Feed Mill Plant for Soybean Feed in Chile

RICHI MACHINERY

How the conversation started

The client is a mid-sized agricultural investment group in central Chile. They were already involved in soybean trading and had access to stable upstream raw material supply. But margins were getting tighter selling raw beans.

Around March 2025, they reached out with a rough idea:

• Use their existing factory space (about 5,500 m²)
• Upgrade into a value-added protein feed production facility
• Focus on extruded soybean meal for livestock

They didn’t come asking for “machines.” They were asking:

“What’s the most stable way to process soybeans at scale without quality fluctuation?”

That’s a different kind of conversation.

RICHI MACHINERY

site and construction

The feed mill plant for soybean feed in Chile is built using the client’s existing facility, which required internal restructuring rather than new construction.

Main structures

One detail worth mentioning — ceiling height was slightly limited in parts of the workshop. That forced some adjustments in vertical conveying design. Instead of pushing everything upward, some material routing had to be optimized horizontally to avoid bottlenecks.

RICHI MACHINERY

Raw materials and energy consumption

In Chile, soybean supply is not as large as in Brazil or Argentina, but stable imports combined with local production make it viable for processing.

Raw material

Utilities

RICHI MACHINERY

Equipment configuration overview

The client didn’t want unnecessary complexity. The focus was reliability.

Main process equipment

A small note from commissioning:
The first few runs showed uneven grinding size because soybean moisture varied more than expected. Adjusting feeder frequency and hammer configuration solved it — something you only catch on-site.

RICHI MACHINERY

Process flow — detailed with real operation notes

Below is the full process, preserved and expanded with actual engineering observations.

① Raw soybean receiving

Engineer note: Dust control matters here more than people expect.

Bulk soybeans are unloaded into the receiving pit.

② Screening

Engineer note: Stones are always underestimated until they damage equipment.

Soybeans are lifted into a gravity separator to remove stones and soil.

③ Storage

Cleaned soybeans are transported into steel silos via enclosed conveyors.

④ Magnetic separation

Engineer note: Even a few metal fragments can destroy an extruder screw.

High-strength magnetic separators remove iron impurities before further processing.

⑤ Microwave sterilization

Engineer note: This step is one of the key decisions in this feed mill plant for soybean feed in Chile project.

Soybeans enter microwave sterilization units:

• Heating time: ~15 minutes
• Temperature: up to 120°C

Moisture evaporates, bacteria are destroyed, but protein structure remains intact.

⑥ Grinding

Engineer note: Particle size consistency directly affects extrusion pressure.

Soybeans are ground using hammer mill feed grinders..

⑦ Conditioning

Engineer note: Steam ratio took a few adjustments during startup.

Ground soybean meal enters a dual-shaft conditioner:

• Steam added
• Conditioning time: ~5 minutes
• Temperature: ~85°C

⑧ Extrusion

Engineer note: This is where the product “becomes” something else.

Material expands rapidly after exiting die holes, doubling in volume.

⑨ Cooling

Engineer note: Cooling uniformity affects storage stability later.

Hot extruded material (~120°C) is cooled using counterflow coolers.

⑩ Crushing

Engineer note: Not all clients need this step — here it was required for feed size control.

Cooled material is crushed using roller crushers.

⑪ Packaging

Fully enclosed automatic packaging system ensures consistent bagging.

⑫ Storage and dispatch

Finished products are stored and transported by forklift.

RICHI MACHINERY

Investment and cost reference

This feed mill plant for soybean feed in Chile project was designed to stay within a reasonable budget for Chile’s market.

Not a “cheap” project, but not excessive either for this scale.

RICHI MACHINERY

Shipping details

• Port of departure: Qingdao
• Destination port: San Antonio, Chile

RICHI MACHINERY

What made this project work

A few practical decisions made a difference:

• Microwave sterilization instead of traditional heating
• Conservative capacity design (not pushing max limits)
• Flexible feeder control to handle raw material variation
• Balanced layout instead of over-stacking vertical systems

RICHI MACHINERY

Market outlook in Chile

Soybean-based protein feed has steady demand in Chile’s livestock sector, especially in poultry and aquaculture.

Local production capacity is still limited. Many operators rely on imported processed feed. That gap creates room for projects like this.

Margins aren’t explosive, but they’re stable. And stability is what most investors are actually after

RICHI MACHINERY

A note from the engineering side

Not every plant runs perfectly on day one.
This one didn’t either.

The first batches? Slightly inconsistent moisture.
Extrusion pressure fluctuated a bit.

But after adjustments — feeder speed, steam ratio, grinding size — it settled.

That’s normal. And that’s exactly why full-line service matters

RICHI MACHINERY

If planning something similar

Most clients at this stage ask:

• Can local soybeans meet processing requirements?
• How sensitive is extrusion to moisture changes?
• Is sterilization necessary or optional?
• What’s the real operating cost per ton?

These are the right questions.

And honestly, they’re better answered with real material testing than assumptions.

This 15–20t/h feed mill plant for soybean feed in Chile is not just an animal feed production line. It’s a working example of how raw agricultural material can be upgraded into stable, marketable feed — with the right process decisions behind it.

If there’s one takeaway from this project, it’s simple:
equipment matters, but process understanding matters more.