Grow my own feed?

[NatJ]

Can a balanced diet for my chickens be obtained by plant materials alone?

Yes, but the details can get complicated.

https://www.fertrell.com/livestock-rations
This page has recipes for feed, that use some supplements sold by the company plus larger quantities of things you could probably grow.
For the poultry, they are including fish meal in all recipes except the "layer" ration.

I have 320 acres of winter wheat in the ground right now and will be planting that back after harvest with milo. I also own 160 acres that is sitting idle at the moment. I own the machinery to farm most grains, including corn and am already producing cracked corn. My neighbor processes my cattle feed next door.

That is very different than I thought.
You asked about "garden" crops, so I assumed a small plot full of things like lettuce and tomatoes.
Actual fields of grain mean you probably can produce at least most of what the chickens would need.

I just want to know if there are plant based proteins I can use to make a balanced diet for my chickens. Soy beans come to mind and I already have the equipment to grow and harvest them.

Soybeans and other legumes are the usual choices.
Even grains have some protein, but they don't have the right blend of amino acids. The legumes (including soybeans) usually have the right amino acids to complement the grains.

If so, does anybody have a good recipe using plants alone?

Never mind ..... I found a recipe using soy beans and split peas for protein. Now to
figure out how to grow the peas.

I was just going to say that I don't know where to look, so I'm glad you found one!

 

[Blackjesus]

What are some garden plants I can grow to feed my chickens without buying feed? I am looking for a balanced diet.

I am planning to make alfalfa pullet by mixing alfalfa with corn and pullet grower

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Guys, thank you for your answers but my question remains largely unanswered although a couple came close.

Please let me rephrase it: Can a balanced diet for my chickens be obtained by plant materials alone?

I have 320 acres of winter wheat in the ground right now and will be planting that back after harvest with milo. I also own 160 acres that is sitting idle at the moment. I own the machinery to farm most grains, including corn and am already producing cracked corn. My neighbor processes my cattle feed next door.

I just want to know if there are plant based proteins I can use to make a balanced diet for my chickens. Soy beans come to mind and I already have the equipment to grow and harvest them.

If so, does anybody have a good recipe using plants alone?

Thank you if you can help.

Since I came close, I'll take this one on. You are in the rare position of having the acres, and the machinery.

Answer is STILL no.

Modern science has determined that chickens do best NOT with a particular protein level, but rather a particular amino acid balance (for which protein level stands in). Unfortunately, there are no good plant sources of Methionine, which also happens to be the first and most critical amino acid. Miss on this, and the birds can't use the rest of what they are provided efficiently - some of what they consume in other AAs will be wasted.

Soy - assuming you can heat treat and dry it to counter some of its antinutritive properties, comes closest in terms of regularly farmed commercial crops. It still doesn't get there. Modern feed companies add synthetic methionine (dl-Methionine) and often synthetic Lysine (l-Lysine), the second most important limiting amino acid, to partially compensate for the lack of plant sources for those AAs. They are so critical, they are allowed in "Organic"-certified feeds.

If you are willing and able to grow and store your crops (and it sounds like you are) *AND* you are willing to buy a source of synthetic AAs, then yes, you probably are the rare "BYCer" who can do what the commercial mills do - make your own. Whether you can do it cost effectively or not, I can't answer.

Here's your best commercial source of those AAs.

and here is the guaranteed nutrition label for that additive.

I do NOT have an all plant recipe, mill style recipe, with or w/o nutribalancer for feeding chickens, but I do have a calculator. Would need the assays from your crops, and your target numbers, could do some monkeying around, try and get you in the ballfield at least.

/edit be VERY careful about combining large quantities of soy and split peas - both have similar anti-nutritive properties, which in combination may overwhelm your capacity to compensate for with additional enzymes, heat treatments, and the like.

 

[MildlyOffensiveChicken]

Since I came close, I'll take this one on. You are in the rare position of having the acres, and the machinery.

Answer is STILL no.

Modern science has determined that chickens do best NOT with a particular protein level, but rather a particular amino acid balance (for which protein level stands in). Unfortunately, there are no good plant sources of Methionine, which also happens to be the first and most critical amino acid. Miss on this, and the birds can't use the rest of what they are provided efficiently - some of what they consume in other AAs will be wasted.

Soy - assuming you can heat treat and dry it to counter some of its antinutritive properties, comes closest in terms of regularly farmed commercial crops. It still doesn't get there. Modern feed companies add synthetic methionine (dl-Methionine) and often synthetic Lysine (l-Lysine), the second most important limiting amino acid, to partially compensate for the lack of plant sources for those AAs. They are so critical, they are allowed in "Organic"-certified feeds.

If you are willing and able to grow and store your crops (and it sounds like you are) *AND* you are willing to buy a source of synthetic AAs, then yes, you probably are the rare "BYCer" who can do what the commercial mills do - make your own. Whether you can do it cost effectively or not, I can't answer.

Here's your best commercial source of those AAs.

and here is the guaranteed nutrition label for that additive.

Corn and oats and even cauliflower have 1/2-2/3s the methionine of various meats.

Is it the inability of the chicken to make it available through the digestion process? Or is that missing methionine too great of deficit.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

OK, throwing some numbers around, and making some HUGE assumptions.

If your crops assay out at [Protein, Fiber, Fat], all dried to about 90% dry matter:

Corn/Maize	9.5	2.5	4.3
Fertrell Nutri-Balancer	0	0	0
Sorghum (milo)	10.8	2.8	3.4
Soybean (Meal) "type 44-46"	49.5	7.2	1.9
Wheat (Hard/Durum)	16.5	3	2

Then, by parts:
35 Corn
03 Nutribalancer
15 Sorgum
17 Soybean Meal
30 Wheat
============
100%

will put you in a good place - about 16.5% Protein, 3% fiber, and 2.75% fat +/-.
Methionine, Lysine, Threonine, and Tryptophan all in the typical range of recommends for most poultry at most life stages.

Obviously, the assays from your own crops would change these numbers, and if there are some crops you can produce more cheaply than others, and want to adjust accordingly, you have a starting point. I have the (avg/representative) AA ratios for ewach of those ingredients in my calculator, so just knowing your actual protein levels for those crops, its pretty easy to run a new recipe.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Corn and oats and even cauliflower have 1/2-2/3s the methionine of various meats.

I'm sorry, what???

On what basis of comparison???? If you mean the ratio of Met to some other AA is half of what is found in "meat", you've still missed the fact that, lb per lb, meat has a lot more protein than corn, oats, or cauliflower - and to reach the needed levels for a chickens diet, they'd need to double their feed intake (or more, ins ome cases).

The usual recommends for an adult chicken in terms of Met requirement is about 3.5mg/g (upwards of 6.0mg/g for high yeild broilers and hatchling layers in their first weeks of life). This is based on an average daily consumption of about 100g/hen with a dietary energy level between about 12and 13.5 MJ/kg.

Here is a source (veracity unknown) for cauliflower.
Remember, we want a diet that is 0.35% (or higher) Methionine, and 0.7% or higher Lysine. So 100g of feed needs to contain 0.35g of Met, 0.7g of Lysine. Rewritten as mg, that's 350 mg and 700 mg, respectively.

Swing and a miss...

/edited extensively. Sources are all over the board on AA levels of cauliflower, and my usual source (Feedipedia.org) doesn't list it. Many sources, I suspect, are reporting levels either with the cauliflower devoid of moisture, or in g/16 g N (essentially, grams per 100 grams of Protein), which makes their AA levels look much higher than reality, due to caulflowers low protein levels

 

[NatJ]

Here is a source (veracity unknown) for cauliflower.
Remember, we want a diet that is 0.35% (or higher) Methionine, and 0.7% or higher Lysine. So 100g of feed needs to contain 0.35g of Met, 0.7g of Lysine. Rewritten as mg, that's 350 mg and 700 mg, respectively.

Chicken feed is normally served dry, but cauliflower has a lot of water.
So it's not valid to compare them directly.

If cauliflower were included in a chicken diet, either it would be dried and mixed in (so dry numbers are correct), or it would be served fresh and the chickens would consume more than 100 grams of "food" in a day (because of the water content.)

I can easily get a chicken to eat 200 grams of "food" in a day: just take the usual 100 grams of dry food and add 100 grams of water. The chicken will still eat it all.

(I think you're right that cauliflower is not a useful source of amino acids in a chicken diet. I'm just arguing with the way you are trying to demonstrate it.)