At Drotsky, you name it and they make it! Once again, Drotsky proved they are the people with the plans when they built a fully automated pellet plant at Groot Phesantekraal in Durbanville, Western Cape.

Drotsky has been working with Jeandré Brink from Groot Phesantekraal for the past two and a half years to make this plant a reality. Jeandré built the pellet plant specifically for their lamb’s creep feed.

He needed to add more equipment to his existing setup, with the goal of fully automating the plant and minimising human errors as far as possible.

The final product.

However, there were some challenges, and the Drotsky team had to get creative to make the plant possible. There was not much space in his barn for large equipment, and Jeandré also needed storage for his grain. Additionally, he wanted to ensure more accurate pellet formulations, weighing and mixing everything in one place before it passed through the hammer mill.

The facility

To start, Drotsky set up two six-ton and two four-ton grain bins for Jeandré, allowing him to safely store up to four different grain products.

To fill these four bins, they built a mobile adjustable auger. This means he can tap a bulk bag, choose which bin to pour the grain into, and simply move the auger there.

To save space, they arranged the grain bins in a line. Each bin has its own auger that taps out at the bottom into a batching system. Each bin also has a sluice that can be manually opened and closed if you want to empty the bin.

Drotsky built two six-ton grain storage bins and two four-ton storage bins, along with a mobile adjustable auger used to fill the storage bins.

All four of these grain bins tap into the batching system. The mixing bin is built on load cells to weigh the quantities of grain needed for a formulation. An auger from the bottom of the bin transports the weighed grain to the hammer mill.

The grain moves from the mixing bin to an M36 bottom drop hammer mill that finely grinds the mixture. The auger at the bottom of the mixing bin also controls the feed rate to the hammer mill. A double magnet system on the bottom drop valve catches any steel that might be in the grain.

Jeandré also wanted a way to get his finely ground soy oil cake to the mixer. For this, Drotsky installed a six ton feed bin with a live bottom floor that has a vibrating motor to prevent the product from caking. There is also an auger installed that transports the oil cake from the bin to the mixer .

Once everything is mixed and finely ground, it is transported by augers to the existing pellet plant already on the farm.

The auger that runs from each grain storage unit ensures that all the grain is first deposited into the mixing bin.

This complicated plant might sound like it requires careful thought and quick fingers, but Drotsky has designed it to be as simple as possible. The entire system is powered and controlled with only pressing two buttons.

The automated electrical panel that controls the entire plant.

One of the electrical panels is integrated with the LS1000 scale from LMI. The scale ensures that only the required quantity of grain for each formulation is dispensed from each storage bin. Once the weight for one product is reached, it moves on to the next, continuing until the full mixture is deposited into the mixing container. The buttons can also be manually controlled if necessary. From there, the plant runs fully automatically.

The LS1000 LMI scale ensures that the correct quantity of each component is dispensed into the mixing bin for the formulation.

Drotsky met all Jeandré’s needs and they are confident they can assist you too. Name it, and they will make it happen. Visit their website at https://drotsky.co.za/ to get in touch today.