Anyone seen something like this tried before?

[AgroUrica]

I've been raising Cornish X's and am now on my second batch of chicks. The first batch, of which I still have 100 birds or so, have not had commercial feed for a couple of weeks. I've been feeding them ground, fermented corn and am pleased so far with the results. They process into beautiful, yellow-skinned birds with plenty of eye-appeal.

I realize that corn alone is too low in protein to be a complete substitute for commercial feeds. However, I'm interested in working with something that will allow me to "wean" the birds from commercial feeds starting at about 33 - 35 days or so. At that point they've usually reached the normal market weight of about 2.2 kilos. I like to take them up to about 3 kilos because most of my clients now want larger birds, and like the fact that I've taken them off commercial feeds. Also, I don't especially want the added expense of continuing them on the commercial feeds.

My main business is baling bermuda grass for clients who have horses as well as milk cows and even milk goats. When properly fertilized and harvested, bermuda has as much as 20% protein on a dry matter basis. In the past I've used the same machine I use to grind my corn into a flour to also grind bales of bermuda for my calves. What comes out of the machine is a nice green-colored powdered material.

I was wondering if mixing the ground bermuda bales with my corn during fermentation wouldn't make a tasty combo for my birds while also increasing available protein.

Anyone have any experience along these lines?

 

[pbjls]

there is more to look at than just cp. within the cp is a series of crucial amino acids. lysine and methonine in particular are crucial to healthy development of the birds. you would need to do some research or have some tested to find out if there is enough of these present. with the corn I would not expect energy to be an issue, but vitimans and minerals may be of concern as well. You could get around that by adding a vit/min pack to the water. adding probiotics to promote a health gut and appropriate enzymes to help the birds utilize the nutrients in the corn and grass would also be helpfull.

another thing to think about is particale size. that is a very important aspect of poultry feed. if your grass component is ground to a flour consistancy then either feed as a wet mash or pelletizing would be better. otherwise the birds will not get enough of it compaired to the corn.

I also would be concerned with the great variance of nutrition bassed on what cutting and the time of year the grass is harvested as this will have a huge impact on the finished meal.

 

[AgroUrica]

there is more to look at than just cp. within the cp is a series of crucial amino acids. lysine and methonine in particular are crucial to healthy development of the birds. you would need to do some research or have some tested to find out if there is enough of these present. with the corn I would not expect energy to be an issue, but vitimans and minerals may be of concern as well. You could get around that by adding a vit/min pack to the water. adding probiotics to promote a health gut and appropriate enzymes to help the birds utilize the nutrients in the corn and grass would also be helpfull.

another thing to think about is particale size. that is a very important aspect of poultry feed. if your grass component is ground to a flour consistancy then either feed as a wet mash or pelletizing would be better. otherwise the birds will not get enough of it compaired to the corn.

I also would be concerned with the great variance of nutrition bassed on what cutting and the time of year the grass is harvested as this will have a huge impact on the finished meal.

Thanks for that thoughtful and thorough response pb.

I'm actually looking at a pellet machine as an option though right now I plan to go with the floured bermuda mixed directly with the corn during the fermentation process. There will definitely be some variance in nutiritional componens of the bermuda during the year though I do a good job of keeping it properly fertilized and harvested on a 45 day maximum schedule.

I'm really enjoying the raising of these meat birds because they produce a commercial product is such a short time.....as opposed to cattle and hogs for instance. My major concerns here (Venezuela) are not only the ever-increasing cost of the feed, but availability too. Without notice there can suddenly be a shortage of commercial feed for weeks! Imagine having a few hundred birds at 21 days of age and no feed.

For this reason, at the time I purchase the chicks, I've been buying all the feed necessary to get them to 35 - 40 days of age.

I've also found an interesting study on the benefits of field crickets as poultry feed. Crickets we have here in quantity and with stable temperatures year-round, I can produced a lot of crickets as an additive to my feed. Here's an exerpt:

"The Field cricket had an advantage on composition of amino acids for poultry, especially the percentage of lysine, methionine and cysteine, so it might be a new source of dietary nitrogen for poultry, at least would be extremely beneficial as a complement to a domestic animal diet and could be fitted in to meal patternsin a variety of ways. For this reason, the utilization of the insect resource as feed was practical and helpful for the protein deficiency for some area, especially the poverty region."

http://www.dellchallenge.org/sites/default/files/groups/307581/documents/Digestibility of insect.pdf

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[pbjls]

If you can figure out a way to produce, hrvest, and feed the crickets that would be an execptional protien source and I would be envious. keep us posted as to how it goes and good luck. I am confident that you would have an incredible finished product with a ration of ferminted corn, grass, and crickets.

 

[pbjls]

a couple more suggestions....for the level of interest in feed you have look at "Nutrition and Feeding of Organic Poultry" by robert blair. it is more of a text book and has lots of studies referenced in it as well as feed stuff analsys.

also, with the grass component as a major item, consider some ducks and maybe even geese in your operation. You can get a pekin duck to butcher weight in about 40 days and they might do very well in your climate and on the grass,corn, cricket mix.

good luck with all of it.

 

[AgroUrica]

a couple more suggestions....for the level of interest in feed you have look at "Nutrition and Feeding of Organic Poultry" by robert blair. it is more of a text book and has lots of studies referenced in it as well as feed stuff analsys.

also, with the grass component as a major item, consider some ducks and maybe even geese in your operation. You can get a pekin duck to butcher weight in about 40 days and they might do very well in your climate and on the grass,corn, cricket mix.

good luck with all of it.

I've got both free-range hogs and a "traditional" enclosure for maternity and finishing the male hogs I sell in the pueblo. The traditional enclosure sits on the edge of a significant hill on my ranch. Below the hogs I house a decent-sized flock of muscovy ducks. Ground corn, milo, and some commercial feed is fed to the hogs. Everything is then washed downhill and the final product is a nice-looking flock of fast-growing muscovies.

Peking ducks are an excellent idea and one I'll check out. Thanks for the tips on the book as well.

I'm opening a feed/seed/implement store here at the house because there's not one within almost an hour's drive of here. Few folks here have transportation so I'm confident I'll have a loyal clientele. And speaking of ducks and chickens, I've also purchased a 640 egg incubator. My idea is to produce the chicks and sell them along with the starter feed. Ultimately it'd be really interesting to produce my own commercial feed to finish the meat birds. Don't know if I can ever produce something that will compete with commercial feeds, but if can't, it won't be because of lack of effort.

 

[ozarkchicks]

feeding crickets is a great idea, I wanted to get off commercial feed