Design and construction of an improved forage chopper.

Abstract

Forage has been the main source. or feed for livestock. A forage chopper is a machine that is meant to chop forage into the required uniform size. Forage grows well in areas of Mpigi district because of the fertile soils and favorable climate. Despite the involvement of many farmers in livestock farming. many people have underutilized forage consumption by livestock. The problem of unequal size of forage has been. due to traditional methods of chopping forage i.e. using machete. More still, the existing forage are expensive to be afforded in. developing countries like Uganda. Also hand machete increase the of exposure to injuries. The purpose of this study was to and construct a low cost improved motorized forage chopper machine that creates a quick- safe and easy way to chop forage with increased productivity and equal size. The chopper consists of feed bopper, chopping blades, power transmission unit, base support and frame and it was designed and developed basing on the mechanical, physical and chemical properties of common forage. The chopper was made using the cheap available materials in Uganda. The chopper uses a motor of4 hp with two blades operating at 850 rpm speed -in order overcome drawbacks of existing hand or power operated choppers and to meet the demand of livestock fanners. This chopper has a chopping efficiency of 90% with effective capacity of 252 kg/hr The mean length of cut- is about The cost of the prototype was 500,000UGX excluding. the cost of the electric motor. It is recommended that the forage chopper be integrated into any livestock farm because of its low cost and both a high capacity and chopping efficiency.