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¹ Department of Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Dışkapı-Ankara
² Laboratory Animal Husbandry and Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara - The aim of this experiment was to determine the effects of sepiolite usage in the manufacturing of pellet concentrate feeds for dairy cattle and fattening cattle on some production parameters and pellet quality characteristics. For this purpose commercial concentrate feeds for dairy cattle and fattening cattle were used in this experiment. One control and one treatment group feeds were manufactured in a commercial feed factory for each type of concentrate feeds. Sepiolite (Exal T, Tolsa Turkey) was added to the treatment concentrate feeds at 1% as topdressed to the mixer. Pellet concentrate feeds for each group were produced with 5 batch (each batch was 2 mt) and pellet diameter was 6 mm. Steam temperature (°C), electric current (ampere) and pellet production time (min/10mt) during pelleting processes were measured. Energy consumption (kilowatts) of pelleting machine was calculated. Feed samples were analyzed in moisture content and pellet durability index (PDI, %). Energy consumption was decreased and steam temperature was increased with the usage of sepiolite. There were no significant differences between groups in moisture level. Sepiolite improved pellet durability index. As a result sepiolite may help to improve performance of the feed mill in terms of decreasing process costs and improve pellet durability index. Keywords : Dairy cattle feed, energy consumption, fattening cattle feed, pellet durability index