0.8-1T/H Timothy Hammer Mill in Canada

Why This Alberta Horse Farm Bought Only a Hammer Mill

The customer was not planning to manufacture commercial compound feed or build an industrial forage pellet plant. Timothy hay was already grown, field-dried and baled on the farm, while a mixer was available for preparing the final ration. The missing operation was controlled size reduction. Long stems were difficult to meter consistently into the mixer, while improvised cutting produced a broad mixture of long pieces and fines. Buying a standalone SFSP hammer mill therefore addressed one specific bottleneck without forcing the farm to replace equipment that was still useful.

This purchasing logic also determined the required capacity. A farm keeping roughly 35 horses does not need to grind close to one tonne of hay every hour for many hours each day. The SFSP56×40 grass crusher machine provides reserve capacity, but in this installation it operates intermittently and prepares batches that can be stored temporarily for subsequent mixing. Machine selection was based not only on the number of horses, but also on the fibrous nature of timothy, the existing feeding arrangement, the desired screen options and the customer's preference for completing grinding work in short production periods.

Timothy Hay Conditions in the Peace River Project

The farm harvests its own timothy during the summer forage season and stores the bales under cover after field drying. Material intended for grinding is checked before entering the processing area because hammer-mill performance depends heavily on forage condition. Properly dried hay fractures much more predictably than damp forage, while excessive moisture can reduce throughput, encourage material buildup around the screen and create poor storage conditions after grinding.

For this project, the customer generally handles baled timothy at approximately 12% moisture. Before grinding, the bales are opened and the compacted forage is loosened so that long, compressed sections do not enter the hammer mill as uncontrolled masses. A magnetic separation point is arranged ahead of the grinder to reduce the risk from stray ferrous material associated with baling, handling or storage. The purpose of this preparation is not to make the hay extremely fine; it is to establish stable feeding so the selected screen can control the final particle distribution more effectively.

SFSP56×40 Configuration for Timothy Grinding

Actual hammer-mill output is not defined by motor power or screen diameter alone. Timothy variety, stem condition, moisture, feeding continuity, hammer condition and the percentage of material that must pass the selected screen all affect hourly production. A smaller screen normally increases resistance and can reduce throughput, but quoting an exact universal figure such as 0.8 T/H for every batch of timothy would give buyers a false level of certainty. For this reason, RICHI treats capacity as material-dependent and recommends testing representative forage when particle-size control is important.

Why the Farm Ordered Three Screen Sizes

The customer initially considered buying only a 6 mm screen, but RICHI recommended retaining more adjustment range because forage does not remain identical throughout the year. Different cuts, storage periods and stem conditions can change how timothy breaks inside the grinding chamber. The 8 mm screen provides a coarser option when less size reduction is required, while the 4 mm screen gives the farm a finer alternative for a different mixing requirement. The 6 mm screen sits between those two operating conditions and became the farm's normal choice after trials with its own hay.

Screen selection should not be interpreted as a medical prescription for horses. A hammer mill controls forage particle size; it does not treat equine asthma, allergies or other respiratory disease. Likewise, a 6 mm screen cannot guarantee “no dust.” Fine particles are inevitably generated during mechanical grinding, and the amount depends on hay condition, hammer speed, screen configuration, aspiration and material handling after the mill. Where a farm has animals with diagnosed respiratory conditions, ration form and forage management should be determined with an equine veterinarian or qualified nutrition professional. RICHI's role is to configure the grinding and dust-control equipment around the processing requirement.

Controlling Fines Around the Timothy Hammer Mill

Dust management was an important engineering consideration because grinding dry forage inevitably creates fines. The SFSP56×40 therefore does not simply discharge ground material into an open pile inside the feed room. The grinding section is connected to an aspiration and collection arrangement so that air movement and suspended fines can be managed instead of allowing dust to accumulate around the operator and equipment.

The customer uses a cyclone as part of material-air separation, with downstream filtration incorporated into the dust-control arrangement. The exact collection efficiency of a filtration system should be based on the selected filter, air volume, filter media and actual particle loading rather than described with an unsupported universal figure such as “99% dust capture.” RICHI sized the aspiration requirement around the hammer mill and the customer's layout, while the farm also adopted enclosed transfer wherever practical. The ground timothy is subsequently incorporated into a wet ration, which further changes the way the material is handled after grinding.

How the Ground Timothy Is Used on This Farm

This machine has one defined production role. The customer grinds timothy hay so that it can be incorporated more consistently into the farm's own wet mixed forage ration. The SFSP56×40 is not being used in this project to manufacture timothy pellets, commercial rabbit feed, biomass fuel or packaged ground hay for several unrelated markets.

After grinding, the timothy passes to the farm's existing mixing operation, where the ration can be combined with the other ingredients selected by the farm's nutrition program and water can be added when a wet ration is required. Breaking long stems into a controlled range makes mechanical mixing more practical and reduces the tendency of long forage to wrap, bridge or distribute unevenly through small mixing equipment. The hammer mill therefore solves a physical preparation problem; formulation, nutrient balance and feeding decisions remain separate from the machine itself.

Feeding Long Timothy into a Hammer Mill

One of the most important lessons from this project concerns what happens before the grinding chamber. Timothy may appear soft compared with wood or crop stalks, but long hay can still feed poorly when compacted sections from a bale are introduced directly into a hammer mill. Fibrous material can bridge above the inlet, arrive in irregular surges and prevent the grinder from maintaining a stable load.

The customer therefore loosens the bales before controlled feeding. For the present operating volume, the existing arrangement is sufficient, but a dedicated bale breaker or forage feeding system can be added if the farm later wants more continuous operation. This is a more meaningful expansion path than simply installing a larger hammer mill: if the upstream bale-opening section cannot deliver forage uniformly, increasing grinding power alone will not solve the bottleneck.

Hammer and Screen Wear with Timothy Hay

Timothy is considerably different from abrasive mineral-bearing materials, but RICHI still avoids promising a fixed number of operating hours for hammers or screens. Wear depends on more than forage species. Soil contamination picked up during harvesting, stones or foreign matter, hammer configuration, rotor speed, screen opening and total processed tonnage can all influence component life.

The farm's maintenance routine therefore uses inspection rather than a predetermined claim such as “the hammers will last 300 hours.” Operators check hammer edges, screen condition, fasteners, rotor behavior and abnormal vibration as part of routine maintenance. When hammers have multiple usable working edges, they can be rotated or replaced according to their actual wear condition and the manufacturer's maintenance procedure. This approach gives the customer a more defensible maintenance schedule than assuming every load of clean-looking timothy creates identical wear.

Matching Grinder Capacity to a Small Horse Operation

At first glance, a 37 kW hammer mill can appear large for a farm with only 35 horses. The correct comparison, however, is not simply machine hourly capacity versus daily feed consumption. The owner did not want to run a tiny grinder continuously throughout the day. She wanted to process prepared forage in scheduled batches and then use the existing mixer for ration preparation.

The selected machine also provides enough grinding chamber capacity to handle fibrous material without forcing the farm to operate at the edge of a small grinder's capability. At the same time, RICHI did not design an industrial multi-ton-per-hour forage line around the project. There is no large dryer, pellet mill, cooler or automatic bagging section because none of those systems is required for the customer's actual use.

Shipping the Timothy Hammer Mill from Qingdao to Canada

The SFSP56×40 crusher machine was exported from Qingdao, China, with Vancouver, British Columbia, used as the destination seaport before inland transport to Alberta. Because the Peace River region is far from Canada's west-coast container terminals, inland freight formed an important part of the logistics plan rather than being treated as a minor final-delivery step.

Before shipment, RICHI prepared the hammer mill, screen set and associated components for sea transport and supplied installation and electrical documentation. The customer had to prepare the equipment position, electrical connection, feeding interface and dust-collection connection before commissioning. Once the machine reached the farm, installation focused on correct anchoring, rotor inspection, screen installation, aspiration connection and no-load testing before timothy was introduced.

Material Testing Before Selecting the Final Screen

Screen selection is much more reliable when based on representative raw material than on forage name alone. Timothy from Alberta does not necessarily grind exactly like timothy grown under different harvesting, maturity and storage conditions. RICHI can therefore test customer-supplied material when a buyer needs to compare screen openings or evaluate whether the selected hammer mill is suitable for a particular hay condition.

For a test to be useful, the sample should represent the actual material entering production rather than unusually clean hand-selected stems. Buyers should also provide bale type, approximate moisture, required final use and upstream feeding method. RICHI can then evaluate grinding behavior, resulting particle distribution and equipment loading and use those observations to recommend a screen range. The purpose of testing is equipment selection and process verification, not making animal-health claims from the resulting particle size.

What Matters When Selecting a Timothy Hammer Mill in Canada

For Canadian horse farms, forage processors or feed operations evaluating a Timothy Hammer Mill in Canada, the first question should not be simply whether a machine can “grind hay.” Most hammer mills can reduce some form of dry forage; the real issue is whether the complete feeding, grinding, aspiration and discharge arrangement matches the physical condition of the timothy and the required downstream use.

• Bale format and feeding: Round bales, large square bales and loose hay require different upstream handling arrangements.
• Moisture: The actual stored-hay moisture affects flow, grinding behavior and subsequent storage.
• Required particle range: Screen opening should be selected around the downstream mixing or processing requirement rather than copied automatically from another project.
• Dust management: Grinding dry forage creates fines, so aspiration and collection should be considered as part of the grinder installation.
• Operating pattern: A farm processing batches for its own use has different equipment requirements from a commercial forage processor operating continuously.
• Existing equipment: Bale breakers, conveyors, mixers and dust collectors should be reviewed before deciding what actually needs to be purchased.

A Practical Standalone Grinding Upgrade for Alberta Timothy

The Timothy Hammer Mill in Canada gave this Peace River horse farm a dedicated way to reduce its own dry timothy before wet ration preparation without purchasing equipment it did not need. The SFSP56×40 with a 37 kW motor was supplied as the grinding unit, while 4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm screens gave the customer flexibility to evaluate particle size with its own forage. In normal operation, the farm uses the 6 mm screen as its preferred configuration, supported by controlled bale opening and dust collection around the grinding section.

For buyers considering a similar standalone hammer mill, RICHI Machinery recommends sending the actual forage information before selecting a model: timothy or other hay type, bale dimensions, moisture range, approximate stem length after bale breaking, required particle size, tonnes to be processed per day, operating hours, existing feeding equipment and available electrical supply. If necessary, representative hay can be tested before the equipment configuration is finalized. This allows the hammer mill, screens, feeding method and aspiration system to be selected around the real material rather than around a generic hay-grinding capacity figure.