RED DEER – Fine dining for cattle means cutting their food cleanly with a minimum of bruising, bending and long fibres.
Achieving that with a total mix ration machine wasn’t easy, said Bert Slomp of Jay-Lor, a farm equipment manufacturer from Orton, Ont.
The Jay-Lor machine, with a square cut auger and newly patented knife designs, was recently recognized for its utility and uniqueness of design at last month’s Agri-Trade farm show in Red Deer, receiving the event’s top innovation award.
Total mix ration feed mixers chop and mix fibre materials with other feed components to force animals to eat healthful but less palatable nutrients.
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Animals’ stomach pH can drop when they eat too much grain and not enough fibre, leaving them prone to acidosis and potentially laminitis. The former puts them off their feed and vulnerable to disease and the latter results in lameness.
Slomp said the mixer’s enhanced cutting action, with its new Alexander knives, results in improved digestibility of ruminant rations, better feed conversion and efficiency.
“It improves the scratch factor of the feed, stimulating digestive processes,” he said.
The Jay-Lor mixers with square augers have more knife locations than previous models, and the shape of the mixing augers helps avoid compression of bales against the tub walls and induces greater material lift while reducing drag within the tub.
“It cuts the horsepower requirement dramatically, which lowers fuel use and does a better job of mixing the material,” Slomp said.
The serrated edges of the tungsten carbide-coated Alexander knives slice and saw through coarse feed sources when they are bolted on the auger. The knives help the machine avoid material bridging on the tub walls and improves the loft of the material in the unit.
“It also reduces the mixing time and you won’t be seeing any bales stuck above the augers,” he said.
“They have no place to go but into those knives.”
For more information, visit www.jaylor.com.
