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FL is also a big cattle state, fwiw.

These foraging distances are pretty consistent with my experience in the FL Panhandle, though my math computes different acreages... I set my barn and their houses in the middle of the "pasture" and set electric fence (roughly) equidistant roughly 250 ft (80y+/-) around it, enclosing about 5...

What I'm doing is what I would consider to be intelligent risk management, based on my individual needs and circumstances. I know what the science says about minimal and optimal feeding for commercial layers, and commercial broilers, under commercial conditons. I know I have (mostly) neither...

More than a little disingenuous to compare battery hens rescued from commercial farming ops which have been bred for high production at the expense of longevity, and then deliberately fed on a diet intended to be as absolutely cheap as possible before the replacement costs of wholesale hens and...

and those differences are almost immaterial. Even scientifically measured differences between prime commercial laying breeds average out to quite small differences. You are straining at gnats. It is impractical to formulate different feeds for every bird every week over differences that are...

...and by the standards of today, the award winning chickens of last century are rejects. RIR, 1932. and they were "modern" breeds at the time, outperforming most of their contemporaries. Laying, on average at 7 months, and about 180 eggs per year, with an average 5.5# weight. RIR Hens now...

Nothing wrong witht he way you feed your birds. You provide a complete feed at all times which exceeds minimum needs, you keep them in fresh water, you keep oyster shell for your laying bird's additional calcium needs, you keep treats to a minimum, and your working farm isn't a monoculture...

which is fine if you want scrawny, slow growing, poorly producing, birds with greater vulnerability to coccidosis, worms, and a host of other ills, and you happen to be keeping your flock on a decent peice of land while dirt farming at a number of efforts, generally poorly. Most modern owners...

well, two points: 1) you absolutely CAN choose a commercial mix purpose built for a specific use, i.e. layer feed. And, with the exception of the reduced total calcium (for which there is good nutritional reason), the nutritional offering in the typical "all flock" is as good or better than...

Perris, since you seem to be asking in good faith, I'll take a stab at this. Commercial "Layer" formulations are largely based on studies from the 60s, 70s, some early 80s. They were intended to determine the most cost effective way to feed commercial egg layers under commercial mangament...

and the poster is comparing Met levels, the amino acid hardest to obtain in quantity from green matter sources - with the highest Met level feed being formulated for ducks, geese, and chickens (it likely also has a higher niacin level - or should) with a pair of "layer" formulations, intended...

Yes, poster offered a number of labels, for a number of different purposes, then posits that the differences suggests they are somehow inferior or "unbalanced", and offers up as superior the nutritional value of any pasture, of any size, for any amount of time free ranging, in any climate and...

you presume incorrectly. I'll leave it at that.

Part of why I stepped off this thread - too many posters are arguing against positions other posters haven't staked out for themselves. If I wanted a religious argument, I'd pick/start one, over a subject more interesting than chickens. Too much of positions as an article of faith, history and...

I pulled the most recent data for you, and linked it in my last comment, above. New rates should come out end of August.

Source: https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/results/E0F5EB36-3313-3D7B-9E7F-E56A3365CF2B#9A9F55D7-E267-38C6-ACB9-DF106291B5A7

There are maps, county by county with pasture rental rates per acre. Answer - not much.

the good news is, all those legumes are nitrogen fixers, and will improve soil quality with time. They are also (when the birds eat them, anyways) a high protein source, and while the AA levels don't tend to be balanced, the high relative amounts of protein often make them better sources for...

You have a number of legumes there - with different but overlapping periods of peak production. They should self propogate to some extent in much of the US - though like my own experience, you will likely find some which fair better than others. I'm sort of ambivalent about the rye - its...

Golden Comets and other "production" RSL are pretty famed for reproductive problems. If you got 5.5 years, I'd say that's par for the breed, with a few much earlier, and a few much later. I'd tend to put that event aside. and your mix sounds excellent - inspired by three sisters method...