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
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
Processing plus amortised equipment. Raw material excluded.
USD 498,577 per year at this output
USD 200,760 per year at this output
Planning band for the process island only — not a quotation, and excluding intake, storage, buildings and freight.
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.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Is extrusion more expensive than pelleting?
When is a mash line enough?
What is a realistic specific energy for a pelleting line?
Do these investment figures replace supplier quotations?
Related tools
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.