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Electric Processor Roasts Grain With Infrared Heat
There's never been a grain processor quite like the new Ketron Micro Flow, an all-electric "roaster" for grains and other feeds.
Using ten 1,000-watt infrared heating elements, it can process up to 300 lbs. of corn or 200 lbs. of whole soybeans per hour. "That makes it suited for small farms and larger, where ne
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Electric Processor Roasts Grain With Infrared Heat GRAIN HANDLING Miscellaneous 25-5-27 There's never been a grain processor quite like the new Ketron Micro Flow, an all-electric "roaster" for grains and other feeds.
Using ten 1,000-watt infrared heating elements, it can process up to 300 lbs. of corn or 200 lbs. of whole soybeans per hour. "That makes it suited for small farms and larger, where needs are for up to 600 tons of processed grain per year," says developer Jesse Gingrich, a former diary farmer and now owner of JB Gingrich, Inc., West Montrose, Ontario.
Grain is alternately heated and allowed to steep as it moves through the roasting chamber on a shaker pan. It takes only about 75 seconds for grain to move all the way through the heating chamber. Speed of the auger can be varied to achieve higher or lower final temperatures.
After grain has gone through the heating chamber, it enters a larger steeping chamber where it is held at temperature for another 20 min. Then the hot grain is augered into the final chamber where it can steep for an additional 10 min. and cool off.
As grain is emptied from this final chamber, an air exchanger collects heat which is blown through grain entering the processor to prewarm it.
Gingrich says it takes approximately 30 min. to get the entire system up to operating temperature. "Soybeans need to be processed at a higher temperature, so processing them is slower," he explains.
The processor requires 230 volt, 60 amp single phase electricity. It measures 36 in. wide by 6 ft. long and 6 ft. high. While it can be installed anywhere power is available, Gingrich recommends it be installed in a large feedroom or outbuilding away from livestock housing as it does generate quite a bit of heat while operating.
Gingrich has had feed made from processed soybeans analyzed and found crude protein increased about 1 percent, from 37.45 percent for raw beans to 38.46 percent for roasted beans. "The biggest change was in rumen bypass protein, though. That went from 10.14 percentin raw beans to 36.14 percent in roasted beans," he says.
Gingrich's Ketron Micro Flow processor is priced under $11,000 (Canadian), plus delivery.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, JB Gingrich Inc., 169 Katherine Street N, R 2, West Montrose, Ontario N0B 2V0 Canada (ph 519 664-3826; fax 519 664-1235).
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