0086-138 3838 9622Installation has wrapped up on a 15 t/h dairy cattle feed pellet production line at a facility on New Zealand’s North Island, and the line has been running production batches for the past week.
New Zealand’s dairy sector is large, well-established, and feed formulations tend to be relatively standardized compared to some markets RICHI works with — this particular buyer’s formula centers on a maize and palm kernel expeller (PKE) base, which is a common combination in NZ dairy feed given the country’s reliance on imported PKE as a supplementary feed ingredient alongside pasture grazing.
PKE has a notably high fiber and fat content, which changes how it behaves in a pellet mill — the fat content acts almost like a natural lubricant during pressing, which sounds helpful but actually requires the die’s compression ratio to be adjusted slightly higher than a standard dairy formula would need, otherwise pellets come out too soft and crumble during handling.
Line configuration: hammer mill, mixer, conditioner, pellet press (ring die, 10mm pellets — larger diameter typical for dairy cattle feed compared to poultry), pellet cooler, and a crumbler for a portion of the output that goes to younger stock on the same farm operation.
During the first week of production runs, output has been averaging around 13-14 t/h — slightly below the 15 t/h rated capacity, which the buyer’s operations team attributes to still-evolving operator familiarity with the conditioner settings for the PKE-heavy formula. RICHI’s commissioning engineer, who remains on-site for another few days, expects full rated output once conditioner steam settings are finalized — likely within the next two to three production days.
