Oil Extraction Yield & Oil & Cake from Seed

Oil (kg) = seed weight × oil content (%) × extraction efficiency (%). The oil content is the share of oil naturally in the seed; the extraction efficiency is the share of that oil the process actually recovers. Multiply both fractions by the seed weight and you get the oil you'll get out — the tool also converts it to litres.

Oil cake (or meal) is what's left after the oil is pressed out: cake = seed − oil. It's a valuable protein-rich by-product sold as cattle and poultry feed or used as organic manure. Because it can be a big share of the seed weight, the cake often makes the difference between a marginal crush and a profitable one, so the tool values it alongside the oil.

Recovery is oil out ÷ seed in, expressed as a percent — the bottom-line measure of how much oil a batch of seed actually produced. It folds together the seed's oil content and the efficiency of your process, so it's the figure to compare crushers, seasons or seed lots against.

Vegetable oils are lighter than water — about 0.91 kg per litre. So oil litres = oil kg ÷ 0.91. The calculator does this automatically so you can quote and sell by volume, which is how most edible oil is traded at retail.

Roughly: mustard 38%, groundnut 45%, sunflower 40%, sesame 50%, soybean 18%, castor 48%, copra (dried coconut) 65%, and cottonseed 18%. These are guideline figures — actual oil content varies with variety, maturity and how well the seed was dried and stored, so use your lot's tested value when you have it.

Traditional ghani (kolhu) and mechanical expeller pressing recover about 80–90% of the oil, leaving more oil in the cake. Solvent extraction recovers around 95% or more, which is why large mills de-oil expeller cake again with solvent. Enter the efficiency that matches your method for an accurate yield.

Cold-pressed ghani oil retains more flavour, aroma and natural nutrients than refined solvent-extracted oil, and many buyers will pay more for it as a traditional, less-processed product. The slightly lower recovery is often offset by the higher price, plus the cake still holds more residual oil and sells well as feed.

Yes — oil cake is a tradeable product in its own right, sold by weight as livestock feed or manure. The tool lets you put a price per kg on the cake and adds its value to the oil value for a total return on the seed, which is the right way to judge whether crushing pays.

Yes — it supports 8 currencies, so you can price oil and cake and read the totals in your own money. Just enter your local prices per kg or per litre and the calculator handles the rest, making it useful for crushers and farmers in many countries.

They're solid estimates. Real yield depends on seed moisture and quality, the exact oil content of your lot, how well the machine is set up, and temperature. Treat the output as a planning and pricing figure, weigh your actual oil and cake from a trial crush, and refine the oil-content and efficiency inputs to match.