To your chicken's health! - Page 2

Thank you for sponsoring BackyardChickens. :)

For chickens to produce at the level we have come to expect from today's egg layers, they certainly do need more than just what they find in the backyard. It is nice to see another option and learn about your feed. Thank you for the info.

Lady Feather

Our intention certainly was not to make anyone feel foolish about feeding organic.   When we say that many organic feeds are the same as a basic feed - we are referring to the fact that the formula is the same - simply made with organic ingredients - not that there are not benefits to feeding organic. It's just that we found that a lot of people were not aware that there were choices other than organic and basic poultry feed.  Our goal is to provide people with feed choices that fit their lifestyle, that's why we have 5 lines of poultry feed including an organic line. 

I heartily agree with your statement about confusion in the market on what is natural and what is organic which is why we wanted to do these editorials.  There are definitions for both and we included the AAFCO definition here so people would be aware of the standards that are currently set in the industry.  Likewise, there are Organic standards established by the USDA.  This will be the topic of an upcoming article, however, this link contains the standards  .  These are the standards we used in developing our organic feeds.

Chris

The Safe Feed/Safe Food Program is a voluntary 3rd party certification program administered by AFIA (American Feed Industry Association).  It is a good program, especially for feed mills not licensed by the FDA.  Our mill is licensed by the FDA as a medicated feed facility.  As such we are regularly  inspected and required to meet stringent standards.   We are also waiting to see how meeting the requirements of the FDA's FSMA (Food Safety and Modernization Act) compares before joining the Safe Feed/Safe Food Program...it may turn out to be a replication of everything the FDA will require.

Joy

I wanted to provide further clarification on pesticide residue and feeds.  The FDA has set residue tolerances on some pesticides in feed & feed ingredients.  If that tolerance is exceeded, the feed is considered adulterated.  Other pesticides do not have an FDA residue tolerance, so any amount would be considered an adulteration.  (We are licensed by the FDA as a medicated feed facility).  If a consumer does not accet FDA's tolerances, they would probably want to go organic, BUT, even a percentage of organic foods show up with pesticide residues.

In regards to heat processing, it is actually both a physical and chemical process.   AAFCO,  which put forth the definition of natural  and the standard to which this feed is developed- says it's NOT OK to use any "chemically SYNTHETIC process, heat processing is approved by AAFCO.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjbgonecountry 

Chris

 

The Safe Feed/Safe Food Program is a voluntary 3rd party certification program administered by AFIA (American Feed Industry Association).  It is a good program, especially for feed mills not licensed by the FDA.  Our mill is licensed by the FDA as a medicated feed facility.  As such we are regularly  inspected and required to meet stringent standards.   We are also waiting to see how meeting the requirements of the FDA's FSMA (Food Safety and Modernization Act) compares before joining the Safe Feed/Safe Food Program...it may turn out to be a replication of everything the FDA will require.

The reason I ask is because the Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program meets and exceeds FDA requirements.  

http://www.safefeedsafefood.org/images/pdf/SFSF%20checklist%20exceeds%20fda%20guidelines10.09.pdf

Chris

It's true that animals left to fend for themselves may manage to survive, but the focus of the article is about how to feed a bird for optimum health, longevity and productivity.  The National Research Council consolidates nutritional studies and distills them into the Daily Nutrient requirements for animals.  So when we speak of a balanced diet, it's a diet that balances the amount of protein, energy, vitamins and minerals optimized for that particular species.  It's unfortunate that you view this as an ad, as it was intended to educate and inform the consumer. We included in the article the results of numerous research studies conducted at independent laboratories and academic research institutions so you would have the facts.  We believe that the more informed the consumer, the better choices you can make.

Chris

This document compares the SafeFood/SafeFeed guidelines to FDA regulations for nonmedicated facilities and feeds .which is why we believe it's a good program for those types of facilities.  King feeds, however, is a licensed medicated facility and the standards and controls are much more stringent than for nonmedicated facilities.

Sandy.

Thank you sjbgonecountry. I for one, appreciate people like you who share their research and knowledge with the rest of us in the BYC community.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjbgonecountry 

It's true that animals left to fend for themselves may manage to survive, but the focus of the article is about how to feed a bird for optimum health, longevity and productivity.  The National Research Council consolidates nutritional studies and distills them into the Daily Nutrient requirements for animals.  So when we speak of a balanced diet, it's a diet that balances the amount of protein, energy, vitamins and minerals optimized for that particular species.  It's unfortunate that you view this as an ad, as it was intended to educate and inform the consumer. We included in the article the results of numerous research studies conducted at independent laboratories and academic research institutions so you would have the facts.  We believe that the more informed the consumer, the better choices you can make.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjbgonecountry 

It's true that animals left to fend for themselves may manage to survive, but the focus of the article is about how to feed a bird for optimum health, longevity and productivity.  The National Research Council consolidates nutritional studies and distills them into the Daily Nutrient requirements for animals.  So when we speak of a balanced diet, it's a diet that balances the amount of protein, energy, vitamins and minerals optimized for that particular species.  It's unfortunate that you view this as an ad, as it was intended to educate and inform the consumer. We included in the article the results of numerous research studies conducted at independent laboratories and academic research institutions so you would have the facts.  We believe that the more informed the consumer, the better choices you can make.

Well much of your information may have come from "independent laboratories and academic research institutions" I didn't see any research cited, which is why it looked like an ad to me. My apologies if this was not an advertisement. And I do thank you for supporting the website! As it has been a most valuable resource for me.

I think that this paragraph, and the sentence regarding organic food being the same but just costing more, is what I took exception to. To me, personally, this defies logic and common sense. If synthesizing something in a laboratory is required to achieve "optimal health" I think our definitions of "optimal health" are probably quite different.

One more thing regarding "facts" - while they are supposed to be 100% objective and evidence based, truly FACTS, this is rarely the case and the FACTS to which I assume you refer are more than likely subjective "facts", vs objective "facts".

Another question:

Does your Natural feed contain genetically modified ingredients?