Can I get feedback on this homemade feed recipe?

[U_Stormcrow]

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

Modesto Milling outside your intended price range, but no objections. A few things that don't benefit the chickens in the ingredients list, but the nutrition is mostly solid. Not a lot of feedback here on BYC about it, for whatever reason. Maybe Kalmbach advertises better???
Same with their Layer, though you shouldn't feed it to anyone not laying.

NCO Starter and Layer are similar price range, and generally inferior in my (rarely humble) opinion. Pull up the nutrition tags and look at them side by side, particularly Met, Lys, and Ca : P ratios. Otherwise same comments - don't feed layer to birds not laying.

 

[KariBunny]

OK will do so, thank you very much for all the info!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

OK will do so, thank you very much for all the info!

When you look, it helps to understand what Met and Lys are for.

Methionine is associated with connective tissues - its hugely important for a host of reasons, but begin by thinking skin, tendons, DIGESTIVE Tract. Also, you can't build a protein w/o Met, so if you don't get enough Met, extra Lys, Try, Thre and all the others don't matter. Its like the engine on a train. Now sometimes, the engine drives off - just as a train can leave a bunch of cars on the side of the track after first linking them all together - its why you need roughly half as much Met as Lys, and your chickens, too. Met is often cleaved off the start of a protein chain after the building has begun.

Lys is mostly associated with muscle development. It has other uses, but that's the big one, and particularly breast muscle. So if you are raising meat birds, or dual purpose, you tend to emphasize that one.

How much of each is recommended for birds varies with use (Layer, Dual, Meatie) and Age (younger birds need more nutritionally dense feed than older), but the old studies but the recommended minimums for adult layers (who have the lowest requirements) at 0.3% Met, 0.6-0.7% Lys (depending on study of course). New studies, with more modern birds, generally increase those recommends.

 

[sdm111]

I say make it. Make it however you want. Sometimes people forget it's a chicken. They don't have to have the almighty perfect levels of this or that. I really think the feed debates are more so people can show each other what they know (or think they do) to inflate their keyboard ego and not actually about the chicken. Mix it up and let them enjoy it. A chicken's body today is made up the exact same as the ones 50 years ago that was only fed corn. It musta been ok cause they're still around and people are still eating them and their eggs just like back then. Enjoy your chicken journey and don't over think it. At the end of the day a chicken is just that, a chicken.

 

[KariBunny]

I say make it. Make it however you want. Sometimes people forget it's a chicken. They don't have to have the almighty perfect levels of this or that. I really think the feed debates are more so people can show each other what they know (or think they do) to inflate their keyboard ego and not actually about the chicken. Mix it up and let them enjoy it. A chicken's body today is made up the exact same as the ones 50 years ago that was only fed corn. It musta been ok cause they're still around and people are still eating them and their eggs just like back then. Enjoy your chicken journey and don't over think it. At the end of the day a chicken is just that, a chicken.

What are you feeding your chickens?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

50 years ago, they weren't fed just corn. Most of the recipes from those books produce rations better than what I see floating around facebook, and were intended for methods of managment (often free ranging) many modern chicken keepers don't enjoy. Modern chickens also grow larger, faster, and generally produce more eggs than their counterparts of 50, 70, 100 years ago. Sometimes larger too.

But you are right, they are the poster's chickens, she can do with them as she pleases. She can feed them a diet man has known to be insuffient as their sole ration for raising chickens for more more than two centuries, and has the science to explain why its insufficient for at least 40 years.

After all, to a North Korean, his fellow North Koreans look perfectly healthy. They've done just fine these centuries, why change? Compare them to a South Korean with access to a modern diet - stronger, taller, healthier on average. Chickens are much the same, only we've selectively bred them to emphasize that potential, in ways the Russian's can only dream about in their Olympic hopefuls.

Whether my suggstions are followed makes no difference to me - my ego doesn't need massaging, I play with attorneys for a living, and have done "a few things" over the years. She asked, I answered. Its what BYC is for. Up to others to determine if there's any value in it.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and I'm still an @$$.

 

[Stephine]

and I'm still an @$$.

oh, we need the @$$es who won’t let go of the facts just to be nice! As long as you are open to debate and new facts and changing your mind if need be….

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

When you look, it helps to understand what Met and Lys are for.

Methionine is associated with connective tissues - its hugely important for a host of reasons, but begin by thinking skin, tendons, DIGESTIVE Tract. Also, you can't build a protein w/o Met, so if you don't get enough Met, extra Lys, Try, Thre and all the others don't matter. Its like the engine on a train. Now sometimes, the engine drives off - just as a train can leave a bunch of cars on the side of the track after first linking them all together - its why you need roughly half as much Met as Lys, and your chickens, too. Met is often cleaved off the start of a protein chain after the building has begun.

Lys is mostly associated with muscle development. It has other uses, but that's the big one, and particularly breast muscle. So if you are raising meat birds, or dual purpose, you tend to emphasize that one.

How much of each is recommended for birds varies with use (Layer, Dual, Meatie) and Age (younger birds need more nutritionally dense feed than older), but the old studies but the recommended minimums for adult layers (who have the lowest requirements) at 0.3% Met, 0.6-0.7% Lys (depending on study of course). New studies, with more modern birds, generally increase those recommends.

Ive actually seen a fair amount in my old text books from the 80s saying pretty much double the figures you list at least for young birds and layers..but having horses, those are the 3 most important things to me after protein,fat and digestable fiber.. quickest way to a bad footed horse is not provide enough of those three things along with not enough protein..most generally have enough biotin, but its useless without the three

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes, young birds and meaties (young, very fast growing birds) need more, sometimes much more. I target .5 Met and 1.1 Lys for my mixed flock - but those aren't numbers you find in typical off the shelf feeds.. .4 Met and .7-.8Lys you have a lot of options. I also like a higher phosphorus number, and look for 0.6 when I can get it.

Sadly, the pandemic has resulted in my local mill reducing the nutrition targets for their guaranteed minimum assay. I suspect it won't go back up when things finally normalize.