What should my Pellet Durability Index (PDI) be?

This is the question we are most regularly asked by our customers. The difficulty is, there is no definitive answer for animal feed pellets.

Unlike wood pellets, there are no international standards to rule what the PDI of animal feed pellets should be. Our answer is that you should be making pellets with a PDI that suits your market, your customers and the animal’s needs. If customers are complaining about the amount of dust/fines they receive, you might possibly need to improve the PDI. If there are no complaints, it could be that the PDI might be too high… 

“How can it be too high? Surely, no complaints should be our goal” We regularly get challenged by this question…

In this situation, it could be that you are spending money unnecessarily…

For example, If you are making pellets with a PDI of 98 when your customers would actually accept a PDI of 95, you are likely spending more money than you need to on energy and ingredients, or possibly you could speed up the mill and increase production to optimum volumes.

Additionally, imagine you do receive complaints, or a competitors’ pellets are said to be better than yours, and you are pressured by customers to improve the standard. It is going to be very difficult to do so if you are already making them the best you possibly can…

Finding the right PDI is essentially a case of trial and error. You need to find the right balance of what your customers will accept, what gives you enough profit, what fits in the market and what gives you enough margin for improvement if needed.

Use this to set your own internal standard and importantly, remember to regularly and consistently test and record. To ensure your pellets remain of an unvarying quality – Not too good, not too bad – Just right!

For further reading on this topic, we can highly recommend the following detailed article, written by an expert in the field of pelleting:

Article: – Pellet quality in a compound feed factory – Thoughts from Feed Design Lab

 

A Guide to Pellet Durability by TEKPRO Ltd

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