This article discussed Food Particle Size and the use of the Bygholm Sieve as a tool to evaluate the accuracy of the particle size.   The importance of particle size is as important with ostrich production as it is with pig farming, though the particle sizes will be a little different. This article discusses an Essex pig farmer who mills his feed on farm.

This farmer had noticed increased restlessness, aggression and tail biting among his finishing pigs when a particular variety of wheat was included in the diets. By using the Bygholm Sieve they found that although a particular wheat variety produced a similar particle size to other wheat varieties, it was stickier. After removing the ‘sticky’ wheat from the feed, no further problems were seen.

Later they used the Bygholm Sieve to analyse other grains. They found that 10 per cent of the rapeseed meal sampled was too coarse because some of the fine material had stuck together and formed clusters. They also found that the unmilled soya (HiPro) showed similar results with up to 10 per cent of the product being too coarse to be digested effectively by pigs.

A quote from the farmer:  “We spend so much money on feeding our pigs, so why not put a little effort into analysing the feed for optimal efficiency?”

This page describes the Bygholm Seive.  This example illustrates clearly the degree of detailed management incorporated by the pig industry to optimise their feed performance and feed conversion.  It illustrates how the best stay in a business that has become extremely competitive operating on very tight margins.  The above graphic illustrates how the price of pigmeat over the years has reduced despite the ever increasing costs.  It is attention to every detail that is a key to successful meat production on the farm.