So I had a thought. Lots of people are blaming feed for a lack of laying. Feeds have gauranteed nutritional labels - feeds that don't match the label get recalled. We've watched, during the pandemic, as a number of feeds have changed their ingredient lists to be somewhat less specific in their ingredients. Some of the major feed ingredients, between the Pandemic, the War in Ukraine, some weather factors, gotr very expensive these last couple years.
What if the nutrition of some major feeds did decline, AND THEY TOLD US. Wait, what?
I know for a fact that the nutritional value of my local mill feed has declined, even though the Crude Protein, the Fat, and the Fiber numbers haven't changed. All I have to do is compare the new label with the old, and look at the Methionine and Lysine levels. My local mill is providing the same amount of Crude Protein, but the amino acid profile has changed - it says so right there on the tag (if you have an old tag to compare it with) - with the aminos obtained from some of the more expensive ingredients are now guaranteed to be present in smaller amounts. SO I got to wondering, how would I check to see if others did that - I don't have old labels from lots of feeds I don't use, and when I talk about a feed on BYC, I link it - so any changes to the feed label disappear into the dustbin of history when they update their web page, leaving nary a trace.
THEN I REMEMBERED!!! Waaahaaahaaahaha! @Kiki to the rescue, and Kiki's feed spreadsheet - historical numbers from whenever the label was entered!
Lets do a few together, shall we? We can do science together, testing a hypothesis...
What if the nutrition of some major feeds did decline, AND THEY TOLD US. Wait, what?
I know for a fact that the nutritional value of my local mill feed has declined, even though the Crude Protein, the Fat, and the Fiber numbers haven't changed. All I have to do is compare the new label with the old, and look at the Methionine and Lysine levels. My local mill is providing the same amount of Crude Protein, but the amino acid profile has changed - it says so right there on the tag (if you have an old tag to compare it with) - with the aminos obtained from some of the more expensive ingredients are now guaranteed to be present in smaller amounts. SO I got to wondering, how would I check to see if others did that - I don't have old labels from lots of feeds I don't use, and when I talk about a feed on BYC, I link it - so any changes to the feed label disappear into the dustbin of history when they update their web page, leaving nary a trace.
THEN I REMEMBERED!!! Waaahaaahaaahaha! @Kiki to the rescue, and Kiki's feed spreadsheet - historical numbers from whenever the label was entered!
Lets do a few together, shall we? We can do science together, testing a hypothesis...
