Another homemade recipe attempt...

[Kimi BK]

I am gearing up to try homemade food. I am attempting to lower my costs. We use 200 lbs of feed per month, so I think I can buy ingredients in bulk. Here is my first attempt, below. I have been buying organic corn-free, soy-free whole grain food from Scratch & Peck.

I have this spreadsheet below, modified from the free spreadsheet "calculator" Garden Betty offers at her blog (Garden Betty's Homemade Whole-Grain Chicken Feed). I modified it to calculate directly from recipe weights rather than trying to use cups, and I added calcium columns.

Below is my attempt to create a cheaper organic soy-free corn-free recipe that still meets requirements for protein, calcium, and fat for layers. I found that if I just decrease the calcium carbonate and increase the barley, I can hit the numbers for growing pullets, which will let me mix a base mix in bulk -- then add either calcium carbonate for my layers, or add barley for the pullet coop. I will continue to buy starter feed when we have chicks so I don't have to mess with processing feed to mash it down.

I will also be supplementing with fodder (barley, wheat, maybe some other grains I haven't experimented with) -- my chickens are outside all day, but don't have much "pasture" in our high desert sandy environment. They do get bugs and grit outside. We have lots of composting worms but I've so far been too stingy to share with the girls; we're just starting up with soil development. But I ought to be sharing worms with the chickens... also thinking of raising mealworms again. I also supplement with free-choice oyster shell. I also ferment food for them most every day, but not a huge amount -- maybe 1/4-1/3 cup per bird per day.

Anyway, I would love input on the following recipe. It is heavily dependent on organic alfalfa pellets and I don't know if there's any problem with that -- it does kind of seem like cheating.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Could you not leave the CaCO3 out and just provide oyster shell on the side? Would it be as cost effective?

 

[Kimi BK]

Could you not leave the CaCO3 out and just provide oyster shell on the side? Would it be as cost effective?

Thanks for your reply! Is there a problem with the CaCO3? I thought I heard somewhere that those are two different types of calcium and act differently...

We're still building our layer coop, so now we have our pullets and hens mixed together. I do have oyster shell out free choice and am feeding everyone grower feed. I'm not sure the hens are getting enough calcium. Their eggs aren't super thin shelled or anything, but they aren't as sturdy and hard as I'd like... I did go for slightly under the low end of the target range for calcium in the layer feed, but I think I'd feel more comfortable having at least some extra calcium in their feed, unless there's something negative about that?

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I read your table wrong-i thought of was 6% Calcium which seemed too high.

 

[Kimi BK]

I read your table wrong-i thought of was 6% Calcium which seemed too high.

OK -- thanks for your messages!

 

[jher77]

Where do you get the protein percentages?

Looks like oats are 8% protein.
https://www.ruralking.com/catalog/product/view/id/26539

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Where do you get the protein percentages?

Looks like oats are 8% protein.
https://www.ruralking.com/catalog/product/view/id/26539

She got her chart from Garden Betty. "Garden Betty" is, In My Not SO Humble Opinion, one of the worst sources of feed information re: chickens on the Web, in part because she has such a large following, so she does a lot of damage.

CaCO3 is Calcium Carbonate. The primary component (94% +/- (depending on source) of oyster shell. Also popular (though not so much in the US, because we have lots of oyster producing coastlines) are DiCalcium Phosphate and Calcium DiPhosphate for providing chickens a calcium source. Some studies suggest that an excess of Calcium DiPhoshate is not as hard on a chicken's organs as Calcium Carbonate, but given sourcing, cost, etc its just not used here in the US much.

Note that these are all relatively slow release calcium sources (which makes sense for chickens), which we humans have trouble making use of. Calcium Citrate is what we want, but in a chicken, its quite rapid release and should generally be avoided unless addressing a KNOWN, not suspected, deficiency. You also need to consider P - the CA : P ratio is very important.

yes, an excess of calcium is VERY hard on cockerels, immature birds of both genders, non-laying hens, and birds that only infrequently lay small to medium eggs. The 3.5% +/- calcium target is based on studies of commercial layers in the 60s, 70s, 80s, under commercial management conditions.

and TY for reminding me of this post, I meant to put these things into a calculator and help the OP, but it was late last night when I saw the post, and I was away from my computer.

Give me a bit.

 

[NatJ]

It is heavily dependent on organic alfalfa pellets and I don't know if there's any problem with that

Will your chickens eat the alfalfa pellets?
Because if they will not eat them, that would be a problem.
(I don't know whether they will eat them or not, but it's something you might want to test on a small scale before doing a large batch.)

 

[U_Stormcrow]

So, here goes -

Note that this is Dry weight, I've not written my calculator to work out "as fed", which would account for the water content of your grains, seeds, and greens. Generally, dried stuff is around 90-92% dry matter, and 8-10 percent water, so if you take 10% off the top you've estimated your way back to where you need to be. This recipe calls for calcium carbonate, which is of course all dry, and the fertrell nutribalancer is, essentially, as well.

My Nutrition sources are Feedipedia.Org, excpet in the case of Fertrell's Guaranteed Nutrition Label, and I've estimated the Amino Acid profile (which they don't provide) based on the generic AA offered on Feedipedia.

With those caveats, your feed comes in borderline on Protein (16.3% before correction), very high on fiber (11.17%), good on fat (3.6%). Calcium at 3.56% is very high for anything other than production layers - you definitely don't want cockerels or juveniles on this if you plan to keep them for long life. Phospherus *looks* good at 0.7%. HOWEVER, a portion of the phosphorus is from plant sources, meaning phytate phospherus, which they largely can't use. In this case, your use of the Nutribalancer provides the majority of the phosphorus, and its non-phytate, which is good. *Buckwheat can help make phytate phosphorus more available, as can phytase additions - I'd need to look more closely at teh bottom ingredients in the Nutribalancer to see if any is present.

Your amino acid profile is just adequate, in spite of the Nutribalancer, particularly in Methionine, but also (surprisingly) in Tryptophan. Tryptophan is almost NEVER missed in a feed recipe that gets everything else right. Lysine looks good, Threonine is borderline. The 0.34% Methionine is a level accepted by the literature for adult birds (among other sources) at 0.3-0.4% and many commercial feeds are in the 0.3-0.35% range, but its low for growing birds, whose needs for Methionine and Lysine are much higher as they develop their skeletal and musculature, as well as that very rapid feather production and growth overall.

Now, lets take the ingredients individually. I used generic dried alfalfa, 18.3% protein average - but you need to be aware that there are high protein alfalfa meals available, AND that the crop itself is highly variable, based on location, time of year, variety, age at cutting. Over roughly 15,000 samples, tested alfalfa meal ranged from just 13.1% protein to 27.9% protein. So a key part of your bird's diet may vastly underperform (or overperform) expectations. You won't know, since you won't be sourcing individually assayed ingredients. If you have a feed label you can rely on for your intended alfalfa pellet source, I'd be happy to sub in those numbers.

You should also be aware that alfalfa has anti-nutritive properties known to reduce poultry performance. From Feedipedia.org:

Poultry
With regard to poultry dietary requirements, dehydrated alfalfa meal has a low energy and protein content, and a very high fibre concentration. The inclusion rates of alfalfa meal in poultry diets should be relatively low in order to maintain performance. Its amino acid profile is close to that of soybean meal, with a high content in lysine but it is poor in sulphur-containing amino acids and tryptophan. In poultry diets, dehydrated alfalfa is mostly used for pigmenting eggs and meat, due to its high content of carotenoids, which are particularly efficient for colouring egg yolk and body lipids (Guenthner et al., 1973). The stability and efficiency of alfalfa carotenoids have been debated for decades (for example: Taylor et al., 1938; Tortuero et al., 1976). Alfalfa leaf protein concentrates that are richer in energy, protein and pigments have been formulated (see the Leaf protein concentrate datasheet for more details). In the case of white meat production (chicken and turkey) carotenoids are not desirable and the inclusion rate of alfalfa meal must be limited.
Alfalfa contains antinutritional factors such as saponins, that have well-known depressing effects on poultry performance (Anderson, 1957), notably on feed intake and egg production (see the review from Francis et al., 2002). The addition of enzymes (glucanase or xylanase) is not effective for improving the nutritional value of alfalfa (Mourao et al., 2006). However, saponins may have desirable effects on the final animal products, as they have a hypocholesterolemic effect by forming insoluble complexes with cholesterol in the digesta that inhibit its absorption. As a consequence they may reduce the cholesterol content in eggs and meat (Ostrowski-Meissner et al., 1995), thereby contributing to better-balanced human diets. It should be noted that there are alfalfa varieties without saponins.

Barley is high in beta-glucans, affgecting digestibility of the rest of the diet, and contributing to sticky poops, which are a potential hazard of their own, particularly in young birds. Again, Feedipedia.Org - you can correct this commerically, you just need the enzymes. I don't believe Fertrell's Nutribalancer includes them.

Because ME value of barley is lower than that of maize and wheat, its use is limited in high-energy poultry diets. Barley composition and ME value depend on its origin (Jeroch et al., 1995; Metayer et al., 1993). The use of high inclusion rates of barley in poultry diets has been known for a long time to be detrimental to growth, particularly in young birds (Jeroch et al., 1995). Sticky droppings and wet litter can result from feeding barley to poultry, due to soluble polysaccharides such as ß-glucans. These non-starch polysaccharides are known to reduce nutrient digestibility and to increase viscosity of digestive contents (Chesson, 2001). Older birds can consume diets containing up to 20-30% of barley without detrimental effects on growth, but litter condition can be negatively affected with diets containing more than 20% of barley (Brake et al., 1997). Increased percentages of dirty eggs are mentioned in literature from laying hens fed barley-based diets.

In order to prevent those negative effects and to increase the percentage of barley in poultry diets, multi-enzyme preparations containing mainly ß-glucanases can be added (Burnett, 1966). The possible benefits of those preparations include the reduction of digesta viscosity, enhanced digestibility of nutrients and a reduction in water intake (Jeroch et al., 1995, Chesson, 2001, Choct, 2006).

Calcium Carbonate, Nutri-Balancer, Fish Meal (Fertrell's) No issues with these. You can bring up the protein content and improve the amino acid profile with the addition of either more fish meal or more nutribalancer while you are removing some quantity of the more problematic grains. Nutribalancer is recommended for use at a 3% rate, you are already there, so I'd bring up the fish meal. There are reports of getting a "fishy" flavor in eggs at concentrations over 20%, and one of our posters active in Feed design says the industry is largely sticking to 10% and lower - since you are only at about 6%, this is an easy fix.

Lentils, like all legumes, have a number of anti-nutritive properties, including tannins, saponins, more lectins as well as a relatively low level of methionine compared to many other legumes. Heat treatment will address most of the antinutritive issues, but even that won't prevent high lentil diets from depressing growth at over 20% concentration. You are at 10%, and should not adjust this upwards. Mung Beans and Chickpeas should be considered as alternatives.

Oats are very high fiber (a problem in your mix), and also are a high density source of beta-glucans, which was discussed in Barley, above. First thing you should consider is "naked" or de-hulled Oats to reduce the fiber content. Second thing would be to reduce the total % of Barley + Oats in the mix.

Sorghum used to be a problem, due to high tannin cxontent, but most US grown sorghum has greatly reduced that property. This is something I'd look to increase in your feed as you remove Barley and Oats, though it has less methionine than either, which will further push that number towards the bottom of generally acceptable targets (increase in fish meal will compensate). Unfortunately, its also a poor source of both Lysine and Tryptophan. With supplimentation, feeds up to 70% sorghum have proven adequate for reaising poultry indeveloping countries - but you likely don't have those suppliments available. Sorghum should be cracked or milled to assist digestibility.

Sunflower Seeds (dehulled) are often a concern due to the high fat content, but you have addressed that well by keeping the quantity reasonable. They are also a decent plant Methionine source.

Hard Wheat is an excellent choice in a grain based diet. This is something I'd increase while dialing down the oats and barley. If there's a cost issue, soft wheat (lower across the board on essentially every measure) can be brought in. Its better for protein, fat, and fiber than either oats or barley, similar in methionine and tryptophan, but somewhat lower in Lysine (where you have some buffer) and Threonine (where you were borderline).

Winter Peas are another highly variable source, with a number of anti-nutritive properties inluding (again) tannins, lectins, and trypsin inhibitors. Heat treatment helps address many of those factors, while a number ofvarieties are now produced of lower tannin and trypsin inhibiting content. Once again, low methionine. You are at 10% content already, which is the highest supported by some of the literature, while other source suggest higher percentages can be tolerated. Given the large number of other pulses and legumes in your mix with similar nutritional factors, I'd be very cautious of increasing the presence of peas in the mix, and might instead look to reduce legumes somewhat. From Feedipedia.org

Peas are a good source of protein and energy for poultry. However, they are deficient in sulfur-containing amino-acids and, while feed pea varieties containing low concentrations of anti-nutritional factors have been available for several decades, there is still a lot of variability in composition and nutritional factors, resulting in differences in digestibility (Nalle et al., 2011). When the nutritional value of field peas (raw or processed) is well defined, and when it is possible to balance the diet with synthetic amino acids, they can be included at high levels in broiler diets without negative effects on performance. Maximum recommended levels range from 20% (Nalle et al., 2011) to 30-35% (Farrell et al., 1999; Diaz et al., 2006) for broilers. For laying hens, similar inclusion rates are suggested (Perez-Maldonado et al., 1999). As a consequence, in industrial farming conditions, field peas can be used without maximum level (Lessire, unpublished).

Processing may improve starch digestibility, and heat treatments may alleviate the negative effects of some antinutritional factors. Among those treatments, pelleting, extrusion and cooking are frequently mentioned. Peas can be treated alone or mixed with other raw materials such as full fat oilseeds. Many experiments have been performed to assess individual pea varieties or to measure the effect of processing methods on metabolizable energy (ME) value, digestibility, poultry growth, laying rate and feed efficiency. For example, Grosjean et al., 1999 reported a large variation in nutritional value of peas determined on adult cockerels, and did not find a strong correlation with chemical composition. Peas with low ME values benefited the most from pelleting, which greatly increased their ME, starch digestibility and protein digestibility. After pelleting, starch digestibility (more than 98%) was found to be not far from that observed for cereal grains, though starch digestibility was lower for wrinkled peas (84%).

Hope that helps. I would not feed your mix to my birds. None of whom I plan to keep or more than two years, meaning I am more risk tolerant than the typical backyard owner of pets.

Again, I am NOT an expert, and hold no degrees in animal feed design, livestock management, etc. I have done a LOT of reading, am tolerable with a spreadsheet, and have linked my sources. Please investigate and decide for yourself.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and I forgot to post the results from my chart (again, sourced mostly from Feedipedia, excrept the Fertrell's)

Apologies.