Fodder Mill

a machine for grinding fodder (such as grain, hay, green silage, corn ears, and root and tuber crops) before it is fed to farm animals and poultry.

Disc and drum fodder mills are used in the USSR. With a disc fodder mill dry fodder is fed from a hopper into a crushing chamber where it is pulverized by beaters mounted on a disc. The ground mass moves by a blower into a cyclone chamber and from it into hoppers, sacks, or transportation equipment. The degree of milling is controlled by removable screens with openings of different diameters. Succulent fodders are milled by putting a board without openings into the machine instead of screens and by delivering the fodder to the crushing chamber by conveyor. The working parts of a drum fodder mill consist of a knife drum and a countercutting plate (for preliminary cutting of succulent fodders) and a crushing apparatus with beaters. The productivity of a fodder mill in milling grain is as high as 3 tons/hr; in milling hay into flour, as high as 0.8 tons/hr; and in grinding root and tuber crops, as high as 7 tons/hr. The machine is powered by an electric motor.