fermented feed for turkeys

[BlueMouse]

the actual fermentation can be done with any feed, it sort of "pre digests" the food so that nutrients are more readily available to the animals. It also provides them with essential bacteria for their guts so they can more effectively digest whatever they do eat. It SIGNIFICANTLY cuts down on smell/runny poops, and they seem to eat much less. I ferment for chickens, guineas, and now my brand new turkey poults. It takes a little time to get the system moving, but once you have it in place, not significantly more time to dish out feed and put it down. It reduces waste greatly, because it's fed wet, so no scratching it about. I use whole grains for my layers, the same feed ground for my cornish X and bought game bird feed (crumbles) for the turkeys and guineas, since they need a higher protien ratio. There's an excellent thread on it here https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds It's ridiculously long, but reading the first few pages will give you an idea. For the cliff notes there's a fabulous article here http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html that goes in depth about the benefits and process.

 

[retlaw]

There is a difference in fermentation of feed and malted grain.

Fermenting speeds up the digestion by already being party digested.
Just like dry aging meat. the enzymes start to break down the tissues making it easier to digest and process while taking less energy to do so. Less energy required equals less energy consumption.

Malted grains use the energy of the seed germination when it is at its highest point of distribution of its energy to guide the seed from germination to plant-let.
The grow cycle is stopped when the seed germination is at max energy production so the energy can be caught or trapped and suspended in the spent kernel.

Both are different. But both create similar results.

It would be interesting to see which one transfer energy the most efficient.

 

[TurnipTruck]

Generally hate to resurrect Zombie threads, but....

Does anyone have an idea about how much FF 15-20 pound turkey might be expected to eat on a daily basis?

Also, is fermented feed something that is fed daily or is it fed on a rotating basis with dry food?

Thanks for any useful insight you folks may be able to provide.

 

[hyelaw]

Generally hate to resurrect Zombie threads, but....

Does anyone have an idea about how much FF 15-20 pound turkey might be expected to eat on a daily basis?

Also, is fermented feed something that is fed daily or is it fed on a rotating basis with dry food?

Thanks for any useful insight you folks may be able to provide.

resurrecting your post... I don't know how much FF a 15-20 pound turkey would go through, but it would be less than they eat if it's dry.

But yes, you can feed the FF daily. You could switch to all out FF, but I still give mine both, which is probably bad because mine are not for meat, they are just spoiled rotten and love a smorgasbord!

 

[TurnipTruck]

My 3 turkeys go through about a 5 gallon bucket of FF a week with help from my 30 laying hens. I also give them crumbles free choice.

 

[stbrigid]

Fermented Feed for Pastured Turkeys
We are running 25 turkeys on pasture in Polyface-Style 10x12x2 pens.
17 Broad-breasted whites, 8 Bourbon Reds.
This is our first year and have not dressed them out yet.
They are 10 weeks old.
Used a feed chart from Avian Aqua Miser for chicks as a baseline. At the time I could not find a feed chart for turkeys, so I used this chart and my turkeys (we raised them with 75 Black Australorps for mentors) became "chick-equivalents." We weighed turkeys and chicks for the first four weeks to determine the "equivalents" for each week's feed ration.
Also the first time doing fermented feed from Day 1 of receiving chicks.
We use a Non-Gmo starter (21%) from a local milling company. 50 lbs costs $16.50 = $0.33 per pound
I have found that the weight of the finished mash (2-day ferment) is triple the dry weight. They drink less water, too.
I finally found a Turkey Feed Table from Turkey Management by Marsden and Martin that seems to correlate to other Turkey feed charts from milling companies, etc.
I have calculated that I am using 80% less dry feed fermenting it than if I had fed it just dry to these turkeys. I recalculated because it seemed a little odd, but at 10 weeks my turkeys are consuming 0.66 # of dry feed per bird each day. The Turkey feed chart recommends 3.54 # of dry feed per day per bird.
They currently get 13# in the morning (when we move them) in a 6 inch by 5 foot PVC hanging feeder.
We check on them at 3:00 pm to see if they are out of feed, and if they are, we give them an additional 3.5#.
We check one more time at 6:00 pm when we button them up for the night (raccoon issues) and they usually still have a bit left. If they do not, we do not feed them any more as their crops are always very full and I have read that they can get leg problems and heart issues if they are overfed (at night) - especially the "racecar breeds" like the cornish crosses and the broad-breasted whites.
It only takes us 5 minutes a day to weigh and add fermented water to the dry feed.

 

[gvwjbern]

Thanks for the info. I am new to raising chickens and turkeys. Currently I have 30 chickens and 4 royal palm turkeys. Even with free ranging them 3 of the 7 days (I don't live on my farm), they still go through more feed than I expected--a bag of 50# feed might last a little over a week. Next year, I plan on being on the farm more, expand my both my chicken and turkey flocks and reduce the cost of feed. Fermenting and growing my own food seems to be the answer.

 

[Venumfire]

Fermenting and sprouting should NEVER smell bad. If it smells bad, you probably have mold. Feed pellets are designed to feed dry. If you soak them in water to ferment, it will turn to mush and then mold. If you want to Ferment, sprout, or Fodder, I highly recommend the following feed. It has the best organic variety of whole grains and seeds. They have an ecellent sprout ratio
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Organic-Chi...463011?hash=item1ebf5b7d63:g:AxYAAOSwnHZYc6wT

 

[NickyPick]

Fermented Feed for Pastured Turkeys
We are running 25 turkeys on pasture in Polyface-Style 10x12x2 pens.
17 Broad-breasted whites, 8 Bourbon Reds.
This is our first year and have not dressed them out yet.
They are 10 weeks old.
Used a feed chart from Avian Aqua Miser for chicks as a baseline. At the time I could not find a feed chart for turkeys, so I used this chart and my turkeys (we raised them with 75 Black Australorps for mentors) became "chick-equivalents." We weighed turkeys and chicks for the first four weeks to determine the "equivalents" for each week's feed ration.
Also the first time doing fermented feed from Day 1 of receiving chicks.
We use a Non-Gmo starter (21%) from a local milling company. 50 lbs costs $16.50 = $0.33 per pound
I have found that the weight of the finished mash (2-day ferment) is triple the dry weight. They drink less water, too.
I finally found a Turkey Feed Table from Turkey Management by Marsden and Martin that seems to correlate to other Turkey feed charts from milling companies, etc.
I have calculated that I am using 80% less dry feed fermenting it than if I had fed it just dry to these turkeys. I recalculated because it seemed a little odd, but at 10 weeks my turkeys are consuming 0.66 # of dry feed per bird each day. The Turkey feed chart recommends 3.54 # of dry feed per day per bird.
They currently get 13# in the morning (when we move them) in a 6 inch by 5 foot PVC hanging feeder.
We check on them at 3:00 pm to see if they are out of feed, and if they are, we give them an additional 3.5#.
We check one more time at 6:00 pm when we button them up for the night (raccoon issues) and they usually still have a bit left. If they do not, we do not feed them any more as their crops are always very full and I have read that they can get leg problems and heart issues if they are overfed (at night) - especially the "racecar breeds" like the cornish crosses and the broad-breasted whites.
It only takes us 5 minutes a day to weigh and add fermented water to the dry feed.

So, to resurrect this thread again, do you ferment the pelleted feed? I tried that with the chickens when I first started FF about 4 years ago. It was very heavy and hard to drain much. I switched to a homemade mixture of grains/seed/catfish pellets, but I'm not sure I can get the protein level up high enough for the turkeys with this mixture. I'd really like to do FF with the turkeys, though, for the lack of poop smell alone. My poults are just 4 weeks old, but the difference in the smell of the nursery coop vs. the regular chicken coop is pretty dramatic.

 

[Molpet]

So, to resurrect this thread again, do you ferment the pelleted feed? I tried that with the chickens when I first started FF about 4 years ago. It was very heavy and hard to drain much. I switched to a homemade mixture of grains/seed/catfish pellets, but I'm not sure I can get the protein level up high enough for the turkeys with this mixture. I'd really like to do FF with the turkeys, though, for the lack of poop smell alone. My poults are just 4 weeks old, but the difference in the smell of the nursery coop vs. the regular chicken coop is pretty dramatic.

I have fermented the pellets, on the dry side though.. no extra water in the ff when it has soaked it all up.. I use this method https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/