Cracked Corn

[nh8260]

Hey, I want to get some of your opinions about making cracked corn, I've had some customers this year want some and I would like to offer it. I tried a hammer mill and even without a screen it was too fine, I'm trying to get a rough crack like you find in bags of scratch feed. I'm not going to be doing a whole lot and hate to sink 2,500 in a roller mill. Would a burr mill work? For what I'm trying to achieve is a roller mill better than a burr mill?

 

[DeltaRed]

What you want is a roller mill. You can set it from just barely cracked to somewhat fine.Of coarse it will take more power the finer you crack it.I used to use a 4010.When we cracked it fine,that 4010 would blow smoke.But that was 40 years ago.... A hammer will turn it to 'powder'.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

I use my burr mill to crack corn for my chickens and for several friends with chickens and it works fine.

Kirk

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Have you got to run the hammer mill up to speed because you're depending on the blower to take the material away?

Seems like I used to crack corn with a hammer mill by running it slow. It was a balancing act getting the speed right, where the blower would still evacuate the material from under the screen. Did roasted soybeans similarly.

 

[Leroy]

This was years ago but the local elevatot had what they called a corn craker and we got a lot of corn that was run in it for the young dairy calf's just starting to eat. I have only seen a couple at shows over the years. It probably was a roller mill but do not know. What I have seen were about the same size as the small Clipper fanning mill and used a small, perhaps 1/2 hp electric motor. It was supposedly able to make different grades of cracked corn from fine to corse. But then it was a mixture of the different sizes. With something like that to get all one size you could hook it to that fanning mill and seperate out the particular grade needed for that customer if corse, medium, or fine or corn meal fine and to aditionaly seperate the grades just run the cleanings in wthe fanning mill with different screens. I think that small bur mill would crack the corn but not give a very consistant grade size of finnished product so if desired could do the grading with that fanning mill. The small bur mills would run off a 3 hp hit or miss engine. Then there are a lot bigger of those mills that require higher horse power but for what you are talking about the smallest mill made without the ear corn option would be good for you but they would be perhaps in the 5-10 bushel per range. They are high priced when you find one for sale at tractor show flea market. Set it so gravity will feed from the mill to the cleaner to get the grade the customer wants and the grade that is cleaned out that the first customer does not want the next just might be what he wants. Rough crack would that be about 3 pieces out of one kernel with a more medium crack being about 5 pieces out of that kernel with fine being like 8 pieces per kernal then extra fine being corn bread fine? Not familuar with scratch feed. And it was 35+ years ago that we fed the cracked corn to the dairy calves so memory gets a bit week after that many years. Sears or wards at one time had a corn cracker in their farm catalog. And it was small about the same size as the small fanning mill that they sold at the same time.

 

[Charlie M]

I've never seen a hammer mill that could make cracked corn, no matter how fast its removed from the grinding area. I wonder if you could remove some hammers and get a better result?

 

[Dave H (MI)]

Even the smallest breeds of chicken can eat whole corn and it digests fully. It is also less moldy, stays fresher and is better for them. Even after 50+ years raising poultry, I can say it as many times as I like and no one will listen. We seem to just like to crack grains for some reason.

 

[draftx]

Roller mill or a oat crimper will do what you want. Sometimes you can find them that have been sitting out of use in a old feed room. Also can roll some barley or wheat for some cheaper chicken food. Fresh rolled has much more nutrition than what sits around the feed store for weeks.

 

[JMS/.MN]

No need to spend $2500 for a roller mill. Check with Harvestore dealers, or similar. Or look for Empty dairies with those silos. Very typical to use a small roller mill with 3hp motor for daily milling from those units. Around 1977 I paid $1300 for the mill when I put up the first Harvestore. Plenty of those units around now, unused.

 

[JD Seller]

I will second JMS/MN in that a roller mill is what you want if you want cracked corn without many fines.

Like he posted you can find smaller units that are powered by a 3-5 HP electric motor.

I have seen them at sales not selling for much over $250-300.

I do not know where your located at. You would need to check with a feed equipment dealer. They would handle feeding equipment out of stationary silos. This is where the smaller roller mills where used.

 

[C. Amick]

Large chickens should be able to eat the whole corn kernel. Just make sure they have some grit. I don't know if Bantam Chickens can eat it.

 

[notjustair]

I have good luck adjusting the grind using the throttle. I'm not sure whether you are able to vary the speed (electric motor, etc) but when I want a little coarser grind I idle the tractor down while maintaining the input. I find that I get the best results for chickens, hogs, and cattle at just above half throttle on my old M and JD mixer grinder. If I am creep feeding calves I run it all the way up and grind it finer.

I also wonder what you would get if you removed every other hammer (if a mixer grinder). You would have to keep it balanced but I would think that would help. Remove the odd hammers on one stroke and the evens on the next so that you wouldn't have any "holes" that whole kernels would slip through.

 

[GordoSD]

I fed 20 homing pigeons whole corn for 10 years. No problems.

 

[GordoSD]

What are you feeding?

 

[DaninKansas]

We had a LARGE screen we used in the Gehl 135 grinder that would crack corn without grinding it into fines (flour).

We actually used it (that particular screen) primarily to grind ear corn - once in the while we would use it to grind strait corn - cracking it was about all it did. Ran half a load of milo and forgot to change the screen - most of the grain poured right through without being touched.

 

[nh8260]

I sell corn to people for deer and animals, I know chickens can and will eat whole kernel corn but trying to tell that to people that only know what they have read in a book or been told is a job in itself. I'm in western NC so finding a small roller mill here like you guys mentioned probably won't happen, does anyone know what brand those were that was used in the silo's? Anyone have a picture of one?

 

[DoubleR]

I have taken the screen right out of my JD grinder mixer and ran shelled corn through it.
It will beat it up a little but allot of whole kernels will get though.

 

[GordoSD]

As I said, I fed whole corn to homing pigeons for 10 years. I flew them every day so they got grit wherever they found it,.