Comparative economic assessment of technological lines for the preparation of sunflower seed cake

BACKGROUND: The most important condition for obtaining livestock products is a high-quality feed base. A complete balance of diets in terms of nutrition elements — protein and others, which guarantees high animal productivity and low production costs of over 75%, and it is economically advantageous for the agricultural enterprise to meet the need for animal feed. For their preparation, farms use feed mills such as the R1-BKZ-5 (Melinvest) and reliable, easy-to-operate and inexpensive units that are capable of producing concentrated mixtures from local raw materials are needed. Thus, the development of a feed mill, which is capable of obtaining a high-quality finished product with low unit costs and metal consumption, is a relevant task. AIM: The economic assessment of the use of a technological line for the preparation of concentrated feed, for example, sunflower seed cake. METHODS: The economic efficiency of the developed lines for the preparation of seed cake according to patents of the Russian Federation №№ 2646092, 2690882, 2685123, 2694673, 2693741, 2693437, 2694573, 2694722 are evaluated in comparison with the R1-BKZ-5 feed mill unit. The method for calculating them is given in the recommendations. RESULTS: To calculate the proposed technological lines for the preparation of seed cake, a program was compiled in the Excel environment. The initial data and calculation results are presented. CONCLUSION: The proposed technological lines for the preparation of sunflower seed cake are profitable and economically advantageous compared to the serial R1-BKZ-5 unit with and without a multimedia device due to a reduction in direct operating costs by 24%, whereas annual savings in total costs amounted to 91% and the payback period for additional capital investments varies from 4.59 to 5.27 years. The developed lines contain modern technical means and equipment that help to evaluate and to improve its quality in real time, as well as to simplify the design, to reduce the energy intensity of the process.