Dr. Armando Espino of Central Luzon State University (CLSU) has developed a machine that can make goat feeds into pellets.

The said machine is expected to help out ensure the continuous availability of high-protein, low-cost feeds of goats by using the surplus during the wet months as material for pelleted total mixed ration (TMR).

Dr. Espino designed and fabricated the gadget to ensure a year-round feed supply for goats. The pelleted TRM is a mixture of napier, ipil-ipil, rice bran, copra meal, molasses, discaphos, ranzoni, and salt, a complete nutrient food for goats. With it, goats are guaranteed to have better food efficiency and greater starch digestibility.

Pelleting the goat food is an arduous process involving the alteration of a soft feed into pellets through compression, extrusion, and adhesion in the palletizing machine. Before these steps, the raw materials should be milled and ground.

The end product is pelleted TMR, longer than one inch. They are dense and durable enough to withstand mechanical handling without compromising the diet's nutritional value.

The machine can produce 150-200 kilogram per hour when palletizing pure rice bran. However, when using TMR as raw material, the production rate would decrease to about 60 kg/hr.

With this kind of innovation, sufficient nutrition for goat is seasonal anymore but yea-round.

The production of pelleted TMR that a sustainable goat enterprise could be achieved since feeding the goats with sufficient nutrition is not seasonal anymore but year-round. [via philstar.com]