Feed mill equipment list: what to specify and what a quotation must state.
A complete pelleting feed mill needs intake and pre-cleaning, a magnet, a hammer mill with aspiration, dosing bins with load cells, a mixer, a conditioner, a pellet press, a counter-flow cooler, a crumbler and sifter, liquid addition, finished-feed bins with bagging or bulk loadout, a steam boiler with distribution, raw-material silos, and an MCC with batch-control software. A mash mill drops the conditioner, press, cooler, crumbler, sifter and boiler. What separates a comparable quotation from an uncomparable one is not the machine list but the guarantees attached to it: throughput on a named formula, installed kW per drive, a mixing CV of 5% or better with the test method stated, and a clear scope split between FOB equipment, freight, erection and buyer-supplied works.
- 14 equipment items with what to specify
- What each quotation line must state
- Mixing CV ≤ 5% as an acceptance figure
- Ten-point comparability checklist
Visual scope of feed mill specification
Short answer
A complete pelleting feed mill needs intake and pre-cleaning, a magnet, a hammer mill with aspiration, dosing bins with load cells, a mixer, a conditioner, a pellet press, a counter-flow cooler, a crumbler and sifter, liquid addition, finished-feed bins with bagging or bulk loadout, a steam boiler with distribution, raw-material silos, and an MCC with batch-control software. A mash mill drops the conditioner, press, cooler, crumbler, sifter and boiler. What separates a comparable quotation from an uncomparable one is not the machine list but the guarantees attached to it: throughput on a named formula, installed kW per drive, a mixing CV of 5% or better with the test method stated, and a clear scope split between FOB equipment, freight, erection and buyer-supplied works.
Most quotations are not comparable, and that is the real problem
Buyers usually receive three offers with very different totals and assume the difference is machine quality. Far more often it is scope. One supplier quotes FOB equipment only; another includes freight, erection supervision and commissioning; a third silently excludes the boiler, the silos or the electrical installation. Before comparing a single price, normalise: put every offer on the same throughput basis and the same formula, add freight and erection to any FOB-only quote, and price the missing scope items into the cheaper one. Then compare installed kW — a materially lower connected load almost always means a smaller machine, not a more efficient one, and it will show up later as a mill that cannot hold its rated tonnage on your hardest recipe.
Guarantee throughput on a formula, never on a nameplate
A pellet press rated at 10 t/h is rated on something, and the something is rarely your recipe. Throughput on a soft, high-starch broiler mash at 4 mm can be 40% higher than on a high-fibre ruminant or a 2 mm aqua feed on the same press. Write the guarantee as tonnes per hour of a named formula at a named pellet diameter, with a durability figure if that matters to your market, and attach a performance-test protocol that releases the final payment. This is the single clause that most reliably distinguishes a supplier who has sized the machine for your feed from one who has sold you a catalogue number.
Mixing CV is the specification buyers most often skip
The mixer decides whether the feed you sell matches the formulation you paid a nutritionist to design. A coefficient of variation of 5% or below on a validated tracer test is the accepted commercial standard; above 10%, micro-ingredients like vitamins, trace minerals and medication are not reliably distributed and per-batch traceability becomes meaningless. Specify the CV, the test method and the sample count in the acceptance protocol, not only in the technical specification — a number in a brochure that nobody tests at commissioning has no contractual value. Cycle time matters alongside it: a mixer that hits 5% in 240 seconds constrains a mill differently from one that hits it in 90.
Where the sizing errors cluster
Three items are undersized more often than the rest. The hammer mill gets sized on the coarsest screen in the recipe book when it should be sized on the finest actually used — a 2 mm screen roughly halves throughput against 4 mm. Aspiration gets treated as an accessory, and an under-specified filter turns into a dust problem that no amount of housekeeping fixes. And finished-feed bin capacity gets cut to save money, which couples production directly to despatch, so every truck delay becomes a production stop. Eight to twelve hours of finished-feed storage is the buffer that keeps a mill running on a bad logistics day.
Equipment list: what to specify and what the quote must state
| Equipment | What to specify | The quotation must state |
|---|---|---|
| Intake pit & drag chain | Sized at 2.5–3× mill capacity so a truck discharges in under 20 minutes | Chain capacity in t/h, pit volume in m³, grate size and unloading time for a 30 t truck |
| Pre-cleaner & magnet | Drum or vibrating sieve plus permanent or electromagnet on every intake line | Screen apertures, magnet gauss rating and cleaning access |
| Hammer mill | Motor sized on the finest screen in the recipe book; 4–6 kW per t/h at 3 mm is a normal starting point | Motor kW, rotor speed, screen area in cm², throughput at 2 mm and 4 mm separately, and included screen set |
| Aspiration & filter | Jet-pulse filter on grinding, mixing and cooling with air volumes stated per point | m³/h per aspiration point, filter area, and guaranteed dust emission in mg/Nm³ |
| Dosing bins & load cells | Separate macro, micro and liquid dosing with weighing accuracy stated as a percentage of the batch | Number of bins, bin volumes, scale accuracy class and smallest reliably dosed quantity |
| Mixer | Twin-shaft paddle for short cycles, single-shaft ribbon for budget builds | Working volume, cycle time in seconds, and a guaranteed mixing CV ≤ 5% with the test method named |
| Conditioner | Retention time of 30–60 s for poultry, 90–180 s for aqua and young-animal feeds | Retention time, shaft speed, steam injection points and achievable conditioning temperature |
| Pellet press | Ring die, motor sized against the hardest recipe rather than the average | Motor kW, die diameter and working width, throughput at 3 mm on a stated formula, and the die/roll change procedure |
| Cooler | Counter-flow, discharging feed within 3–5 °C of ambient | Cooling air volume, retention time, and guaranteed outlet temperature and moisture |
| Crumbler & sifter | Roller crumbler with adjustable gap plus a fines recycle loop back to the press | Roll length and diameter, gap adjustment method, and screen sizes supplied |
| Finished-feed bins & loadout | Minimum 8–12 hours of production in finished bins to decouple production from despatch | Bin count and volume, discharge rate, and bulk versus bagging split |
| Bagging line | Net weigher plus sewing or heat sealing, sized on bags per hour, not tonnes | Bags per hour at 50 kg, weight accuracy, and whether palletising is included |
| Boiler & steam distribution | Steam capacity of 60–80 kg per tonne of pelleted capacity, with a dryer and pressure-reducing station | Steam output kg/h, working pressure, fuel type, and whether treatment and distribution piping are in scope |
| MCC, PLC and batch software | Recipe management with versioning and per-batch traceability reports | PLC brand, number of recipes, traceability report format, remote support terms and licence ownership |
Ten-point checklist before you compare quotations
- Guaranteed throughput on a named formula and pellet diameter — not a nameplate figure on an unstated recipe.
- Installed power in kW for every drive, plus the total connected and average running load.
- Mixing CV guarantee with the test method and the sample count.
- Scope split: what is FOB equipment, what is freight, what is erection, what the buyer supplies locally.
- Civil interface drawings and foundation loads, so the local contractor can price the same building you are.
- Spare-parts list for two years of operation, priced separately.
- Commissioning days, training days, and who pays for travel and accommodation.
- Performance-test protocol and the acceptance criteria that release the final payment.
- Delivery time from down payment, with liquidated damages for delay.
- Warranty duration and what voids it — wear parts are normally excluded.
Specifications differ by feed type, species and destination market. Use this list to build your own tender scope, and have a nutritionist confirm the formulas the throughput guarantees are written against before the tender is issued.