A method for preparing animal feed includes grinding one or more ingredients by splitting an incoming ingredient batch into at least first and second portions and feeding the portions to respective grinders 6, 8 arranged in parallel. The process time taken for the grinders to grind their respective portions is determined, and the relative sizes of first and second portions in a subsequent batch is adjusted as a function of the difference in process time taken for the grinders to grind their respective portions of a previous batch in order to minimise the difference in process times for the grinding of portions in subsequent batches. An adjustable splitter device 4 may be used to split incoming batches. The first and second portions may be recombined downstream of the grinders prior to a mixing step 10. The method preferably comprises additional steps downstream of the grinding step, including a blending step, liquid adding step, steam conditioning step 14, pelleting step 16, cooling step 18, and oil coating step. An apparatus is also claimed, comprising parallel grinders, incoming batch splitting means, and control means for determining subsequent batch portioning sizes based on prior batch process times.
