Segregating feedstuffs at industrial sites

In 1999, tests were carried out to establish the range for coefficients of variation for the feedstuffs considered the most heterogeneous on the market: laying hen feeds (Special Report No. 40). Up till then, feed homogeneity had only been studied at the level of plant output. This had made it impossible to establish a relationship between coefficients of variation, feed properties and the characteristics of the apparatus and equipment used during the tests. This study seeks both to assess whether the animal meals produced at six different plants segregate during manufacture between the mixer output (MO) and the plant output (PO), and to identify the physical or industrial parameters that could explain why segregation occurs.