Buying large amounts of Flock Raiser?

[SilverPhoenix]

This might be a dumb question, but I figured I'd ask here before I go straight to Purina!

The Flock Raiser in my area is up to $17.99 per 50# bag. My birds go through a bag of it a week (along with a $12 bag of scratch). Well, I work at a farm animal sanctuary where we have lots of poultry who go through one 50# bag of Flock Raiser a DAY, so I've been talking to my co-workers about potentially buying large amounts (say, one ton) of Flock Raiser at a time in order for both myself and the sanctuary to save some money.

Anyone know how I would go about doing this? Would it likely save us a decent amount? I'd love to see if anyone else does this, and if so, how you go about ordering it. It would be really nice to be able to order forty bags at a time or something and get a good discount if that's possible. I'm not sure how to go about this, aside from contacting Purina themselves. I plan on doing that, but just wanted to see what other BYC people do as well.

 

[corancher]

We tried doing this a few years ago. Purina would not sell direct to us as they have certain merchants that sell their products. They just told us who sell their products in our area. Some of the other poultry food manufacturers said they would do it but you had to purchase a semi load. We didn't need that much and certainly didn't have the money for a semi load.

 

[halo]

You might check with your local feed mills, if you have any. I know the one I use here in Florida gives a price break at 500 pounds.

 

[Arielle]

FYI Please remember the milled grain, not whole any more, will spoil quickly. I buy from a local mill and the owner/manager who likes to drive the delivery trucks reminds me to NOT order too much at a time, it spoils. I get deliveries every 2-3 weeks. Bulk would be way cheaper, but not if it spoils and the animals get sick.

 

[elieugene6]

You haven't said where you get your feed. The tractor supply that I go to gives a discount if you buy 20 bags or more. I can't remember how much the discount is though. I know it is a percentage. Maybe 5% or 20% I know its a big difference but those are the 2 numbers that popped into my head. It is one of them. Try checking it out.

 

[critterranch]

Quote:
yes this is true a pellet is 20 bags you save 5% per 20 bags. foe any livestock feed , dog food, cat food

you can also save 5% on wood shavings or pelletized animal bedding too it says full pallet.

you can get a new 2011 blue book from your tsc for free. it has a chart in front of book. you can also save on fence posts and gates anf feeders. almost anything.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Oh, darn, so it only saves the price of one bag to buy that many! Man, I'm mostly just trying to get away from the retail price because it just seems so expensive. Right now it's on sale for $15.99 a bag, which isn't so bad, but $17.99 just seems excessive. I sure wish Purina would just sell them directly cheaper if you buy 40 bags or something. I guess I'll just have to think about it and see if I can find any other ways to save on Flock Raiser.

Our local feed store has a deal where if you buy a certain number of dog food bags (not all at once, over time), they give you one for free. I wish they had that deal with chicken feed, too.

 

[Donner]

The best bet is to find a feed mill. Unfortunately, at least in my attempts to find one in my area, feed mills are not really on the internet.

But, looking at where Penn Valley is in google maps what you might want to do is find a dairy or some other livestock operation and find out where they get their feed. It is highly likely that the same mill where they get feed probably also does poultry feed and will make you some. You will want to find out if they will bag it, because otherwise you have to be able to handle loose feed. But, there was another comment in another thread where some one said the mill they went to bagged the feed really cheap since that person was paying for 500lbs total batch, so it did not matter if the bags were exactly 50lbs. Apparently, it is getting the weight just right where the expense and labor of bagging comes in.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=443218

 

[Donner]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=443218

Then, again some one who actually does this stuff is a much better authority.