origin, specification, automation depth, scope split and freight, and only comes from quotations against a written technical specification.

Equipment and market context

Turn the result into comparable quotations

FeedMatch Group is a supplier-neutral B2B procurement platform. Describe the requirement once and we qualify relevant manufacturers and suppliers, normalise offers to the same battery limits and guarantees, and return a like-for-like comparison. FeedMatch does not manufacture feed or feed-mill machinery.

RFQ checklist