Manual chichen feed mixing machine. Photo: Zablon Oyugi.
Smallholder farmers can cut the cost of buying feeds by up to 50 per cent using a manual feed mixing machine which is safe and cost effective. This comes at a time when farmers in the country are lamenting of high cost of poultry production.
Currently a kilogram of maize germ which is a key ingredient in poultry feed retails at between Sh20-26. This means, a farmer who is rearing about 550 exotic layers for example, will have to incur about Sh119,840 a month worth of production cost, according to Subiri Obwogo, founder Kienyeji Kenya Ltd.
He says that provided a farmers knows the feeds mixing formula, the machine can help in making home-made feeds further recusing the cost of buying them from millers.
“There’s something else farmers need to know which is that the cost of feeds alone accounts for up to 70 per cent of the total cost of producing an egg or chicken meat. This means that any effort towards reducing this cost translates to more profits for the farmer,” said Obwogo.
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Manual poultry feed mixing machine is safe to use and efficient. It is cost effective because the design and fabrication were done locally. “The machine is recommended for use by small and medium stock raisers.”
It can mix one tonne of feeds in an hour.
The machine is designed and fabricated with a view of reducing human effort and time by exploring the various principles associated with machine design.
For safely and easily operation, machine was designed to carry 25kg of ingredients at once.