Modification and Performance Evaluation of a Multi-crop Thresher for Animal Feed Chopping Purpose

The greatest livestock population in Africa is found in Ethiopia. Still, several limitations prevent the agricultural industry as a whole and the livestock "sub-sector" in particular from being properly utilized. For cattle farmers in the nation, feed supply, quality, and quantity have always been problems. Using maize and sorghum stalks is a crucial solution for reducing this issue. Therefore, the part of the machine was modified due to the cutting blades were bolted on the drum with a cutting depth of 1 cm and a cutting length of 6 cm, and were made up of sheet metal 6 mm thick and 4 cm wide to cut the feed to the recommended lengths with reasonable consistency. The research was conducted at Jimma Agricultural Engineering Research Centre (JAERC), Dedo districts, to evaluate the machine's performance in terms of chopping efficiency, throughput capacity, and cutting efficiency, at different speeds of the cutter shaft. It was discovered that the chopper's output was an amazing accomplishment. Using a factorial design with three replications, the machine's performance was assessed using sorghum and maize stalks treated for engine speed, feeding rate, and crop stalk. The finest (shortest) mean cut length of the maize and sorghum stalks (1.09 cm, 0.99 cm), the highest chopping efficiency of the maize and sorghum stalks (97.54%, 98.15%), and the highest mean chopping capacity of the stalks (897.90 kg/hr, 898.98 kg/hr) were reported. At a significance level of 0.05, the operation speed was found to be very significant among the treatments. It is advised that small- to medium-sized farmers see a demonstration of the machine based on the outcomes.