UZWIL, SWITZERLAND — Bühler has developed the LALA pick-up cleaner, a paddy pre-cleaner.

The machine consists of two core components. The first is a vibrating sieve that separates long impurities from the freshly harvested paddy, while the second is a rake unit in the back of the machine that picks up the impurities at the end of the sieve, which prevents the sieves from getting frequently clogged. The unique pick-up design allows the efficient removal of long impurities — making it the heart of the LALA pick-up cleaner.

With the highly automated LALA pick-up cleaner rice mills can save on manpower by reallocating workers previously assigned to picking up the impurities, and fewer full-time machine operators are required. This not only applies for the LALA, but also for downstream machinery.

The LALA pick-up cleaner also has a highly effective performance on wet paddy — for example at a product moisture of 28% the LALA can guarantee a throughput rate of 25 tph. Unlike other paddy pre-cleaners, the LALA has a fully enclosed design that reduces dust emissions and assures workplace safety.

The spacious design makes it extremely easy to clean and maintain. Most importantly, however, the LALA successfully removes up to 80% of long impurities like straws and bag strings from freshly harvested paddy, preventing costly downtime caused by clogged machinery.

For even more pre-cleaning results, the LALA pick-up cleaner can be combined with a Bühler SMA screening machine. During a second pre-cleaning step the SMA then removes stones, broken grains and dust with its two sieve layers and aspiration.

Besides being the newest flour mill in the United States, the Ardent Mills flour mill built along the Gulf coast in metropolitan Tampa, Florida, US, has several details that set it apart. Advanced analytics, state-of-the-art equipment, unusually large grain storage capacity and unique supply chain capabilities are among the mill’s distinguishing features.

At 17,500 cwts of daily flour milling capacity, the Port Redwing mill is not Ardent Mills’ largest and is not among the 25 largest flour mills in the United States. With the capacity to receive large quantities of wheat, though, Ardent Mills constructed a large grain elevator at the Port Redwing mill, with 4.1 million bushels of storage capacity.

The elevator may be the largest ever built concurrent with the construction of a US flour mill and, according to the 2022 Grain & Milling Annual published by Sosland Publishing Co., it is the sixth largest elevator of any US flour mill currently operating. The concrete elevator includes 12, 50-foot-concrete bins with 300,000 bushels of grain storage apiece as well as a number of smaller grain bins.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the world’s wheat supply has been thrown into question, with poorer nations facing scarcity and a potential food crisis, according to the United Nations.

Following are countries among the world’s least developed that are the most dependent on Russia and Ukraine for their annual wheat supply (2020), according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development. Nations in Africa import 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, according to the UN.

Sources:  unctad.org and  knoema.com/atlas.