How a Vietnamese Pig Feed Producer Stabilized Quality with Hongyang’s Integrated Grinding-Mixing-Pelleting System

Executive Summary

In the first quarter of 2025, a medium-scale pig feed producer in Dong Nai province, southern Vietnam, commissioned a new 10-tonne-per-hour production line built around Hongyang Feed Machinery SFSP-series hammer mill, SLHSJ-series double-shaft paddle mixer, and SZLH(HYPM)-series ring die pellet mill. Six months into operation, the facility reports a mixing uniformity coefficient of variation (CV) of 5.8%, pellet durability index (PDI) of 96.2%, and throughput stability within 3% of rated capacity. This article examines how equipment selection and process integration addressed the producer long-standing quality consistency challenges.

Industry Context: Vietnam Expanding Pig Feed Market

Vietnam industrial animal feed output reached an estimated 21.5 million tonnes in 2024, growing 3.4% year-on-year. Pig feed accounted for 55.3% of this total, approximately 11.9 million tonnes, making it the dominant segment in the country feed industry. Pork production rose to 5.16 million tonnes, up 6.6% from 2023, driven by both large integrators and independent producers expanding herd sizes.

This growth has intensified competition among feed manufacturers. Producers who once competed on price alone now face demands from pig farmers for consistent pellet quality, minimal fines, and uniform nutrient distribution. factors that directly affect feed conversion ratios (FCR) and profitability.

The Customer Challenge

The Dong Nai producer, operating for over a decade, previously relied on an aging production line assembled from multiple second-hand machines. Three persistent quality issues had become commercially damaging:

Inconsistent mixing uniformity. Salt-tracer tests conducted by a third-party laboratory in 2024 measured a CV of 12.3%, exceeding both the Vietnamese national standard (TCVN 10300:2014, which sets a maximum CV of 10% for compound feed) and the widely referenced Chinese standard GB/T 5916-2008 (CV less than or equal to 7%). High CV values meant that pigs received inconsistent nutrient doses, leading to uneven growth rates within batches. The producer own records showed a 6.2% variation in finishing weights among pigs fed from the same formulation.

Unstable particle size distribution. The existing hammer mill produced a wide particle size range (350 to 950 micrometers on a 3.0 mm screen) for grower-finisher diets. Research consistently shows that optimal particle size for grower pigs falls between 500 to 600 micrometers, with deviations reducing nutrient digestibility. The mill worn hammers and screens created excessive fines below 250 micrometers, which increased feed wastage and contributed to gastric ulceration risk in finisher pigs.

Pellet durability variability. PDI measurements fluctuated between 84% and 91% across production batches. Low PDI translated directly into fines generation during transport and feeding, reducing actual feed intake and increasing feed costs per kilogram of live weight gain.

Equipment Selection and Technical Rationale

The producer evaluated equipment from three suppliers: one European, one Indian, and Hongyang Feed Machinery from Liyang, China. After a technical visit to Hongyang manufacturing facility in April 2024 and reference checks with two existing customers in Southeast Asia, the producer selected Hongyang integrated solution.

The selected configuration:

The SFSP hammer mill was configured with a 3.0 mm screen and tungsten-carbide-coated hammers, targeting a geometric mean particle size (dgw) of 550 to 600 micrometers with a geometric standard deviation (sgw) of less than or equal to 2.0. The SLHSJ double-shaft paddle mixer was selected for its proven CV performance: Hongyang factory acceptance test protocol requires CV less than or equal to 5% on salt-tracer tests at full batch capacity, a specification validated by the producer technical team during commissioning.

Production Data: Six-Month Performance Review

After six months of continuous operation (January to June 2025), the producer quality control laboratory documented the following results:

The most commercially significant improvement was in mixing uniformity. At CV 5.8%, the producer now operates well within the 7% threshold set by GB/T 5916-2008. Feed samples taken at the bagging station consistently show uniform nutrient distribution, and the producer own farm trials, conducted on 120 grower pigs over 45 days, recorded a 4.7% improvement in average daily gain and a 3.2% reduction in FCR compared to pigs fed the pre-upgrade product.

Pellet durability improved primarily due to two factors. First, consistent particle size from the SFSP hammer mill ensured uniform steam penetration during conditioning. Second, the SZLH（HYPM) 508 ring die-compression ratio was calibrated specifically for the producer corn-soybean meal-based formulation after Hongyang application engineers analyzed raw material samples at their in-house laboratory. The optimized 1 to 10 compression ratio, combined with 85 degrees Celsius conditioning temperature at 16.5% moisture, produced pellets that withstood pneumatic conveying and bagging with minimal degradation.

The Service Dimension

The contract included a 10-day on-site commissioning period, during which two Hongyang service engineers worked alongside the producer maintenance team. They calibrated the hammer mill screen gap (set to 6.5 mm after testing gap sizes from 4.0 to 8.0 mm), fine-tuned mixer fill level to 72% of chamber volume (maximizing CV performance), and adjusted pellet mill roll gap to 0.15 mm.

A notable detail: when the producer raw material supplier switched to a harder corn variety in March 2025, the SFSP hammer mill throughput temporarily dropped 8%. Hongyang after-sales team responded within 48 hours, recommending a screen change from 3.0 mm to 3.5 mm and an increase in hammer tip speed by adjusting the V-belt pulley ratio. Throughput recovered to rated capacity within one day, and particle size distribution remained within specification.

Conclusion

The Dong Nai case illustrates a pattern increasingly common in Vietnam feed industry: mid-tier producers investing in purpose-built, integrated production systems to compete with large integrators on quality rather than volume. Hongyang integrated grinding-mixing-pelleting approach addressed not a single isolated problem but the interconnected chain of particle size, mixing uniformity, and pellet durability that determines final feed quality.

With stable production of 9.7 to 10.3 tonnes per hour, mixing uniformity at CV 5.8%, and PDI consistently above 96%, the producer now supplies feed to over 50 contract pig farms across Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces. The producer technical director remarked that the most valuable outcome was not any single metric but the predictability: We now know exactly what quality our customers will receive, batch after batch.

Data sources: Vietnam General Statistics Office and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (2024 annual report); TCVN 10300:2014 Vietnamese feed standard; GB/T 5916-2008 Chinese feed mixing uniformity standard; producer internal QC laboratory reports (January to June 2025).