This invention relates to a Urea Molasses Mineral Block (UMMB) Machine consisting of hydraulic cylinder, power pack and feeding chamber to prepare urea mineral molasses block useful as nutritional supplement to the livestock.
Brief Description of the Invention
Due to scarce or infertile lands available for growing fodder in the country, livestock often survive on poor diets of crop waste and straws. This leads to improper growth of the animals and accordingly hampers the animal production. It has been found that small changes in the balance of nutrients and minerals given to livestock can result in faster growth, better milk production and also higher fertility. But the farmers are usually unaware of the balanced feed, which contains all required ingredients needed for proper animal growth. Even feeding all ingredients in required proportions at farmers level is very difficult. The problem can be solved by making and supplying all these ingredients into block form. Laboratory studies have revealed that supplementation of UMMB improves the nutrient utilization and also the productivity of animals. The cost of UMMB is much cheaper than the conventional source of intact proteins (oil cakes). But the existing manual process of UMMB preparation is time consuming, drudgerous and costly. Therefore, a hydraulic machine, capable of moulding a mixture of urea, mineral mixture, molass etc has been developed.
Principle involved in the Invention:
The main principle involved in the invention is the moulding of thick paste of formulated proportions of different ingredients of UMMB by compression in a mould of the fixed size, using hydraulic power. The ingredients of UMMB may be urea, molasses, concentrates, mineral mixture, cement etc. The moulded block in measured weights could be given to animals as per their requirement.
Originality / Novelty of the Invention:
The machine was not yet available for commercial production of UMMB. Preparation of UMMB is done either manually or using small screw press. The hydraulic machine has been developed and tested for the first time for large-sacle production of UMMB.
Advantages over other known alternatives including Imported Alternatives
There is no UMMB machine available on the farm. UMMB blocks are prepared manually whose use is limited to laboratory studies mostly. With the availability of the machine, the popularity and usage of UMMB is expected to increase significantly. The advantages of this machine are:
1. It is simple in operation; only one person (unskilled / semiskilled) is required
to regulate the entire operations of the machine.
2. It can compact the thick paste of urea-molasses-mineral mixture to rectangular
shape (22.5 cm x 4.5 cm) and of desired thickness and weight.
3. The output capacity of the machine is 150 kg per hour.
4. Density of UMMB is much higher than the ingredients, which facilitates long
distance transportation at cheaper cost.
5. There is no known import of such machines.

Detailed Description
The Urea Molasses Mineral Block Machine presented in Fig. 1 and Plate 1 runs on a 1 HP electric motor and consists of the following components:
1. MOULDING BOX
It is used for feeding of materials. In addition, it is also used as compression and moulding chamber. Compression and moulding is achieved by upward movement of the hydraulic cylinder.
2. HYDRAULIC CYLINDER
The machine is having one hydraulic cylinder (Fig. 2) which is used for compression and moulding of the block.
3. POWER PACK
It consists of a pump, manually operated lever, pressure gauge, and oil reservoir (Fig. 3). The operation of hydraulic cylinder is conducted through the pressure pump. The direction of movement of cylinders is governed by manually operated lever.
Manufacture
The thick paste of the formulated ingredients of UMMB prepared by hot or cold process is fed in the feeding chamber of the machine. The fed material may include urea, molasses and concentrates, mineral mixture, cement etc. Using manually operated lever, the moulding of the thick paste is achieved by applying compression pressure to the desired level through upward movement of hydraulic cylinder. The UMMB is taken out manually from the chamber by opening the upper plate of the feeding chamber.
Use
It could be fed to the animals for supplementing dry fodder based diets. It should be given to the animals in dry manger and wetting should be avoided. An ideal UMMB should be hard enough to prevent biting and chewing and soft enough to allow easy licking. UMMB supplies higher amount of protein through gradual licking.
Performance
The testing of the machine was done with the composition given in Table 1. The output capacity of the machine is 150 kg/h.
Table 1. Composition of Urea Molasses Mineral Block (UMMB)
(Table Removed)
REFERENCES
1. Greenwood, R. H., Titgemeyer, E. C. and Drouyllard, J. S. 2000. Effect of base
ingredients in cooked molasses blocks on intake and digestion of prairie hay by
beef steers. J. Anim. Sci. 78: 167-172.
2. Krebs, G. and Leng, R. A. 1985. The effects of supplementing diets with
molasses/urea blocks on ruminal digestion. Anim. Prod. In Australia 15: 704-
710.
3. Leng, R. A. 1983. The potential of solidified molasses based blocks for the
correction of the multinutritional deficiencies in buffaloes and other ruminants
fed low quality agro-industrial by-products. In: The use of nuclear techniques to
improve domestic buffalo production in Asia. IAEA Vienna, pp. 139-157.
4. Neric, S. P., Aquino, D. L., Delacruz, P. C. and Ranjhan, S. K. 1985. Effect of
urea molasses mineral block lick on the performance of cara cows (Swamp
buffaloes). Indian J. Anim. Nutr. 2: 34-86.
5. Punia, B. S., Leibholz, J. and Faicheny, G. G. 1988. Effect of level of intake and
urea supplementation of alkali treated straw on protozoal and bacterial nitrogen
synthesis in the rumen and partition on digestion in cattle. Australian J. Agric.
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49: 332-336.
7. Sihag, S., Chahal, S. M. and Punia, B. S. 2003. Influence of urea molasses
mineral blocks (UMMB) containing different energy and protein sources on
nitrogenous metabolites in the rumen of buffaloes. Indian J. Anim. Nutr. 20:
124-130.
8. Srinivas, B. and Gupta, B. N. 1997. Rumen fermentation, bacterial and total
volatile fatty acid production rates in cattle fed on urea molasses mineral block
licks supplement. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 65: 275-286.
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4. We claim:
1 . Urea molasses mineral block (UMMB) machine consist of hydraulic cylinder, power pack and moulding box;
2. The composition of hydraulic cylinder as claimed in the claim 1 where the
cylinder is mounted vertically and is of 63 mm bore 38 mm ram dia and 200
mm stroke and the movement of cylinder is controlled using hand lever;
3. The composition of power pack in UMMB machine as claimed in claim 1
wherein said power pack has pump, filter, oil level indicator, hand lever,
pressure regulator;
4. The composition of power pack as claimed in the claim 3 wherein power pack
is based on a designed oil circuit;
5. The composition of moulding box of the UMMB machine as claimed in the
claim 1 wherein said box is developed for moulding of the material and has a
plate on top and is of size 228 mm x 1 14 mm x 228 mm;
6. The composition of plate as claimed in the claim 5 wherein said plate is
hinged which facilitate the feeding and removing of UMMB from top and the
plate is operated manually.