Studying the processing of leguminous components into easily digestible feed for calves

The basic feed for calves during pre-weaning period is whole milk. In order to reduce consumption of whole milk in the leading Western countries, whole milk replacers are used. Attempts to produce local whole milk replacers have not yet found wide distribution due to the high consumption of dry milk and lack of production of hydrogenated fat with addi­tives of vitamins and microelements in Belarus. In recent years, production process of local milk replacers has been started to develop. An innovative technology has been developed for production of whole milk replacers based on local grains, legumes and oil crops, taking the idea of processing them into easily digestible liquid feeds based on moisture-and-heat treatment of grain components using cavitation energy. A special hydrodynamic plant was designed, allowing to obtain a homogeneous mass right of the grain forage, which does not decompose into fractions, highly palatable and easily digested by animals. The allowable processing temperature of leguminous crops was determined to be 80 °C maximum. In order to reduce processing time of the water-and-grain mixture and increase process productivity, a hypothesis was put forward related to use of elec­tromagnetic field for heating the mixture moving in pipeline. Studies have confirmed the efficiency of the electromagnetic field. Moisture-and-heat treatment of grain forage by cavitation using induction heating allows, in a short period of time and at a low temperature, to get easily digestible feed and preserve essential amino acids and vitamins. The developed innovative technology and equipment allows to reduce consumption of whole milk by 15-20% when growing calves during pre-weaning period.