Crimping method - Murska
Murska historia

Grain crimping – the innovative method for successful livestock farms

Grain crimping is a cost-effective way to produce high-quality feed for all types of livestock, including ruminants, pigs and poultry. This innovative method increases profitability by reducing costs and improving animal productivity. Grain crimping is suitable for practically all crops, such as barley, oats, wheat, maize, peas, beans and mixed grains.

Benefits of grain crimping for you

  • Appetising and nutritious feed
  • Reduced labour costs
  • Up to 30% higher grain yields by selecting grains and reducing harvest losses
  • Smaller carbon footprint compared to dried or ground grains
  • Shorter exposure time to crop losses caused by insects
  • Harvest 2 to 3 weeks earlier than normal, optimal moisture 30–45 %
  • Longer threshing period, less reliant on weather
  • Feed ready in approximately 3 weeks after ensiling
  • Significantly lower preservation costs compared to drying and milling
  • Faster planting-harvesting cycle depending on growing zone

Benefits of bagging

  • No need for silos or dryers
  • Grain is crimped and ensiled at once
  • Easy and fast
  • The most effective way to store feed grain

Less mycotoxins

Benefits for you

Grain crimping – How does it work?

Crimped grain enhances animal health and saves costs in farming, harvesting, drying and storing crops.

In the crimping process, the grain is harvested earlier when it is still moist and run through a specialised Murska crimping mill, which breaks and flattens the grains. Approximately 3 to 5 litres per tonne of additives are used. Crimped grain is stored in airtight plastic tubes, bunkers, horizontal silos, clamps or tower silos.

Harvesting

Grain for crimping is cultivated similarly to grain for drying, except it is harvested 2 to 3 weeks earlier at the yellowish stage. The moisture content of the grain is typically 30 to 40 %, when the grain´s energy and protein content are at the highest. Early harvesting allows the cultivation of late varieties with higher yields, and fertilisers and manure can be used more flexibly. Harvesting can be made even in less favourable weather conditions.

 

Puinti

Crimping

Drying is not needed before crimping, which saves a lot of energy. The grain can be crimped immediately after harvesting using a Murska mill. Crimping can be done on the field or at the farmyard, depending on whether the crimped grain is stored in a plastic tube or a silo. Crimping creates much less dust and noise than milling dry grains.

 

Murskaus

Storage

The crimped grain can be stored in airtight plastic tubes, bunkers, horizontal silos, clamps or tower silos. The ensiling of crimped grain is based on lactic acid fermentation. Favourable conditions for fermentation are created by lowering the pH of crimped grain to the level of 4 and by anaerobic conditions.

Tuubitus

Feeding

Crimped grain is excellent fodder for ruminants, pigs and poultry. Crimped grain can be fed to livestock as such, in TMR for cattle or in liquid feed for pigs. The nutritional value of crimped grain is higher and toxin levels lower than dried grain.

 

Ruokinta

Grain crimping was invented in Finland over 50 years ago

Grain crimping was invented in autumn 1969 by Aimo and Gunnar Korte in Ylivieska, Finland. Their grain dryer had broken, but the brothers knew that high moisture grains could be ensiled if they were first crimped. This method was invented by Finnish Nobel Prize winning chemist Artturi Ilmari Virtanen a couple of decades earlier, but it was usually used for hay silage. There were no crimping machines available at that time, so the two brothers decided to construct one on their own. Their first roller mill was made together with a neighbouring farm. This is how the company Aimo Kortteen Konepaja Oy started.

The use of a roller mill during a severe frost saved the farm, and this was noticed within the small community. Before long, the brothers began receiving orders from interested farmers.

The company’s sales developed rapidly throughout Finland, and in the 1980s it began exporting to Sweden and Great Britain. Today, Murska products are used in more than 40 countries around the world. Murska got its attractive and attention-grabbing purple colour in cooperation with the prestigious Institute of Design in Finland.

In 2017, a generational change took place in the company, when Aimo’s daughter Terhi took over the management of the company.

Murska historia

Cost-effective storage in plastic tubes

Storing crimped grain in plastic tubes is a low-cost and simple storage method. Plastic tubes eliminate the need for fixed storage, and the size of the tubes can be adjusted according to the yield. Working with plastic tubes is also flexible, as crimping can be stopped at any time and continued later. Storing in plastic tubes is fast, easy and less weather dependent than ensiling in silos or clamps.

Tuubitus

Beef and dairy cattle

The nutritional value of crimped grain for ruminants is higher compared to that of dried grain, and it can completely replace dry grain in feeding. According to studies, crimped grain can achieve an 11% increase in the milk production of dairy cows and a 6% increase in the daily growth of beef cattle.

Pigs

Crimped grain can be fed to pigs as such. It is also perfectly suited for liquid feeding too. Crimped grain has a lower Vitamin E content but more digestible phosphorus.

Poultry

Crimped grain appetising feed for poultry. Crimped grain improves both daily weight gain and  the feed conversion ratio of broiler chickens, as the energy value of crimped grain is 25% higher than that of dried grain. The digestibility of lysine, threonine and phosphorus in crimped is also increased compared to dried grain.

 

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