Feeding systems for livestock farms

Mechanical feeding systems are becoming increasingly important in livestock farming. For a long time farmers have enjoyed the use of low-cost power and machinery in crop production, but until very recent years feeding has been an unmechanized and inefficient operation. The present availability and convenience of electric power at low cost makes it possible for every farm to eliminate shovel and basket feeding in favor of electrical and mechanical feeding systems. Such developments not only increase the individual farmer's output per man/hour, but change his role of a manual labourer.

A mechanical feeding system uses the energy of a machine to do work that was formerly done by human muscle power. An automatic feeding system supplies controls to machines so that they may function by themselves. A mechanical feeding system, to be ideal, should indeed be completely automatic, that is, it should be set up so as to enable feed and supplements to move from storages to the feed bunk without any manual attention from the livestock operator. Such an ideal system — where grinders, blenders, conveyors, and distributors are perfectly coordinated so that no manual attention is necessary — is sometimes unattainable, but should always be considered the goal when planning mechanical systems.

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