Homemade Chicken Feed 200 lbs @ $0.39 per Pound

[eldonrgv]

So I decided to make a homemade chicken feed for my meat birds, something less expensive and more nutrition f.or my birds. I was spending $40 every 1.5 weeks on high protein turkey starter and cracked corn giving me 100 lbs of feed. Turkey starter is good but cracked corn is not so good in nutrition for the birds I've been told.
So I headed to our local feed store and got as follows.

50 lbs Wheat $12.00
50 lbs Whole Corn $7.50
50 lbs Steamed Rolled Oats $10.00
7.5 lbs Safflower Seeds $12.00
4 lbs Nyjer Seeds $8.00

Total 161.5 lbs grain $49.50

Then I headed to our supermarket and got as follows.

10 lbs Green Split Peas $7.50
10 lbs Yellow Split Peas $7.50
10 lbs Lentils $7.50
10 lbs Brown Rice $7.50

Total 40 lbs grain $30

Adding everything up totals 201.5 lbs of feed for $79.50 which gives me $.039 per pound. My birds seem to love it and it looks **** good.

 

[lazy gardener]

Those numbers don't match any numbers common to the animal feed industry. It's possible that they are showing so high b/c they are based on 4 human servings. There fore, for instance, 1# of oats would be 4 servings, and make up 56% of the protein needs of the human daily diet. I'm not sure. But, I'm thinking you should use charts based on animal feed to avoid any confusion.

 

[Howard E]

I wouldn't beat myself up too much over something like this. There is a difference between stupidity and being uninformed/ignorant. Asking questions about things you don't know about is a sign of intelligence and a good thing. Yours was about feed rations and in that, is no different than the legions who make mistakes in their housing, including predator control. There are a lot of things to learn about raising chickens, feed rations and what they eat and need to eat being only one of many.

But your concern about feed cost is valid. But at least you know where to look for solutions.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would be interested to see how the nutrient value of you mix at $19.50/50# compares to pre mixed layer feed at $13.50/50#. I know there are nutrient programs out there where you can plug in your grains/seeds and weights and it will calculate your nutrient value for you. It does look good... good enough to eat!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's seriously lacking in protein and that is a key ingredient for all birds especially meat birds. The highest protein content in that mix is from lentils (26%) and next is Safflower (18%) and then it plummets for the rest of ingredients. Wheat and oats being 13% and most everything else 8-10. Your net is somewhere around 13% or less protein and you want it up to 20 or higher for meat birds. Maybe supplement cat food or something to get them what they need.

 

[eldonrgv]

I would be interested to see how the nutrient value of you mix at $19.50/50# compares to pre mixed layer feed at $13.50/50#.  I know there are nutrient programs out there where you can plug in your grains/seeds and weights and it will calculate your nutrient value for you.  It does look good... good enough to eat!  

Google Rochester Hatchery......Look at their 2017 catalogue inside you will find a recipe for Homemade feed for MEAT BIRDS......


Good luck....


Cheers!

It's seriously lacking in protein and that is a key ingredient for all birds especially meat birds. The highest protein content in that mix is from lentils (26%) and next is Safflower (18%) and then it plummets for the rest of ingredients. Wheat and oats being 13% and most everything else 8-10. Your net is somewhere around 13% or less protein and you want it up to 20 or higher for meat birds. Maybe supplement cat food or something to get them what they need.

So you were spending $20 for each 50# bag?

I have not priced feed for meat birds, but in addition to selling Purina bagged feed for $16 to $17 per 50# bag, our local feed store also has it's own mill. They will make me a layer ration using their corn and bean meal, and a commercial supplement mix (from Purina), in 500# batches and that sells for about $100 or $10 per 50# bag.

You might ask if they do something similar vs. trying to formulate your own.

Thanks everyone for all information. Our issue here is that we have one local feed store so prices are high. The turkey starter goes for $28.99 and cracked corn $9.99, one supplier and a lot of demand so if you're lucky you'll find your feed but sometimes racks are empty and have to wait at least a week for the supplies arrive, that's a lot of time to wait if you're running low on feed for your birds. I don't know much of percentages of protein on feeds but after seeing lots of folks preparing their own and using oats, corns, wheats, blah blah blah....I decided to give it a try. Here's info of Nutritonal Facts I got of the packages and WebMD regarding the food I used and its nutritional info.

Info according to Nutritional Facts on WebMd Food Calculator
http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-food-calorie-counter

Oats
Protein 56%
Fat 15%
Fiber 64%
Calcium 8%

Wheat
Protein 43%
Fat 5%
Fiber 94%
Calcium 6%

Corn
Protein 31%
Fat 12%
Fiber 48%
Calcium 1%

Lentils
Protein 72%
Fat 0%
Fiber 64%
Calcium 0%

Brown rice
Protein 29%
Fat 8%
Fiber 26%
Calcium 4%

Green Split Peas
Protein 97%
Fat 4%
Fiber 201%
Calcium 11%

Yellow Split Peas
Protein 80%
Fat 6%
Fiber 224%
Calcium 4%

Info according to package:

Safflower seeds
Protein 10%
Fat 22%
Fiber 38%
Calcium No Data

Nyjer seeds
Protein 16%
Fat 25%
Fiber 20%
Calcium No Data

Totals on one pound ratio:

Protein 48.2%
Fat 10.8%
Fiber 86.5%
Calcium 4.9%

Now, if this info is somewhat correct, all I need to do is add some calcium supplement to the mix.

Please enlighten me. I've never done any feed mix before so please provide a recipe I can use if this one is no good.

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: I went to that site and did not find the charts you got your % from. But, those numbers are seriously different than any numbers I've seen. I went to an animal feed site, and found the following chart:

Table 1. Average Nutrient Composition of Grains, Dry Matter Basis.
Grain
Crude Protein %

Starch %

DEa Mcal/kg

ADFb %

Ruminal Starch Digestion % Total Starchc
Corn
10.3

75.7

4.1

3

65
Barley
12.7

64.3

3.7

7

87
Wheat
15.9

70.3

3.9

8

89
Rye
11.8

65.0

3.7

8

90
Triticale
15.7

67.0

3.7

8

90
Oats
11.6

58.1

3.4

16

92
This is much more in line with what the common grains you are using have. Check out this site:

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/beef11489

Then, there's this site: http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c10/e5-02-02.pdf Check out the legume chart there.

 

[Howard E]

OP.......it has been over 40 years since my last class in animal nutrition. But I do remember a few things and one of them was I came away thinking that balancing my own feed ration for any animal was something I was not keen to try on my own. Too much at stake.

If you do not already know what a Pearson Square is, I'd stop what you are doing and try to find a local source for your feed.

OTOH, you may not have enough birds, or a tractor large enough to spin it, but if you did, you could always buy yourself a used portable mix mill and grind your own, using pre-calculated ration formulas along the lines of what my local feed store does.

 

[lazy gardener]

All I can tell you is that your protein percentages don't make sense. I went to that web site and took a good look. Without doing much research, this recipe on that site looked ok:

• 30% Corn
• 30% Wheat
• 20% Peas
• 10% Oats
• 10% Fish Meal
• 2% Poultry Nutri–Balancer (where to buy)
• Free Choice Kelp (where to buy kelp)
• Free Choice Aragonite

Note the main difference in this feed compared to yours is the fish meal. Without looking that up, I'm guessing it's about 30% protein. And it's a high quality protein: animal protein. Also, the Poultry Nutri-Balancer would be providing the trace minerals/vitamins that may be lacking in yours. Kelp is also very high in essential minerals and vitamins. Aragonite is also an other product that is usually added to home made animal feeds. While chicken flocks have been living "down on the farm" for hundreds of years, subsisting on free range and the morning bit of scratch or cracked corn, they had access to a whole farm yard of free range delights that the common back yard flock does not have access to.

I don't mix my own because I know I can't get a healthy balance for the price I can buy prepared feed. You can feed your mix to your flock, and they might do ok on it, or they may end up having some health problems show up. I'm merely suggesting that you take an other look at the source of your information. It is not correct IMO.

An other thing you might consider to give them even more of a nutritional boost would be to ferment your feed.
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I went back to that WebMD food calculator site, and found your problem. The protein percentages you were quoting in your list of ingredients were based on your calculations of the number of servings you estimated that would be in a pound of the ingredient. For example, when using dry yellow corn, based on 1/4 cup per serving, I'm guessing you entered 4 servings, and came up with 31% protein. But, that is the amount of protein %DV based on an adult human eating 1 full cup of dry yellow corn. THAT IS NOT THE PROTEIN CONTENT OF THE CORN.

 

[Folly's place]

I too had livestock nutrition, and poultry husbandry classes in college, and there's no way I could balance a ration at home for a better price than Purina can provide!!! It's tricky, and unless you are feeding hundreds of birds at once (at least!) it can't be done economically. Mary