Confused.......how can you afford to feed your chickens

[Katy]

Quote:
I too am weary of trying to educate people about the truth of farming and ranching. The sensationalism and emotion driven rhetoric of the Anti-Agriculture is just to easy for people to be sucked in to.

Anti-Agriculture? There is no Anti-Agriculture it's anti-subsidies for things like ethonal from corn or for price supports for growing cotton, tobacco, sugar etc.

It's a catch-22, grain prices go up ... farmers make more money but the cost impacts staples like meat, eggs, milk etc.

As long as there is a growing middle class in China and India, 2.5 billion people

, they will consume more meat, pork and poultry which drives the price of grain which makes American grain farmers happy.

Just another example of someone who doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to agriculture.

When the price of grain goes up the input costs follow it right up....then the prices for grain go back down, but the input costs basically stay the same. Each year our profit margin gets slimmer and slimmer and in some cases has totally disappeared. We have less profit/income now that ever before.

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Anti-Agriculture? There is no Anti-Agriculture it's anti-subsidies for things like ethonal from corn or for price supports for growing cotton, tobacco, sugar etc.

It's a catch-22, grain prices go up ... farmers make more money but the cost impacts staples like meat, eggs, milk etc.

As long as there is a growing middle class in China and India, 2.5 billion people

, they will consume more meat, pork and poultry which drives the price of grain which makes American grain farmers happy.

Just another example of someone who doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to agriculture.

When the price of grain goes up the input costs follow it right up....then the prices for grain go back down, but the input costs basically stay the same. Each year our profit margin gets slimmer and slimmer and in some cases has totally disappeared. We have less profit/income now that ever before.

What don't I know?
Just the other day an agreement with Russia was announced allowing shipping chicken to resume after it was stopped for health reasons. What do you think will happen to the price of chicken?

The price of oil is expected to continue rising because 2.5 billion middle class people

in China and India are buying more cars which will impact farmers who buy fertilizer, fuel and other petroleum based products.

Yep your correct, farmers don't have a whole lot of control over grain prices because grain is a commodity traded like oil, gold, silver, pork bellies, cattle etc.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Pork bellies?

 

[MakNugget]

Quote:
Mmmm, pork bellies!

If there is anything better than bacon, it's bacon before it becomes bacon.

 

[Miss Lydia]

 

[Talihofarms]

To answer the OP question on feeding, what I would assume is a hobby flock.

I would suggest is to make friends with a farmer.
Ask a few questions, most of them are more than willing to help.
In regard to your question ,,," affordability with feed cost."

..............................If you are buying it by the bag, you are paying a premium price..........................

I would suggest purchasing bulk.
Splitting the cost with a few others on a bulk purchase.
You can use regular garbage cans with lids for containers.
Use any pasture land to your advantage.
Garden scraps,
Sprouts etc......

We have been able to progressed to a point where we grind our own mix. Purely for economic reasons.
The initial investment stung, but the alternative wasn't in our business plan.
We are an Organic operation, the feed mills in are area are delitional on what they want for organic feed.

What I can say is, that if you are not buying bulk, you will pay 2-3 times more.
We sell our mix to a few local hobby farmers. I won't list the price per lb.
But it is much less than you would find for regular 16% layer.
Having said that, I would never sell commercial bulk. 1 ton or more .
Don't want to have the competitors buying my mix.
We just like to help out the Hobby folks.


just my .02

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
How many chicken do you have?

 

[Paganrose]

Quote:
If that is truely a list of your costs someone made a big goof on what they charged you. The corn price is the only one that even is in the ball park on grain prices in my area.

These prices were broken down to a monthly cost.
I do pay about an extra dollar now for the corn, but I also buy milk from him too, so he offers it to me for cost, since what his cows waste in a few days, is a month worth of corn for my birds, plus I gave him a few of my extra hens I had last fall. The soy I get directly from an amish farmer, and it is 15$ for a 50lbs bag which lasts 3 months, A 50# bag of sunflowers at the co-op is 9$ lasts three months. A 50# bag of oats is about 6.50$ and 50# of barley costs about 3.75$ at the co-op. I use two each a month. Plus I feed lots of garden/kitchen scraps and I free range. I do seem to be going through lots of oyster shell now that my girls are laying more, so the cost of that has gone up a bit. It helps that I live in a big farming area. I could get a premixed chicken feed at the co-op for 10$ for a 50# bag, Organic 50# bag for 20$. I would love to feed my birds organic, but it is to expensive to go through almost 6 50# bags a feed a month. I could get organic grains at the co-op, but the price is to much, So I mix my own.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
If that is truely a list of your costs someone made a big goof on what they charged you. The corn price is the only one that even is in the ball park on grain prices in my area.

These prices were broken down to a monthly cost.
I do pay about an extra dollar now for the corn, but I also buy milk from him too, so he offers it to me for cost, since what his cows waste in a few days, is a month worth of corn for my birds, plus I gave him a few of my extra hens I had last fall. The soy I get directly from an amish farmer, and it is 15$ for a 50lbs bag which lasts 3 months, A 50# bag of sunflowers at the co-op is 9$ lasts three months. A 50# bag of oats is about 6.50$ and 50# of barley costs about 3.75$ at the co-op. I use two each a month. Plus I feed lots of garden/kitchen scraps and I free range. I do seem to be going through lots of oyster shell now that my girls are laying more, so the cost of that has gone up a bit. It helps that I live in a big farming area. I could get a premixed chicken feed at the co-op for 10$ for a 50# bag, Organic 50# bag for 20$. I would love to feed my birds organic, but it is to expensive to go through almost 6 50# bags a feed a month. I could get organic grains at the co-op, but the price is to much, So I mix my own.

The way you had it posted made it seem....at least to me.......the prices you had listed and the amounts in parenthesis were one in the same. So in reality the dollar amount would be times 3? How many hens do you have?

I also live in the midst of a rural farming area (I'm one of those farmers) so I know that I can get grains a lot cheaper than other folks might be able to. Until recently I was also able to get feed from my coop for about $9.50 per bag, but now that grains are going up in price so is the price per bag. I'm not able to free-range any more due to my dogs and keeping my breeding flocks seperate.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Just another example of someone who doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to agriculture.

When the price of grain goes up the input costs follow it right up....then the prices for grain go back down, but the input costs basically stay the same. Each year our profit margin gets slimmer and slimmer and in some cases has totally disappeared. We have less profit/income now that ever before.

What don't I know?
Just the other day an agreement with Russia was announced allowing shipping chicken to resume after it was stopped for health reasons. What do you think will happen to the price of chicken?

The price of oil is expected to continue rising because 2.5 billion middle class people

in China and India are buying more cars which will impact farmers who buy fertilizer, fuel and other petroleum based products.

Yep your correct, farmers don't have a whole lot of control over grain prices because grain is a commodity traded like oil, gold, silver, pork bellies, cattle etc.

What don't you know? About farm subsidies for one......The fact that you think because grain prices go up we farmers automatically make more money....wish it were true, but it's not.

I'd be interested in knowing about your first hand knowledge of farming.......