Effects of feeding corn to chickens?

[greathorse]

There can be a long and interesting debate on the merits of the ag system we have today. I will begin by saying I have spent nearly 30 years working in the natural and organic food industry for one of the very well known retailers. I think it is a beautiful thing that we have options today about which style of food we can spend our hard earned money on.

One of the common beleifs in our industry is that all of conventional ag systems are bad, greedy, wrong and the list goes on and on. I spent my career doing everything in my power to see that the truth is spoken on both sides. I cant stand it when someones ill informed opinion makes a blanket statement about the ills of the organic and natural products. I am equally offended when the truth is not used on the other side of the coin. There is not a right or wrong here there are simply choices.

I frankly beleive that Round Up ready corn may be in the long run a bad thing, I avoid consuming it when I can. On the other hand I have no right nor desire to foist my opinion on others. I am proud of the career I have spent offering a choice and I am proud of the fact that in every case possible I spoke the truth as I understood it.

I have chastised many in our industry when the spoke of the horrific conditions on most American Farms. In general it simply is not true. Our farmers no matter which end of the spectrum they operate are the best in the world.

I do worry about having virtually all of the seed genetics in the hands of so few, I don't know the long term problem with that, but it does worry me

I think farmers like Joel Salatin have a place in the market, I dont think he is the Messiah so to speak. I think that Michael Pollen is a great writer and a decent researcher, he is not a food scientist and has the ability ask questions but not sure he as the information required to provide a lot of answers.

I like this thread.

 

[seedcorn]

Quote:
Also appreciate this thread as no name calling, just honest discussion. I also have 30+ years in "commercial ag". SOOOOOOOOO
1) Don't hear about the "ills" of organic just the hypocrosies involved.
2) no problem w/not liking GMO corn and not using it.
3) All of us have this problem as the "genetic side of Ag" is so expensive, that only the $$ boys can do it.
4) Food becomes expensive, people complain and government steps in. Why didn't this happen when housing went up, utilities, petroleum products, etc but yet Ag is not allowed to make $$$. Sorry you didn't mention this, just a small rant on my part..........

5) Don't mind anyone asking ?'s but to print what they think and pass it off as scientific when it's just opinions.....sorry, I have no patience for that. Yes, my kids tell me I need to develop more patience.

 

[kick'n chick'n]

boy did this post ever get way off topic! the op wanted to know the "effects of corn fed to chickens" not how corn is grown now a days.

feed corn if ya want or don't its your choice. there is "old timers" around here that don't feed any kind of layer pellet & have eggs all year long. the color effects on white chickens i have not personally experienced so i don't know. have a good day all, this is just my opinion.

 

[greathorse]

Seedcorn I just have one point to take a bit further. Yes there are hypocrocies in the organic industry, on the other hand I am sure you know that it is also quite regulated and taken seriously in the market place. In many cases (not all) hypocrocies are declared by someone's very ill informed version of what the industry really is or how a crop is certified.

A person recently posted on this forum that one can legally label a crop organic if it is one tenth of one percent organically produced. There is a lot of misunderstanding on this side just as there is on the other.

I dont think the ag industry at large is as plagued with hypocrocy as it is with ill informed zealots espousing opinion without fact. I like you have no patience for that

 

[greathorse]

kick'n chick'n :

boy did this post ever get way off topic! the op wanted to know the "effects of corn fed to chickens" not how corn is grown now a days.

feed corn if ya want or don't its your choice. there is "old timers" around here that don't feed any kind of layer pellet & have eggs all year long. the color effects on white chickens i have not personally experienced so i don't know. have a good day all, this is just my opinion.

yes and from there it went to whether or not all corn is created equal. Not sure why it is a big deal if a topic gets a bit more detailed than a person's first question. If you havent learned anything from this thread you werent paying attention​

 

[Keri78]

Ok...since we're deep into this discussion. I just wanted to add that if anyone has Netflix you can watch free documentaries and they are thought provoking and very well done. Although you do have to use common sense and "chew up the meat and spit out the bones" so to speak overall I would highly recommend everyone watching them. We just finished watching "King Corn" and "Food Inc"...AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME insight into what the Government(not neccesarily "Big Evil Corporations" but Our US Government is doing to to our food!!! Tonight I am clearly drawing a line in the sand and no longer going to feed corn to my chickens! They will eat grass and weeds and bugs and I will do some diligent research to find what is most natural for them to eat. Of course it goes without saying that I'm also drawing the same line in the sand when it comes to our family's food. Hope this inspires someone to watch these and make a huge change for the better. If we all make little changes in the way that we consume farm products it will naturally force the Big Changes to happen. Ok...Blessings, Keri

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
Please explain this to me. It's not accurate but yet from their view point it is??? It's either an accurate statement or it's a statement built on false facts, which makes it inaccurate.

Fact is you can eat field corn but most don't so its used to make other things. They also tasted there corn after they grew it an said they thought it was not eatable. So there opinion is just as valid as mine. I think it is they think it is not. An farmers are not able to compete an live off the corn that they are growing. If ya need it explained better then rent the video an see what the whole town of corn farmers say about it.

 

[chookchick]

I for one, have no problem with a thread that goes off topic....

As long as the OP feels that he has an answer to his question, and I am sure in this case he long ago fell asleep or gave up....

The point of the Pollan quote is that not very many would consider field corn edible. A farmer can't take it down the road and sell it at a stand. It is processed to make many of the corn products that are so ubiquitous in our foods these days. But the farmer is not making all the money off of distributing and processing it. Yes, I do believe that american farmers should be allowed to make money.

 

[seedcorn]

Quote:
Agree w/this. Most people have NO idea where there food is or what it is. I like to watch food network, they love to call it polenta, when it's nothing but ground field corn. Sell it as polenta is sells for $5+/lb. As field corn it sells for $3.50 for 56 lbs. Most corn is made into feed which becomes meat, eggs, or milk. We let the animals process it.

Feed straight corn to chickens (original ?), you get fatter, lazier animals which will have a nutrient deficiency. If you supplement their diet w/proteins, minerals, etc, corn is an excellent source of energy. Different types, growing conditions, and the supplements to corn diet will change.

 

[jhm47]

RR corn is (in my opinion) one of the greatest things ever developed by a seed company. It ranks right up there with the hybrid corn revolution. Compared to the "old" herbicides that we used to use, Roundup is far safer, works better, and is cheaper. Some of the old chemicals we used to use (Atrazine, Eradicane, Sutan, Banvel, etc.) were nasty, highly toxic things that you could smell for days after application. They were much more persistent in the water supply, and in my opinion, they contributed to the high cancer rates that you see in older farmers today. Believe me, you cannot begin to raise a profitable corn crop today without using herbicides. This is primarily due to the broader weed spectrum of today. 40 years ago, we had a handful of grasses, and a few broadleaf weeds that we could easily cultivate out and do a fair job of controlling them. Today, due to easier transportation, we have weeds from all over the USA, and dozens of other countries. These weeds are much more aggressive and harder to control than the old species. For example, fire ants, killer Aficanized bees, zebra mussels, Asian carp, pythons in Florida, and hundreds of other animal species are spreading throughout our country basically unchecked. Weeds are spreading in similar ways. In my opinion, Roundup is not perfect. In a perfect world, there would be no weeds, but this isn't a perfect world, and we need to use whatever tools we can to produce food for our growing global population. So---love it or hate it, Roundup is here to stay. If you prefer to avoid it---fine. Nuff said on this.

As to feeding corn to chickens, it has worked for me for over 55 years. I'll keep doing it. And---it does turn white chickens feathers a brassy color. If showing white chickens is important to you, feed either white corn or wheat. Wheat has a slightly better amino acid profile than corn. Personally, I've never liked feeding BOSS to my birds. It's far too high in fat, and they also don't like it very well. You can force them to eat it, but only as a last resort.

Now, let's all get into a big debate on the merits of Bt corn. Bet that one will get some responses!