syros ferasati; mohammad moeini; fardeen hozhabri; fazaeli
Volume 19, Issue 3 , November 2017, , Pages 569-584
Abstract
In order to determine the effects of hydraulic press pressure in the complete feed blocks (CFBs) machinery, with the pressure dwell time and forage particle size on durability, particles abscissionand storage of blocks using a completely randomized design (12 treatments and 10 replications)with factorial ...
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In order to determine the effects of hydraulic press pressure in the complete feed blocks (CFBs) machinery, with the pressure dwell time and forage particle size on durability, particles abscissionand storage of blocks using a completely randomized design (12 treatments and 10 replications)with factorial arrangement current experiment was conducted. The factors were: two levels of 200 and 220 bar hydraulic pressures in CFB machinery, three levels of 5, 17 and 30 sec dwell time along with two particle sizes (alfalfa hay and wheat straw) of short (average 10 mm) and long (average 30 mm) using forage to concentrate ratio of 45:55. Complete feed blocks with long or short particles with press pressure of 220 bar and dwell time of 30 sec had higher durability andCFBs with long or short particles with press pressure of 220 bar and dwell time of 17 sec had minimum and maximum of particles abscission, respectively (P<0.05). There was a linear relationship between the durability and density of CFBs (P=0.001, r=0.74). With increasing the hydraulic pressure, the evaporation percent of moisture in the blocks containing long particles increased (P<0.05), resulted in non-proliferation of mold colonies after 35 days of storage; but corresponding parameter in the blocks containing short particles decreased and hence the number of visible mold colonies increased (P<0.05).It can be concluded that, in term of durability percentage and storage capability of CFBs, blocks manufacturing with an average 10 and 30 mm under mentioned conditions of pressure and dwell time was not suitable and it seems blocks under conditions of an average forage particle size of more than 10 and less than 30 mm, but hydraulic pressure of 220 bar and dwell time of 5 seconds could be optimum.