Impact Factor (2025): 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
Livestock
business in Nigeria is being challenged by problems such as high cost of
feedstuff, farmers-herders clashes, drying up of Lake Chad basin, inadequate
utilization of agro-wastes for feed, desert encroachment, urbanization,
population growth, inconsistencies and poor implementation of government
policies. Ministry of livestock development was recently created by Federal
Government of Nigeria to tackle farmers–herders clashes and develop the
livestock sector. Some of the core mandates of the ministry are development and
maintenance of livestock infrastructure to support sustainable growth. Towards
developing the livestock sector, this project is aimed at developing a feed
plant for production of balanced feed ration for ruminant livestock in ranches
and grazing reserves. The feed plant developed consists of a multi-purpose
cutting machine, a pneumatic conveyor chute and a horizontal mixer. Geometric
modeling of the parts of the feed plant was done with Pro/Engineer®
software. Theoretical design calculations led to the selection of 2.24 kW high
speed three phase motor and 0.75 kW low speed gear motor as prime movers for
the multipurpose cutter and horizontal mixer, respectively. Materials for the fabrication of the plant
were sourced locally, while fabrication methods used include cutting, welding,
drilling, turning, boring and grinding. Performance evaluation of the cutter
and feed plant yielded 140 kg/hr and 30 kg/hr as their throughput capacities,
respectively; cutting efficiency of the cutter was 94.44 %. Velocities of air
that blew the chopped straws into the mixer were measured with an anemometer as
37.02 m/s at the exit of the blower and 5.46 m/s at the exit of the cyclone.
This implies that the velocity of air decreases with distance. The use of this
feed plant will shore-up productivity of ranches and grazing reserves and
reduce farmers-herders clashes.
Country : Nigeria
IRJIET, Volume 10, Issue 4, April 2026 pp. 183-192