feed and pasture

mrsHinWI

In the Brooder
May 14, 2015
20
0
24
If I wanted to feed my 50ish red rangers an all grain/seed diet (say a corn, barley, oat, wheat and sunflower mix- maybe sprouted or fermented- which is a protein i think around 15%), without another source of protein like fish meal, how much pasture or foraging area would we need? Is that even possible to do and get good sized birds?

Or should i also have fish meal in my feed until they are 7 weeks or so when the protein drops in a lot of rations?
 
How bout bean meal?....

The protein is higher than fish meal and you wouldn't run the risk of off flavoring by using fish meal.

Just a thought


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I am "trying" to raise soy minimized (preferable soy free). I unfortunately have to feed a soybean meal containing organic chick starter because I don't have time to wait for anything else yo be shipped to me and i don't have time for to make one :(

So chickens don't prefer fish meal? Interesting! Thanks!
 
There is no reason to start a broiler on chick starter. You can go straight to broiler rations or whatever you will feed if you're ready. You don't need fish meal, but you really do need to consider adding something like Brewers yeast, kelp, probiotic... There are other nutritional needs besides protein and dry matter. Flax is popular too for omega 3s you can sprout it if it hasn't been toasted/cooked for more bang for your buck (and supposedly more easy to digest nutrients.) also we are feeding the same ration through the end, that is what all of the pasture farmers we know do, and the locally milled ration we get only comes in "broiler" or "egg layer" :lau or as my husband says "pink or purple" (they receive a small mark on an otherwise white bag...) but no, really, the broiler rations from the store say birth to death or whatever pretty picture they paint with words.

That said, we keep our 50 RRs in a 100sq ft pen that we move twice a day. They are almost finished growing and I would say we've used 10,000 sq ft however the forage has grown back enough that we could have used half as much going over it twice. I think that is about 1/4 of an acre.
You can plant clover for a great protein too.

Sorry for typos...on phone.
 
Good to know about the space! That seems do-able.

I don't have a source for soybean-free organic broiler ration...so i was trying to formulate my own. I have a trial version of an animal nutrition software and I've been tinkering about with locally available organic feedstuffs to meet the 1994 NRC broiler standards. However, my experience leaves gaps about the practical concerns, like when can birds eat something like a whole oat or wheat or barley or sunflower (2 weeks, or 3 or ?)? Do they actually eat fish meal? What about if i ferment a whole grain/boss mix and then add fishmeal and vitamins/minerals- will they eat that? What percentage of their intake will they forage? So many questions!!! Ahhh!

I appreciate every response, i am trying to soak it all in and apply it as quickly as i can! Thanks everybody :)
 
We don't tinker much, because I trust the ration we buy (really, the family we buy from), although it is not organic (it is non-gmo). So I don't know much about making your own ration. Ours does have fish meal in it, and they eat the snot out of it. They will forage as much as they have to, we feed quite a bit because our pasture didn't come in like I had hoped after planting it. But the RRs are great at foraging, as long as they have it available (hence why we move twice a day) they will go to town on seeds and grass and bugs. We let them free range for about a week (they were TOO curious and trying to walk 1/4 a mile and come into the house!), they went back in the tractor every night on their own and they would go pretty far in small groups digging about, with the right pasture they could definitely find everything they need to eat on their own.
 

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