Insect Protein for Chickens

[U_Stormcrow]

Appears Tyson thinks they can make the economics work at scale...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/20/business/tyson-insect-ingredients/index.html

For those following as the lab science becomes the practical.

I would expect that the home feed market will eventually follow suit. (Yes, I'm aware of Grubblies - their inclusion rates are quite low). I for one, hope it catches on and fills the specialty niche currently filled by "vegan", a terrible way to try to raise chickens. It may also help to produce higher crude protein, better AA balanced "organic" feeds, for those interested in that market segment.

 

[Brooks_]

I had seen that Tyson was getting into it, but did not click as I assumed they were looking for human use (likely still the end goal). I take no issue with them working on it for animal feed.

 

[Folly's place]

Hope it works out, although I'm glad to not be involved in the process personally.
Mary

 

[Penpal]

Well, I guess it's better that my free range chickens get their insect protein directly.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'll keep an eye out around me....one of their feed mills is in our county. We have an enormous amount of Tyson chicken growers around here.

Anticipate it will be "a while" before it takes a bigger place on the shelves for BYCers like us.

I'll happily content myself with allowing my birds to hunt creepy crawlies on my acres, but I know most aren't so fortunate.

 

[Sally PB]

Hmm... Maybe I can get a part time job harvesting Japanese Beetles for Tyson. Two hours a day during July and August. Store them in the freezer, and deliver right after Labor Day weekend to the Tyson Foods plant an hour away. Paid by the pound, of course, because who is going to count JBs even if they are frozen?

I think I'll cut out the middlemen and just feed the JBs to my chickens. I have some in my freezer.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This is just a paid ad for Tyson. Insect farming has been around a long time. The big hurdles are pests, diseases, bacteria, and protein in / protein out ratio making it difficult to be profitable. Purina markets an overpriced BSFL feed and refuses to disclose how much of the protein is BSFL, probably because its so expensive to add a significant amount to make a difference. I dont expect it to become a part of animal feeds anytime soon and I wouldn't feed it to my dogs or cat.

Of course its product placement in the guise of news. That doesn't make it less true. Tyson, who raises a lot of chickens economically, is looking to add insect protein to their feed at commercial scale. Beyond that??? There isn't much else to be true or false in the article, its sparse on details.

and as @Perris wisely points out, part of the way Tyson is attempting to do it, economically, at scale, is thru use of animal waste. And since this is a news article, not an FDA approved label, we can't even rely on their definition for what, exactly, "animal waste" is comprised of - though I suspect it includes a decent portion of "cull" birds and parts which were not of sufficient quality to be repurposed as something else.

As to Purina and Grubblies and their insect protein feeds??? Given that the insect protein often appears AFTER the calcium carbonate/oyster shell, we can be confident its less than 4% by weight. (Grubblies lists it right before Ca CO3, so at least 4%, because they use multiple calcium sources and claim a 3.0% minimum%)

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I always find it amusing when articles about animal protein and seaweed go straight to "human consumption". If I had $1 for every article I read that was clearly an attempt to use the "ick" factor to turn people away from such materials, I'd well, probably have a lot more chickens.

Feeding these things to animals makes a lot of sense, if they can make the economics work. Less "ick" factor, and the resources currently going to animal feed can go elsewhere.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Got this reply from Purina today:

Question: How much of the 16% protein is BSFL?

Purina Product Expert 0 days ago
Answer: I'm sorry, Purina Free Range Layer Feed is no longer being made, this product is no longer available from Purina.

 

[Penpal]

Perris, what's wrong with using animal manure? If you did this at home you would use animal manure. It is the natural food of a soldier fly larvae.