Design and Development of Cross-Flow Type Sorghum Chopper for the Cattle Feed Industry

Abstract

The objective of the research is to apply a chopper machine to process forage from sorghum plants for cattle feed and adopt a crop-livestock integrated system to support sustainable agriculture. A cross-flow type chopper machine has been developed for chopping sorghum crops at 7 t/h design capacity and cutting length of less than 10 mm. The machine consists of a cylinder chopper which is designed at 420 mm diameter, 540 mm length, and 1500 rpm. and a feeding conveyor. It has 18 pieces of cutting blades, installed at six rows around and three rows alternately along the chopper cylinder to minimize power requirement and vibration. The power requirement was 2.07 kW and 32.23 kW for feeding and chopping respectively. The performance test has been conducted at the farmer group in Kendit Sub-District, Situbondo district, and showed that the capacity was 7.2 t/h at 3-9 mm cutting length.

Keywords

• cattle feed
• sorghum
• cross flow type chopper
• chopping cylinder
• feeding conveyor