Organic Feed

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Songster
12 Years
Jun 5, 2007
330
10
156
Colorado
I have had chickens for several years now, and we sell the eggs. I have been using a commercial layer feed, made by Purina. I would really like to find something that has not sprayed, but have not had too much luck. The organic food I found was $35 per 50lb bag, which is very cost prohibitive, I go through about 500lbs per month.

The solutions I have come up with are 1) Grow it myself or 2) Find a farmer that grows and mills.

Anyone have an opinion of what kind of grains and protein concentrate to use? I prefer it not to be soy.

Thanks
 
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens has a formula in it for making your own mix. See if you can find a mill that does custom mixes. I know of one in MN, if your within the state it's cheap shipping. Otherwise it might be too much. http://www.buckwheatgrowers.com/
 
Contact Countryside Naturals (Toll Free: 1-888-699-7088). They sell in bulk, allowing you to save on shipping by ordering larger quantities. I haven't ordered from them since last year, so I don't know current prices on the feed or shipping. When I did order in bulk I think they said they could ship a pallet with anywhere from 500-2000# for the same cost. You can also mix & match the order, so you can add some supplements or whatever.
 
The Organic Chickens Yahoo group can be found here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/OrganicChickens/

Another option is whole grain mixes. Info about it here:
http://www.mofga.org/Portals/2/Reports/MOFGA FS 13 Feeding Whole Grains to Chickens.pdf

and here (sorry, you'll have to scroll down past the political stuff):
http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickenFeedRecipe.html

(ps, I tried to e-mail you, but it kept bouncing back)

Good Luck!
smile.png
 
There are as many feed formulas as there are grains out there. You just use whatever is cheapest that month when you are milling & mixing. The protein is then coming from seed meals, which will also vary depending on where you live. Where I am, soybean, linseed, rapeseed and sometimes cottonseed are commonly found.

A neighbor mixes and mills his own grain in order to provide soy-free eggs and chicken meat. So, he uses it to cut costs (while increasing labor) and add value to his products. But, to be truly cost effective, you need to be able to store enough raw ingredients for at least 6 month's supply (better yet, a year's supply) so you can buy your commodities when the prices are lowest.

I grew my own rye grain this year and mixed it into chicken feed, also utilizing the mineral nutri-balancer, vegetable oil and linseed meal. It was a lot of work, but also very rewarding. I'm just lucky to have access to a mill and mixer.
 
Let's just say it's a point of debate. People with soy allergies seek out soy free products and it's an alternative marketing avenue which we small farmers can persue.

With that said, I have no idea the methodology by which a chicken would eat soy meal and have it passed along intact to an egg of in the meat. I just don't know, understand or ever had it explained to me convincingly.

We've always been awash with soybeans; which do sometimes get a bad rap. Our farmlands would be in even worse shape than they are if not for the subsidized "soy breaks", where they grow them to revitalize the soil. Not that a farmer of my scale will ever see a $$ from the US government... regardless, I find it hard to be judgemental about people who grow, use or buy soybean/soy meal.
 
Quote:
Soy is a major issue that we are just starting to understand. We are just starting to see the effects of soy in the 30 year old- 50 year old generation. Soy is in just about every processed food and in most natural foods. Estrogen overloads are frequently misdiagnosed as other issues. I myself have issues related to soy in food products, starting from infancy on. But I have not had the will power to completely eliminate every product, but the time is coming. I do know someone who has had many of the same issues and had completely eliminated all soy in everything and was continuing to show problems. It was suggested to look at her chicken feed. She did and realized the protein was soy based. She stopped using the feed and she is doing great! Some how someway this is going into the egg. It would make since, being that female reproduction (eggs) is so closely related to estrogen (soy), even in chickens.
 

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