The commissioning of the feed mill at Koronivia Research Station (KRS) this week will assist the Department of Agriculture raise the quality and standard of agricultural services and production in the country.
The new feed mill will provide various types of quality livestock feed for poultry (i.e. day old chickens, layer birds and broilers), as well as for other livestock, such as dairy herds to improve milk production or for beef herds for better quality prime meat, through quality research.
In commissioning the new $850,000 feed mill, Minister for Primary Industries, Joketani Cokanasiga said that the feed mill is an important aspect Department of Agriculture’s efforts to deliver quality services and improve agricultural production the country.
“These facilities will therefore undertake various researches in feed formulation; to test quality and availability of ingredients that can be grown by farmers,” he said.
“At present, raw ingredients for livestock feed that are available in the market has to be imported. We hope that through more research, we will be able to process locally available ingredients which will reduce the cost of feeds,” Mr Cokanasiga added.
The research findings, which will result from the research work to be undertaken, will open up a new stream of farming activities, that of contracted farming of the required feed ingredients which will economically contribute to added income generation for rural farmers. This new stream of activities will involve the cultivation of maize sorghum and any other types of legume which may be identified from the research to be undertaken at KRS.
Mr Cokanasiga hopes that research findings that will be forthcoming as a result of research activities at this Feed Mill will be a precursor to the setting up of other Feed Mills by the others in the private sector who might be prepared to use the findings of KRS Feed Mill, and improve upon on the feed formula, using the information forthcoming from Koronivia.
“The research work that this Feed Mill will be undertaking has direct correlation to other sectorial policies within the department, among these are the use of locally available agro-industrial by-products to formulate feed ration for all types and all class of farm animals to ensure and contribute to high levels of livestock production and productivity.”
“As well as the development of technology for conservation of high quality feeds for feeding during periods of shortages or non-availability of supplementary feeds in times of droughts and the identification of high yielding and better pasture grass and legumes for increase levels of meat and milk production.”
The feed mill can produce different types of animal feed for different types of livestock and poultry and has different types of dice to be able to produce and deliver different sizes of pellet feed.
The capacity of the Mill is about 1.0 to 1.5tonnes of feed per hour, the capacity of the Mixer is 250kg of ingredients at a time and the total time required to produce a set of feed is about three hours.
Minister for Primary Industries, Joketani Cokanasiga with a livestock farmer at the commissioning of the new feed mill