Performance Evaluation of Poultry Mixer

Abstract

The challenges facing the local poultry farmers in Ghana is alarming. Only a few farmers have access to poultry feed mixer. The government is interested in poultry industry as viable venture for self-employment. The mixer was evaluated by using five feed ingredients; maize, wheat bran, soya meal, oyster shell, and concentrate. The measurement comparison of feed rate, time, speed, moisture content, morphology, feed losses percentage, and mixer efficiency were performed on the mixer-machine. The mixer was characterized and analyzed using a feed component of three different measures of 4.5kg, 9.0kg, and 14.5kg with their respective time of 3 minutes, 6 minutes and 9 minutes respectively. Linear regression analysis was carried out on the test results collated during the evaluation of the mixer and the analysis contributed to the determination of the effectiveness and efficiency of the machine with different feed rates and times. The percentage loss, moisture content, production rate and machine efficiency were 7.95%, 15%, 90%, and 92.07% respectfully.  The results indicated that variation in percentage loss among samples tested ranges from 5.56% to 9.33% with an average percentage of 7.95%. The results further revealed that the mixing capability of the proposed machine is effective, efficient and cheaper as compared to the existing machines used by small scale farmers. It is therefore recommended that poultry farmers should be encouraged to use the proposed mixing machine.