Development and Simulation of the Cost of an Ensiled Rice Preparation System

Abstract

We constructed a preparation system that can process ensiled rice continuously and examined the system’s work efficiency, the number of staff required and the preparation cost in case of using a dedicated rice-crushing machine or a husk-processing machine. Three workers could perform all processes continuously on our preparation system with a husk-processing machine (3.5t/h efficiency). When the deaeration and sealing process was postponed, two workers could perform continuously. Assuming that the preparation cost of a drying process is 25 yen per kg, the ensiling process can reduce the cost by managing a paddy area more than 5.1 hectares with a dedicated rice-crushing machine (0.9t/h efficiency) or more than 9.3 hectares with a husk-processing machine (3.0t/h efficiency).