Can I get feedback on this homemade feed recipe?

[KariBunny]

Sure I wanted to this mix:
50 lbs chicken wheat animal feed
50 lbs whole field peas animal feed
45lb barley
30lb oats with hulls animal feed
5lb flaxseed
5lb black oil sunflower seeds.

Thanks

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sure I wanted to this mix:
50 lbs chicken wheat animal feed
50 lbs whole field peas animal feed
45lb barley
30lb oats with hulls animal feed
5lb flaxseed
5lb black oil sunflower seeds.

Thanks

Yeah, don't.

I'm going to assume soft wheat. Hard wheat is higher protein, more expensive, mostly nutritionally better across the board.

That's a LOT of field peas - they have some antinutritional factors you need to consider. Oats too, mostly beta-glucans.

Flaxseed is damned expensive, and BOSS has not nearly the protein numbers you routinely seen thrown about the internet by people who know a little and understand less.

Using Feedipedia's numbers, correcting for moisture content, soft wheat, no particular variety of field peas, averaged nutritional assays (some of these can vary wildly) -

My calculator says:

Roughly 14.5% Protein (low), 5.8 fiber (a bit high, but acceptable), 4.2% fat (a bit high but acceptable), less than 0.25% Methionine (LOW), Lysine is fine (its all the gains), Threonine 0.5% (that's pretty iminimal, you want higher), Tryptophan is borderline to low. Energy content is in the normal/expected range. Vitamin content is essentially unknown. Calcium will need to be provided by seperate source, and you have almost no useful phosphorus.

The easiest way to fix the Met, Thre, Tryp would be to increase the field peas, but its normally suggested field peas not exceed 15% of the diet due to antinutritional factors, and this recipe is close to 30% already, so that's not really an option. Completely removing the barley (which appears to be standing in the place of corn) improves the recipe, but not enough to hit the usual targets. Dropping the barley entirely and replacing the soft wheat with hard (winter) wheat gets you to the bottom of the usual recommends (except Calcium and Phos and the unknown vitamins), with a total energy at the high end of the range, but still still a lot of antinutritional factors from the field peas and the oats. Add a calcium source and a multivitamin/mineral with some extra Met, like the Fertrell's product, and you have a layer formulation.

 

[KariBunny]

Wow how did you learn all this I'm very impressed. What about if I add 11lbs of black soldier fly larvae? What do you think. I'm offering oyster and grit on the side so they can eat whatever they need. Also wanted to add some Diatomaceous Earth to that mix and possibly ferment everything too.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wow how did you learn all this I'm very impressed. What about if I add 11lbs of black soldier fly larvae? What do you think. I'm offering oyster and grit on the side so they can eat whatever they need. Also wanted to add some Diatomaceous Earth to that mix and possibly ferment everything too.

Answers)

I spent time on BYC and did some outside reading.

BSFL is hugely expensive. Dried, its a concentrated fat, concentrated protein source and a decent source of both calcium and phosphorus Live, they are mostly water, so 11# of which makes a huge difference in the outcome. The insect based protein is a good source of methionine. The high fat content will require that you adjust the rest of the recipe around it to reduce total energy - or you will have a recipe for FLHS, which is not good.

Good. If you stick with plant sourced protein you might consider looking to suplliment your calcium source with one contanting non-phytate (that is, not plant-based) phosphorus, such as calcium diphosphate (hard to find, particularly in the US) or dicalcium phosphate.

DE does nothing for nutrition and has no anti-parasitic value. It is useful in making feed that can sit around a long time without significant grain weavil (and similar) infestation, so long as it remains dry. In sufficient quantity.

Fermenting makes some nutrients more bioavilable, others less. Which ones, and whether or not they are needed depend on what you are fermenting, how you are fermenting, and what you are fermenting with. Its a topic all its own.

 

[KariBunny]

I appreciate very much all the information you have provided. I was very excited to make my own Mix now I think it's better not to make it since there is a lot more tha I protein they need and ill just keep searching for a good layer Pellet. What I'm looking for it's very expensive (no soy, non gmo organic) and with 20 chickens and 20 pullets, I wanted to do something that fit my budget something around $0.60-.80 a pound.

 

[Sally PB]

Also, I'm a complete @$$.

Yeah, but you're a smart intelligent one!

 

[KariBunny]

He sure is!!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I appreciate very much all the information you have provided. I was very excited to make my own Mix now I think it's better not to make it since there is a lot more tha I protein they need and ill just keep searching for a good layer Pellet. What I'm looking for it's very expensive (no soy, non gmo organic) and with 20 chickens and 20 pullets, I wanted to do something that fit my budget something around $0.60-.80 a pound.

Not going to happen, sorry. Soy is one of the few plant sources which are high in methionine. Its about the only nearly complete protein in the plant world. Soy meal (basically, soybeans processed to remove most of the oil) is a byproduct of soybean oil pruduction which is high protein, low fat, low cost and has an excellent amino acid profile. It also has very few antinutritional factors.

But also almost never organic. Also, it has a very bad (and largely undeserved) rep in the nutrition world, mostly by people repeating things they heard without context. But of definite concern to a few with certain kinds of rare cancers (as are a host of other ingredients also high in phytoestrogens which don't have the same negative reputation)

You may be able to find reasonably priced organic animal meals - i.e. porcine blood meal or menhaden fish meal which are concentrated protein, good A A profile, low fat, and (in the case of the fish meal) good sources of Calcium and non plant phosphorus - but I don't know current pricing.

A lot of people here on BYC use Kalmbach organics with good result, but I think its outside yor price point and it has some issues of its own you need to address (usually by soaking, sprouting or fermenting), since many of their feeds are whole grains, and the birds tend to pick out the seeds while ignoring the fines (which is the vitamin powders).

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yeah, but you're a smart intelligent one!

My ego needs no inflation, thank you.



and my IQ is often more trouble than benefit. (I can be wrong faster than almost anyone else! generally with greater confidence, as well.)

Have a great evening all, I'm going to go consume a book.

 

[KariBunny]

What do you think about new country organics, no soy, no corn and modesto milling organic feed also no soy.