The “Bos tot Kos” machine
Alien vegetation such as Swarthaak and Sekelbos are a very well known cause for concern for most farmers in the Northern parts of South Africa and the most parts of Namibia as well. Piet Simpson from Dwaalboom, Limpopo Province came up with an idea to design a machine that will get rid of your invasive/alien vegetation on your farm and turn it into feed for your livestock. This is especially useful in times of drought. He started with this project about two years ago and finally finished the machine in February 2015. He calls his new invention the “Bos tot Kos” machine. To make a long story short this machine is a tool that will turn a liability into an asset, your farm will be cleared for free and all your equipment is self-powered and conveniently fitted together on one trailer.
The “Bos tot Kos” machine consists of the following:
- An easy-to-operate TOMCAT Model 1100 AFE single hydraulic in-feed roller wood chipper
- A hammermill is used to make the material even finer
- A mixer with a pill machine
- 5 electric motors
- 40 KVA generator
So how it works (in the following order):
- First you cut the bush down with the Bosvreter cutting machine he supplies with the unit.
- Then you feed the branches into the wood chipper with the ends first.
- The hammer mill then smashes it even further into lengths of 2mm.
- Melasse, Mieliemeel and Browse Plus are then added to the wood and mixed thoroughly.
- Then you simple collect the pellets in a bag and they are ready to go!
The machine is capable of producing up to 2 tons of feed per day. This is more than enough to feed 200 livestock units per day! You can choose the ingredients you would like to put into the mix yourself.
We would like to thank Mr. Piet Simpson for choosing TOMCAT Chippers as his supplier of wood chippers. It was quite a journey, so we want to congratulate him on all the effort he spent on the development and completion of this unit.
