Particle size and physical characteristic of corn milling results using hammer mill as poultry feed ingredients

Abstract

Feed ingredients used in poultry feed, generally require size reduction before being used in mixing rations, such as corn. The process of reducing the size of corn is the initial process that must be carried out for ration production. The machine that is commonly used to reduce the size is the hammer mill. This study aims to determine the particle size and physical characteristics of corn as a poultry feed ingredient by grinding using a hammer mill. The study was arranged using a completely randomized design with four treatments of amount of corn milled with three replications. The treatments were P1 = 5 kg, P2 = 10 kg, P3 = 15 kg, and P4 = 20 kg. Parameters observed were particle size and degree of fineness of milled results, bulk density, and specific gravity, angle of repose, capacity and efficiency of hammer mill machine performance. The results showed that the largest particle size was P4 at 3.167 mm with a fineness degree of 4.927 and the smallest particle size was P1 at 2.810 mm with a fineness degree of 4.756. Overall, the category of corn milling results using a hammer mill is the category of coarse milling results. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the amount of corn milled treatment had no significant effect on the angle of repose, specific gravity and bulk density of corn milled using a hammer mill. The difference in the number of milled corn does not affect the difference in the particle size of the corn produced from the milling results, so it does not affect the angle of repose, specific gravity and bulk density.