It could also be a bit of a backlash of corn being used as a cheap filler component to keep chicken feed down so people want to avoid it because it doesn't seem like a high quality food. It isn't a very high protein food by percent (though what I read suggests that blue corn has 30% more protein than standard field yellow corn, so the more 'wild' types might be a bit better in that regard), so people also might be avoiding it to help keep their feed at a high percent protein.
That seems to be a fairly popular opinion of corn in animal feeds, unless you are a farmer, trying to make a living off of your chickens, cows, etc......However, it is not at all true. Corn is not cheap, and corn would never be used as a "filler" in animal feed. There is one major reason that corn is used in animal feeds, especially dairy, and poultry feeds. It is because, pound for pound, corn has the most usable carbohydrate energy of any feed grain, without causing gut health issues. (Like wheat does). Without corn, your animals will eat more, and produce less. Or, they could potentially get gut health issues, if they were fed large amounts of another high energy grain, like wheat.
With chickens, corn also helps keep the egg yolks darker.
Corn is not necessarily a good part of a human diet. And there is a lot of research that supports that. However, it is the best energy performer for animals, and that is the reason that it is a major ingredient in most animal feeds. It is certainly not because it is cheap. Corn is expensive, and the use of other grains, in place of corn, would lower the price of almost any feed mix. That being said, your feed costs would go up, because of higher consumption rates.
This doesn't mean that a good feed can't be made without corn. They certainly can, and they would certainly be plenty nutritious (and then some)
I am certainly not advocating corn, and I actually wish we didn't use it in our animal feeds. (Mostly because of the cost, and ridiculous market swings) However, we need our feeds to perform as well as the others, and corn is needed to accomplish that at a reasonable cost. (Without having to use food grade ingredients and feed that costs $50.00 per bag) We will most likely introduce a corn free layer someday. We will use barley, wheat, flax, and buckwheat in place of it. It will perform well enough for anyone that has backyard chickens. It just won't be the preferred feed for the folks that make a living with their animals.
Long winded, I know.......... But that is my nutritionist point of view.
