THE IMPORTANCE OF THE QUALITY OF PELLETS IN CALF FEED

The most common feeding system for fattening calves consists of combining concentrate with forage, normally straw. Also, the feed concentrate can be presented in the form of flour or pellets.

The pellets have advantages compared to flour (Devant et al, 2015): it increases the availability of starch, improves hygienic quality, allows adding ingredients that flour does not accept, the choice feeding is reduced and the calves eat at a higher speed. This means that there are improvements in the CI (conversion rate), in the AMD (average daily profit), and fewer losses.

To have these benefits on the use of pellets, the pellet must present a good quality, with high durability, low percentage of fines and optimum hardness.

Several studies have shown the relationship between pellet quality and production parameters: in a study, increasing the durability of a pelleted feed by 3% (from 95% to 98%), the CI was reduced by 8% (Devant et al. al, 2015). In another study (Verdú et al, 2015), animals that were feed in crumbs wasted 1.6% of feed, against those that consumed a good quality pellet, which wasted 0,8%.

Diets with high percentages of fat and fiber are more difficult to granulate, while those containing high percentages of starch are more easily granulated. It is important also to adjust parameters of the granulator, such as granulation time, temperature or steam. But sometimes, even with an optimal diet for pelleting and with a good adjustment of the pelletizer, the quality of the pellets is not optimal.

For this reason, there are binders on the market, which are additives that are added to the mixtures, after granulating, to increase the quality of the pellets. Using low dosages, it is possible to reduce the percentage of fines, increase durability, and keep the pellet at optimum hardness.

Norel has recently launched DUOBIND, which is a binder added to the previous ALGASEAL and AGLOMAX binders. DUOBIND is composed of biopolysaccharides and biopolymers, and manages to improve durability and the percentage of fines.