Fodder dryers
Fodder drying plants with low-temperature treatment
Fodder dryers allow the artificial dehydration of grass to avoid qualitative and quantitative losses of feed for livestock due to traditional methods of conservation, haymaking and ensiling.
If in favorable weather conditions the transformation of grass into hay reduces its nutritional value by about 25-30%, in unfavorable conditions the loss even reaches 60-70%. In addition to a decrease in product quality, there are also significant losses in proteins (from 30 to 50%), carotenes (from 60 to 80%) and tocopherols (over 90%).
The technology of fodder drying plants with moving walkways
The interest in drying plants for fodder that allows for a complete artificial dehydration of the grass is therefore quite understandable. Scolari is one of the leading Italian companies specializing in the design and construction of this type of dryers. Our drying plants for biomasses exploit the mobile perforated belt system, operate at low temperatures and allow to increase the hourly productivity and the quality of the final product.
They allow to preserve not only the long fiber of the forage, essential for ruminants, but also the leaves which constitute the major nutritional value of the alfalfa. The technology with moving walkways supports and integrates that with mechanical agitator, commonly used in Italy, in Europe and in the world.
How long fiber fodder dryers work
The fodder drying systems are composed of an inclined plane feeder that directly receives the forage from the collection wagons and distributes it on the upper pre-drying belt. In this step it is preheated and then discharged onto the lower belt for final drying. Depending on the specific production capacities, the cooling of the product can take place in the final part of the lower belt or in a special separate cooler, combined with the drying system. After cooling, the forage passes to the baler.
The drying process takes place at a low temperature (100 -130 ° C) by means of hot air, obtained from hot or superheated water produced with boilers powered by solid fuels with thermal recovery from company waste. Or, directly with air flow burners fed with biogas, natural gas or LPG.
The advantages of our fodder drying systems
The production capacity of forage dryers varies according to the initial humidity levels of the product. In case of excessive humidity, the forage is left in the sun for a few hours before being treated. On the contrary, and as often happens on the last cuts between October and November, the forage is loaded into the plant with integral humidity. The forage drying systems are normally used for 2000-2500 hours per year depending on the area and number of annual cuts.
Unlike other dryers on the market, our forage drying systems are versatile and can also be used to dry other products such as wood chips, cereals, peas, etc. The management of the plant is totally automatic and in the PLC program there are various management parameters according to the products to be treated.
All our fodder dryers comply with the technical and scientific standards of the European plan for Industry 4.0 and the Circular Economy. In this way it is possible to access the incentives made available for the use of this type of plant and to amortize the costs.