And So The Feed Price Increase Begins.....

[Fred's Hens]

Gardenweasel,

First, I can buy high quality, Hubbard 17% layer mash at our local mill for almost half the price of Purina. It is my feed of choice. If I had to pay Purina prices, from TSC, to feed all the mouths here, there would be far fewer mouths in a hurry!! LOL

As far as feeding the rooster layer, that's a tough call. Rooster don't need the calcium of layer, that's for sure. However, folks keep roosters on hen's feed all over the land with little reported difficulty. I'm sure a grower type feed would be better for the roosters, but..... Feeding 50/50 as you are considering wouldn't maximize your savings. I wish our local mill ground their own Grower type feed, but they do not.

 

[Dwkuska]

Just ran to the feed store and realized prices went up another 25 cents. Bought 200lbs of feed!!! lol I am determined to save a few pennies over the course of this winter

 

[yo burrill]

My roos get Layer pellets all winter long and have had no issues. Most of my birds get it and I have not lost a single bird to health issues.

 

[Headgear]

I have a 4 ton feed bin coming. I have a wooden one that only holds a ton and I am sick and tired of mice and rats getting into it. One ton of corn and oats lasts me three months or so. I'm going to try three tons and hope it does not go bad in nine months. I guess in a galvanized bin it should be ok. I'd like to try a years worth but I'm afraid bugs will get too bad.

I have a grinder and use corn, oats, fish meal, soybean meal, Fertrell nutri-balancer, and kelp meal and grind it fresh every day. I think that it would be about the same cost if I bought chicken feed from a local mill but having that much for that period of time would probably degrade too much. It's a lot of work but at least it is fresh and probably better for the chickens plus I give some to our goats. I can't think of a better way to save on feed costs or I'd be all over it. I'm always looking for other ideas though.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I went and picked up my bi-weekly load of feed yesterday: 12 bags. Since business had slowed at the feed store I frequent, they had only gotten in one truck with a few items since my last visit. Of course, those were the only ones that had any price increases. They had plenty of the layer pellets at the current price, so I am taking my trailer up next week and getting next month's feed early before they have to re-stock and the price goes up again.

Gamebird Maintenance pellets went up the most; increasing $1.80 a bag to $17.30. Luckily, my turkeys seem to have slowed the amount they eat. Well, the Beltsvilles at least: The Broad Breasted Bronze is still a pig, but his time has come and hopefully he will be sent to freezer camp this weekend. The Beltsvilles have finally figured out that they have a field to forage in and are using it all day long. I keep it planted with seeds sold in turkey food plot mixes (buy them individually...the mixes are way too expensive) and they seem to enjoy what is available.

I just ordered a bunch of my fall pasture seed from a guy in Alabama: He has an eBay storefront and the best prices on some of the stuff I wanted. I got two varieties of southern alfalfa, 5 different clovers, chufa, kale, and chicory. I have some comfrey roots/starter plants coming and am going to throw up a small fenced area where I can plant it: I will cut the leaves and feed them to the animals till it is good and established.
I also picked up bags of wheat, oats, and barley seed to put in garden area for the winter. When mid-October rolls around I plan on being good and ready to get things planted when their is favorable weather.

 

[Chris09]

Gardenweasel,

First, I can buy high quality, Hubbard 17% layer mash at our local mill for almost half the price of Purina. It is my feed of choice. If I had to pay Purina prices, from TSC, to feed all the mouths here, there would be far fewer mouths in a hurry!! LOL

As far as feeding the rooster layer, that's a tough call. Rooster don't need the calcium of layer, that's for sure. However, folks keep roosters on hen's feed all over the land with little reported difficulty. I'm sure a grower type feed would be better for the roosters, but..... Feeding 50/50 as you are considering wouldn't maximize your savings. I wish our local mill ground their own Grower type feed, but they do not.

I was at the mill today and picked up 500 lbs of feed (goat not poultry) and my custom mix was up $8.00 per 500 lbs not near as bad as I thought it would be.
The local Farm/Hardware store sells Purina Goat chow and it has went up almost $2.00 a 50 lb.
As of last week my custom poultry mix is up about the same so not bad there either.

Makes me glad that I don't by some big brand name feed.


Chris

 

[ChicksandWeeds]

i think compared to organic feed - most of the prices here are really cheap