#BOSTOTKOS #WOODCHIPPERS #ANIMALFEED
A short video to illustrate how to chip Prosopis Glandulosa / Suidwesdoring bush effortlessly for animal fodder by using a TOMCAT Model 150 AFE Screen Chipper. This machine produces a fine enough material for your cattle/goat/sheep to eat in one pass - no need to hammer-mill further. Our screen chipper range are uniquely designed and tested thoroughly in the drought stricken Namibia for many years.
Here are some steps involved and things you will need:
Harvest the selected bush/branches
The following methods can be used to harvest the bush:
• Panga’s - very cheap and effective, but labour intensive
• Chainsaws - high maintenance and unpractical to get into the bush
• Brush-cutters - very effective, but require specialised training and have high maintenance/running costs
• Bushsaw / Bushcutter - very effective in clearing a large area in a short time, but expensive and need to
be used in conjunction with other saws to harvest the individual smaller branches
• Tree Shear - extremely quick and effective in cutting down hectares per day, but requires an excavator to
power the machine which is a massive capital outlay.
Convert the branches to fibre with the use of a wood chipper/hammer-mill or
combination product
When you choose the machine to process the branches it is very important to quantify your needs in terms of the daily
amount of chipped product you require. The output of the machine and your budget obviously need to match. Be careful
not to purchase a unit which is too small for your needs, working the unit over 75% of it’s capacity or overcapitalising on
a machine that is too big for your needs. A standard 125mm to 375mm capacity TOMCAT hydraulic feed wood chipper/
a TOMCAT Screen Chipper with a separate hammer-mill or a TOMCAT Chipper Shredder (wood chipper/hammer-mill
combination) can be used to process the branches to fibre.
Create your final product by mixing the chipped product with other ingredients
The typical ingredients that go into the final feed mix are:
• Molasses Syrup
• Chop/Maize
• Salt
• Urea
• PEG
Pill the final product or take it to the feed bowls immediately
You can either mix it all together on a concrete floor or use a Feed Mixer and then feed it immediately to your animals.
You can also use a pill machine to turn the mixed product into pellets, which can be stored for a longer period.
What do I need to keep in mind?
• The best time to harvest is when it is growing season and there are plenty of leaves and flowers on the
branches. During this time the branches contain highest nutritional value.
• Don’t use branches of more than 30mm in diameter for feed as most nutrients are stored in the smaller
branches/leaves.
• Cut branches as quickly as possible to avoid the build-up of tannins inside the branches. When you cut
down branches in one area/tree and take longer than 10 minutes, the tree can release tannins as part of a
defense mechanism.
• Material that’s harvested and chipped during the growing season can be dried and stored to be used at a
later stage when the leaves drop.
• Most bush species can be used in times of crisis. Some species cannot be used alone, but need to be used in combination with other species for best results. The following bush/tree species are frequently
used for bos tot kos, but it varies from area to area:
• Swarthaak / Black Thorn (Acacia Mellifera)
• Sekelbos / Sickle Bush (Dichrostachys Cinerea)
• Soetdoring / Sweet thorn (Vachellia Karroo)
• Kameeldoring peule / Camelthorn pods (Vahcellia Erioloba)
• Suidwesdoring (Prosopis Glandulosa)
• Sandgeelhout /Silver Cluster Leaf (Terminalia Sericea)
• Drie-doring (Rhigozum Brevispinosum)
• Ghabbabos (Catophractes Alexandri)
• Rosyntjiebos (Grewia Flava)
• Black Wattle (Acacia Mearnsii)
8 июл 2021
