Chick Starter and Soybean Meal as Turkey Starter

[TheRealCliffordWilliams]

Hello,
First time posting on backyard chickens, having visited often for several years !

I am wondering if anyone has had any experience mixing chick starter with soybean meal to use as a starter for turkeys?

I have a bag of soybean meal with 47% protein, .5% fat, and 8% fiber; and a bag of layer chick start and grow with 18% protein, 3% fat, 5% fiber.
Purena's Game Bird and Turkey starter has 30% protein, 2.5% fat, and 6.5% fiber. If I mix the soybean meal with the layer chick start in a 1:2 ratio, it comes out to about 28% protein, 2% fat, and 6% fiber, which is super close to the turkey starter ratios. These are broad breasted bronze which get HUGE. They get hulled hemp seeds (33% protein, 50% fat, 3% fiber ) and bacterially fermented cornmeal (8% protein, 3.5% fat, 7.5% fiber) as an occasional treat, and will get put out to pasture in the daytimes around 2-3 weeks old. Nothing medicated.

I am hoping someone has had experience doing this and can confirm or deny that this is a safe feed for the turkeys. I don't want to find out the hard way that there is some compound in soybean, or some vitamin in layer starter, that the turkeys can't handle.

Thanks so much for reading this!!

 

[R2elk]

Hello,
First time posting on backyard chickens, having visited often for several years !

I am wondering if anyone has had any experience mixing chick starter with soybean meal to use as a starter for turkeys?

I have a bag of soybean meal with 47% protein, .5% fat, and 8% fiber; and a bag of layer chick start and grow with 18% protein, 3% fat, 5% fiber.
Purena's Game Bird and Turkey starter has 30% protein, 2.5% fat, and 6.5% fiber. If I mix the soybean meal with the layer chick start in a 1:2 ratio, it comes out to about 28% protein, 2% fat, and 6% fiber, which is super close to the turkey starter ratios. These are broad breasted bronze which get HUGE. They get hulled hemp seeds (33% protein, 50% fat, 3% fiber ) and bacterially fermented cornmeal (8% protein, 3.5% fat, 7.5% fiber) as an occasional treat, and will get put out to pasture in the daytimes around 2-3 weeks old. Nothing medicated.

I am hoping someone has had experience doing this and can confirm or deny that this is a safe feed for the turkeys. I don't want to find out the hard way that there is some compound in soybean, or some vitamin in layer starter, that the turkeys can't handle.

Thanks so much for reading this!!

The problem is that it isn't just about the protein percentage. Turkeys need the higher amounts of lysine, methioniine and niacin that are found in an actual properly formulated turkey or game bird starter. Broad breasted turkeys in particular need the higher niacin and thiamine concentrations for proper bone and leg development.

 

[TheRealCliffordWilliams]

Thanks for the response!
From the May 1988 Poultry Science article "Niacin requirement of turkey poults fed a corn-soybean meal diet from 1 to 21 days of age" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3405952):
"it was estimated that the minimum dietary niacin requirement for turkey poults from Day 1 to 21 days of age was 44 mg/kg of feed."

From University of Florida's Department of poultry science
"Research Note: Effect of Niacin Supplementation of a Corn-Soybean Meal Diet on Performance of Turkey Breeder Hens" (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1017.7339&rep=rep1&type=pdf):
"These data indicate that the turkey hen does not require more than 23.6 mg niacin/kg-of a corn-soybean meal diet for egg production, but 40.3 mg/kg was required for maximum egg weight in the presence of .17% tryptophan."

Soybean Meal has 20 - 40 mg/kg (quite the range, I know) of niacin, I am trying to get info from my processor on how much niacin is in the stuff I have. (https://www.feedtables.com/content/niacin)

From "Nutritional Value of Soybean Meal" found on https://www.intechopen.com/books/soybean-and-nutrition/nutritional-value-of-soybean-meal:
"The protein of soybean contains a considerable quantity of lysine (6.2g/16gN), but value of protein is limited by methionine and cystine content (2.9g/16gN)."

So maybe, because the soybean meal is mixed with the chick start 1:2, I am staying in the desirable ranges for these things? Maybe I should supplement with Niacin?
I am not too concerned about methionine content because of A) the high methionine content of the hemp seeds and B) The ability of the animal to use the amino acids it needs to produce the peptides and proteins it needs, and excrete the rest.

Thanks again for the reply! If anyone has anything to add I'd love to hear!!!!

 

[SarahGfa]

Hi were you able to find an answer? I have newly hatched turkey poults that I am trying to feed right now. Local feed store (TSC) has nothing higher than 24% protein. Would like to mix something better for them.

 

[R2elk]

Hi were you able to find an answer? I have newly hatched turkey poults that I am trying to feed right now. Local feed store (TSC) has nothing higher than 24% protein. Would like to mix something better for them.

Some people mix in cat food. I don't know the analysis for cat food so cannot say whether it adds the essentials like lysine, methionine and niacin but it does increase the protein level.

 

[Molpet]

Hi were you able to find an answer? I have newly hatched turkey poults that I am trying to feed right now. Local feed store (TSC) has nothing higher than 24% protein. Would like to mix something better for them.

You can have it shipped to your TSC https://go.skimresources.com/?id=65...338df69a8bd&xjsf=other_click__contextmenu [0]

 

[SarahGfa]

Some people mix in cat food. I don't know the analysis for cat food so cannot say whether it adds the essentials like lysine, methionine and niacin but it does increase the protein level.

Cat food is easy thank you. Can they find lysine, methionine, niacin if they are on pasture?

 

[SarahGfa]

You can have it shipped to your TSC https://go.skimresources.com/?id=65884X1564883&isjs=1&jv=14.0.1-stackpath&sref=https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/urgent-turkey-poult-won%E2%80%99t-eat.1365221/&url=https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/purina-game-bird-turkey-startena-50-lb-1381?cm_vc=-10005&xguid=01D0HT91R7F99VQS2MDP1VM815&xs=1&xtz=300&xuuid=d3efdc9e902daa34f485d338df69a8bd&xjsf=other_click__contextmenu [0]

Unfortunately my local store does not have that option.

 

[R2elk]

Cat food is easy thank you. Can they find lysine, methionine, niacin if they are on pasture?

Various seeds and bugs contain the higher levels of what they need. I know that BOSS is an excellent source of methionine. The problem with Boss is that it is a low protein, high fat source also. Companies that mix feed add the nutrients through vitamin packs, etc. You might want to check this post #16.

 

[TheRealCliffordWilliams]

A little terminology: lysine and methionine are amino acids. Amino acids make bonds called peptide bonds, and when there are a lot of peptides bonded together that's a polypeptide. Proteins are made of polypeptides. So, any protein source has amino acids, but what kinds of amino acids each protein source offers differs.

Soybean meal has plenty of lysine. It is a little lacking in methionine. Farm and fleet recommends using 2 cups brewers yeast per 10 lb chick start for turkey poults
https://www.farmandfleet.com/blog/raising-turkey-poults/
This seems sound, as brewers yeast is a good source of both protein and vitamin B complexes (as R2elk pointed out they need their niacin and thiamine).

My turkeys are about 12 days old, they've been eating soybean meal and chick starter in a 1:2 ratio and are growing up great, I still have all six. The soybean meal is a smaller grind than the chick scratch so they are able to pick and choose what they want. They also get some bacterially fermented corn meal with molasses, oats, hemp seeds, and young grass as a treat. I've been trying to give them some good healthy options so they can have a little freedom in choosing their diet, as I've gotten some conflicting advice from the feed store etc. regarding ideal protein content.

Personally I wouldn't feed cat food to an animal I was going to eat, but that's just me. There are plenty of ways to get protein into their diet (fish, bugs, seeds, beans, etc) besides cat food...I have to keep reminding myself that while they are more delicate than a chicken, at the end of the day they are just turkeys, and if I give them some beans, seeds, and plants, they'll do great!