Executive Summary
Brazil ended 2025 with 89.9 million tons of total feed production, consolidating its position as the world’s third-largest feed producer behind only China and the United States . Within this landscape, the beef cattle segment stood out with a 7% year-on-year increase in feed volume, reaching 7.73 million tons — the strongest growth rate among all livestock categories. Driving this expansion is a structural shift toward intensive finishing systems: Brazil’s feedlot cattle population surpassed 9.25 million head in 2025, a 16% increase from the prior year .
In Mato Grosso do Sul — one of Brazil’s top five feedlot states with 900,000 confined cattle and 17.8% year-on-year growth — a mid-sized beef operation faced a critical production bottleneck. This case study documents how the farm partnered with Liyang Hongyang Feed Machinery Co., Ltd. (Hongyang) to deploy an SZLH508 ring die pellet mill and supporting line equipment, transforming its feed production capacity and pellet quality.
Customer Background
Agropecuária Campo Verde, located near Dourados in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, operates a vertically integrated beef production system spanning 3,200 hectares of cropland and a 17,000-head annual finishing capacity. The farm produces its own corn silage and sources DDGS (dried distillers’ grains with solubles) from a nearby ethanol plant — a crop-livestock integration model that has grown from 40% to 71.8% adoption among Brazilian feedlots since 2020 .
By mid-2024, the farm’s daily finishing diet throughput had reached approximately 7 tons, but its aging pellet mill — a domestically manufactured unit with over six years of continuous operation — was struggling to maintain consistency. Ring die wear forced replacement every 8-9 months, unscheduled downtime averaged 14 hours per month, and pellet durability index (PDI) fluctuated between 86% and 89%, well below the 93% threshold the nutritionist considered optimal for minimizing feed waste and maximizing average daily gain.
Production Challenges
Three issues defined the operation’s bottleneck:
1. Inconsistent pellet quality. The old mill’s worn ring die produced pellets with variable hardness and length, causing fines generation rates of 8-11%. In Brazilian feedlot diets — typically 70-80% concentrate with corn silage as roughage — excessive fines reduce intake uniformity and compromise the precision of total mixed rations.
2. Frequent ring die replacement. With 8-9 month ring die service intervals, the farm lost 3-4 production days per changeover, plus the cost of the die itself. At R$12.70 per head per day in finishing diet cost and 17,000 head cycling through the feedlot annually, each day of downtime represented approximately R$13,500 in feed that had to be sourced externally .
3. Capacity ceiling. The existing mill’s effective throughput of 5.5 t/h could not accommodate the farm’s planned expansion to 20,000 head by 2026 — a trajectory aligned with the broader Mato Grosso do Sul feedlot market, where 78.8% of operators planned to increase intensive finishing volumes .
Equipment Selection and Solution
After evaluating three suppliers — one domestic Brazilian manufacturer and two Chinese exporters — Campo Verde’s management selected Hongyang’s SZLH508 ring die pellet mill as the core of a new finishing feed line. The decision was informed by three factors:
Ring die engineering. The SZLH508 uses a 508mm inner diameter ring die manufactured from 4Cr13 stainless steel with gun-drilled holes, a process that ensures uniform hole diameter and smooth internal wall finish. This directly affects pellet compression consistency and die wear rate. Hongyang provided detailed metallurgical specifications and third-party hardness test reports (HRC 52-55 on the die working surface) before the order was placed — a level of documentation the farm had not received from other suppliers.
Proven throughput range. The SZLH-508 is rated for 5-20 tons per hour depending on die configuration and formulation. For Campo Verde’s 6mm cattle finishing pellet, Hongyang’s engineering team calculated an expected throughput of 8-10 t/h at a compression ratio of 1:8.5, leaving headroom for the 20,000-head expansion target.
Complete line compatibility. Beyond the pellet mill, Hongyang supplied a matching counterflow cooler (SKLN-4), a rotary screener (SFJH-120), and two sets of spare ring dies and roller shells — allowing the farm to standardize on one supplier for the pelletizing section and avoid cross-brand compatibility issues.
The full line configuration included:
| Equipment | Model | Function |
|———–|——-|———-|
| Ring die pellet mill | SZLH-508 (132 kW) | Primary pelletizing |
| Counterflow cooler | SKLN-4 | Post-pellet cooling |
| Rotary screener | SFJH-120 | Fines removal |
| Ring die (spare) | 508mm, 6mm holes, CR 1:8.5 | Backup production |
| Roller shell (spare) | 216mm dia., 40CrMnTi | Backup wear parts |
Installation and Commissioning
Hongyang dispatched a two-person engineering team to Dourados for on-site installation supervision and commissioning. The process took 11 days from uncrating to first production run — three days faster than the farm’s initial 14-day estimate. Key observations from the commissioning report:
- The main motor (132 kW, WEG-brand per the farm’s preference for local serviceability) was aligned to within 0.05mm on the coupling, exceeding the 0.08mm factory tolerance.
- Steam conditioning parameters were calibrated at 0.3-0.4 MPa and 80-85 degrees Celsius die working temperature — the sweet spot for gelatinizing corn-based concentrate mixtures without degrading bypass protein in the DDGS fraction.
- First-run PDI tested at 94.2% using the ASAE S269.4 tumbling method, immediately surpassing the 93% target.
Throughout commissioning, Hongyang’s engineers conducted daily training sessions with the farm’s three mill operators, covering die break-in procedures, roller gap adjustment (0.1-0.3mm tolerance), steam quality monitoring, and predictive wear inspection using a bore gauge.
Operational Results (August 2024 – Present)
After 18 months of continuous operation — approximately 4,800 running hours processing an estimated 38,000 tons of cattle finishing feed — the SZLH-508 has delivered results that materially strengthened Campo Verde’s production economics:
| Metric | Pre-Upgrade | Post-Upgrade | Improvement |
|——–|————-|————–|————-|
| Effective throughput | 5.5 t/h | 8.5 t/h | +54.5% |
| Pellet Durability Index (PDI) | 86-89% | 94-95% | +6-8 points |
| Fines generation rate | 8-11% | 3-4% | -60% |
| Ring die service life | 8-9 months | 18+ months (ongoing) | +100% |
| Monthly unscheduled downtime | 14 hours | 2.5 hours | -82% |
| Energy consumption per ton | 22.4 kWh/t | 18.1 kWh/t | -19.2% |
The first ring die remains in service at the 18-month mark, a performance the farm’s production manager attributes to both Hongyang’s gun-drilling precision and the disciplined die break-in protocol taught during commissioning. “We followed the break-in procedure exactly — running oily meal through at reduced load for the first 8 hours — and the die surface shows only minor wear. We expect at least another 6 months before replacement,” he noted in a follow-up review.
The 19.2% reduction in energy consumption per ton — from 22.4 to 18.1 kWh — translates to approximately R$38,000 in annual electricity savings at local industrial rates, a figure that alone covers a meaningful portion of the equipment’s total cost of ownership over its expected service life.
Customer Perspective
Lucas Marques, operations director at Campo Verde, summarized the experience:
“We were initially cautious about sourcing equipment from a Chinese manufacturer we had not worked with before. What convinced us was the transparency — Hongyang shared complete material certifications, offered references from existing Latin American customers, and their engineers spent three days on video calls before the order was placed, walking through every detail from foundation requirements to steam pipe sizing. When the equipment arrived, it matched the specifications exactly. In 18 months, we have had two service calls — both resolved within 48 hours via remote guidance. For a feedlot operator where margins depend on feed efficiency, the 94%+ PDI consistency is the metric that matters most.”
Conclusion
Campo Verde’s experience reflects a broader dynamic in Brazil’s beef feedlot sector. As the number of confined cattle grows — from 8 million in 2024 to 9.25 million in 2025 — and margins tighten with input cost volatility, feedlot operators are increasingly scrutinizing every link in their production chain. Pellet quality is not an abstract metric; it directly governs feed intake uniformity, weight gain consistency, and the economic efficiency of finishing cycles.
Hongyang’s approach — combining documented engineering specifications, on-site commissioning with operator training, and responsive after-sales support — addresses the practical concerns of feedlot operators who cannot afford to treat mission-critical equipment as a commodity purchase. For Campo Verde, the SZLH508 has proven to be a reliable foundation for its expansion from 17,000 to 20,000 head, with the headroom to support further growth as Brazil’s beef sector continues its structural shift toward intensive finishing.
Post time: May-28-2026
