Germany’s compound horse feed market is growing at a compound annual rate of 4.2%, driven by the country’s position as the world’s leading equestrian nation, with over 2.3 million riders and the highest Olympic medal count in the discipline. For a mid-sized feed producer in Lower Saxony—Germany’s heartland of horse breeding and sport—achieving consistent particle size in ground raw materials had become a bottleneck. After replacing aging grinding equipment with Hongyang’s high-precision hammer mill system in early 2025, the mill reported a 12% improvement in pellet durability index, a reduction in energy consumption per ton, and a measurable decrease in customer complaints related to feed consistency. This article examines the technical rationale behind the upgrade and the operational results observed over a six-month period.
The German Equine Feed Landscape
Germany is not merely a participant in the equine industry—it sets the global standard. The country’s horse population, estimated at approximately 1.2 million animals according to the German Equestrian Federation (FN), supports a sophisticated feed manufacturing sector that produces both compound feeds and specialized supplements. The Alltech Agri-Food Outlook 2025 reported that Europe’s equine feed tonnage reached 2.266 million metric tons, with Germany contributing disproportionately to the year-on-year growth of 1.1%.
Lower Saxony, in particular, hosts a dense concentration of warmblood breeding operations, professional training stables, and equestrian competition venues. Feed mills serving this region face demanding customers: professional trainers who measure performance in fractions of a second, veterinarians who scrutinize nutritional consistency, and breeders whose investment decisions depend on growth rates and coat condition.
The Technical Challenge: Particle Size Uniformity
The client—a family-operated feed mill in the Weser-Ems region processing approximately 25,000 metric tons of equine feed annually—operated a legacy grinding line that had served for over 15 years. While the equipment remained functional, its performance had degraded in three measurable ways:
Analysis conducted in late 2024 showed that ground material exiting the old hammer mill ranged from 0.4 mm to 3.2 mm, with a standard deviation well above the 1.6 mm target considered optimal for equine digestion. Research published by Kentucky Equine Research has established that horses naturally masticate feed to approximately 1.6 mm before swallowing; feed ground significantly coarser or finer than this benchmark reduces digestive efficiency and, in the case of excessively fine particles, increases the risk of gastric ulcers and colic.
Screen wear on the old mill produced progressively larger average particle sizes between maintenance intervals. During one documented 90-day run, the mean particle size drifted from 1.5 mm to 2.1 mm, requiring operators to manually adjust downstream conditioning parameters to compensate—a practice that introduced variability into pellet quality.
The grinding stage accounted for 61% of the line’s total electricity consumption, a figure consistent with industry benchmarks that attribute 50–70% of feed mill power usage to size reduction. With German industrial electricity prices among the highest in Europe, the operating cost per ton had become difficult to justify.
The Hongyang Grinding Solution
The mill selected Hongyang’s SFSP-series hammer mill, configured for equine feed production with an output rating of 8–10 metric tons per hour on a barley-oats-maize raw material blend typical of German compound horse feeds. Several design features proved consequential for the application:
CNC-drilled plates with hole diameter tolerance maintained at ±0.05 mm. Alloy steel screen tested to 56–58 HRC surface hardness. Mean particle size drift contained to 0.08 mm over six months, vs. 0.6 mm with previous equipment.
Dynamic balancing to G2.5 grade (ISO 1940-1), reducing bearing load and extending service intervals. Zero unplanned downtime attributable to the grinder during the first six months of operation.
Accepts screens compatible with multiple OEM specifications—no single-supplier lock-in for a mid-sized operation managing spare parts inventory across a diverse equipment fleet.
Measured Operational Results
The following data was collected by the mill’s quality control department over a six-month period (January–June 2025) and compared against the equivalent period in 2024:
| Parameter | Pre-Upgrade (2024) | Post-Upgrade (2025) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean particle size (mm) | 1.72 | 1.54 | −10.5% |
| Particle size SD (mm) | 0.41 | 0.18 | −56% |
| Pellet Durability Index (%) | 91.3 | 95.8 | +4.5 pp |
| Energy consumption (kWh/t) | 14.2 | 12.1 | −14.8% |
| Throughput (t/h) | 7.4 | 9.1 | +23% |
| Customer returns/complaints | 8 | 2 | −75% |
The improvement in pellet durability index from 91.3% to 95.8% is particularly noteworthy. Industry literature consistently identifies particle size uniformity as a primary determinant of pellet quality: uniform particles pack more densely in the die, form stronger inter-particle bonds during steam conditioning, and produce pellets that withstand handling and transportation without generating excessive fines. For horse owners, fines in the feed bag are a visible indicator of quality—or its absence—and directly influence purchasing decisions.
Why Particle Size Matters for Horses
Unlike ruminants, horses are hindgut fermenters with a relatively small stomach (8–15 liters in a 500 kg animal). Feed passes through the equine digestive tract more rapidly than through a bovine system, which means that nutrient accessibility depends heavily on mechanical processing rather than prolonged microbial fermentation.
Grinding to a consistent 1.5–1.6 mm particle size achieves three objectives simultaneously:
Maximizes the surface area available to digestive enzymes in the small intestine.
Avoids excessively fine particles that bypass gastric processing and ferment too rapidly in the hindgut.
Produces feed that transitions smoothly through the pelleting die, improving throughput without compromising pellet integrity.
The German feed mill’s nutritionist noted that horses on the new feed formulation—produced with no change in ingredient composition, only in grinding uniformity—showed improved feed conversion ratios over a 90-day observation period, though the sample size was insufficient for statistical significance and the observation remains anecdotal.
Hongyang’s Manufacturing Background
Hongyang Feed Machinery, based in Liyang, Jiangsu Province, China, has manufactured feed processing equipment since 2006. The company’s original specialization in ring dies and roller shells for pellet mills provided the metallurgical and precision-machining expertise that underpins its grinding equipment. Dies are machined on fully automatic CNC gun-drilling equipment using drill bits imported from Germany—an interesting symmetry in the context of this application—and all raw steel is spectrographically analyzed before production.
The company supplies grinding and pelleting components to feed mills in over 25 countries, including export markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Its growing presence in European markets reflects a broader trend of Chinese feed machinery manufacturers achieving the quality standards required by sophisticated Western buyers.
Conclusion
The German equine feed market rewards precision. A feed mill that can deliver consistent particle size, durable pellets, and reliable production schedules builds the trust that keeps professional stables and breeding operations ordering year after year. The Hongyang grinding system installed at this Lower Saxony facility demonstrated that well-engineered size reduction equipment can deliver measurable improvements in product quality and operating cost, without requiring the capital outlay associated with premium European-brand machinery.
Six months of production data suggest the investment has paid for itself in reduced energy costs alone, with the added benefit of fewer customer complaints and stronger pellet quality.
Post time: Jun-11-2026
