FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[subhanalah]

I think I my new custom feed mill and I have worked out the various details of our recipe, and I think I may be ordering our first ton of feed today! I'm so excited ... it has taken forever to do all the research and make the right contacts, etc. You'd think it would be easy, but there is a lot of weirdness out there in the livestock feed industry. 

How long will it take you to go through a ton?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I hate to burst bubbles but IMHO, one will never save money by making their own feed unless they have at least 100 chickens - better yet, thousands.. The economy of scale works against us.
You may be able to get a more nutritious blend but it may cost double or more what you're paying now.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I hate to burst bubbles but IMHO, one will never save money by making their own feed unless they have at least 100 chickens - better yet, thousands.. The economy of scale works against us.
You may be able to get a more nutritious blend but it may cost double or more what you're paying now.

This is a custom blend from a feed mill. It is less per 50# bag than the popular brand name boutique feeds, but more than the big brand mystery feeds. And it is what my customers want ... locally grown ingredients, no GMOs, no corn, no soy.

I'm not doing it to save money ... not exactly. I'm doing it because I want my birds to be healthy.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

No GMO, not prohibitively expensive, all good.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

How long will it take you to go through a ton?

If you are feeding 1 chicken, one ton of chicken feed should last for 8,000 days or almost 22 years.

2,000 pounds per ton multiplied by 16 ounces per pound = 32,000 ounces.

4 ounces is a chickens' daily required food consumption, so 4 ounces will go into 32,000 ounces 8,000 times.

Therefor 2,000 pounds (one ton) will feed 1 chicken for 8,000 days or 21.902 years +/- a hour or two.

 

[Tikkijane]

Bee- what temp did your SCOBY go dormant at again? Someone wants to put theirs outside at 38 degrees....

 

[Beekissed]

Bee- what temp did your SCOBY go dormant at again? Someone wants to put theirs outside at 38 degrees....

Yep...that would do it. It was long about the 30s-40s when mine stopped being so active.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

During the winter, I keep my back porch about 50 because I put my limes and bougainvillea out there as well as the FF. I'd feed and then rush the bucket back to the porch. If I forgot and left it out, it was a problem.

 

[LindaB220]

I bought a 50# bag of whole oats. The triple washed kind for racehorses. I was going to sprout them in add to ff. What a wretched experiment that was. They won't touch them even after soaking 48 hr and fermenting. I bought a hand crank grinder. Will grinding them up and adding to ff work? Or grind and throw out like scratch? Same thing with whole corn. Won't eat them whole so I guess I'll be agrinding.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I bought a 50# bag of whole oats. The triple washed kind for racehorses. I was going to sprout them in add to ff. What a wretched experiment that was. They won't touch them even after soaking 48 hr and fermenting. I bought a hand crank grinder. Will grinding them up and adding to ff work? Or grind and throw out like scratch? Same thing with whole corn. Won't eat them whole so I guess I'll be agrinding.

Chickens are pretty attracted to a food particle that looks like cracked corn ... so I'd think putting them through the mill would make the grains more attractive.

I have also been thinking about how it would be a double-bonus to the nutrition to sprout (or at least soak) and then grind and then ferment all the grains, seeds and legumes in the poultry feed. But that's asking a lot from me. The big-girl-pants-wearing me inside me has dreams of buying all whole grains for everything, even human food, sprouting them, dehydrating them, milling them ... yeah right.

One, but just one of the things we're doing with fermentation is reducing the anti-nutrients in the ingredients (grains, seeds, legumes, and possibly nuts). This article ... http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/09/reducing-phytic-acid-in-grains-and-legumes.html ... has a lot of scientific, historical, multi-cultural & easy-to-read information about this particular benefit of fermentation.

One of the interesting things about that article is it discusses how some grains (rye and wheat) have lots of phytase (the enzyme that breaks down one particular anti-nutrient called phytate) and other grains (oats and corn) have not as much phytase but still have plenty of phytate (the anti-nutrient). So ... using something like freshly ground rye in your batch of ferment can really help the anti-nutrient reducing process reach maximum benefits.

But ... using sprouted flours is even more efficient. Here is a quote:

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High Phytase Grain added to Low Phytase Grain: Adding a high phytase flour, such as buckwheat, rye or wheat to a low phytase flour or grain such as oats, rice, millet, and corn, can help break down the phytic acid. Think of cornbread with corn and wheat flour. That’s a pretty classic combination and if you soak the corn and wheat flour together you will be able to more effectively reduce the phytic acid in the corn. You should also do this if you roast grains (the roasting adds flavor as well as reducing phytic acid), since the phyase will be deactivated through the roasting process.

Using Sprouted Flour: Even more effective would be adding sprouted flour as the phytase is already active and ready to do business! From the few studies that I read who used this method, it seems that it could be quite helpful in reducing phytic acid. We can make our own and simply grind it as needed. If you don’t have your own grain grinder you can just buy a cheap coffee grinder and grind enough to add to your projects. The one study that we read about up above used only 5 to 10% sprouted flour, so it doesn’t have to be a high percentage.

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Note the advice in this article to grind the grains to help extract the proper nutrients and assist with the fermentation process. I think whole grains & legumes look great, and I do use them as treats, but for the feed I believe "processed" grains are better for the birds.