Homemade Feed Recipe

[TheFatBlueCat]

I am trying to remineralize my growing soil and forage lawn, so those minerals can keep cycling in the system in case of not being able to buy them in again. Right now my focus is on getting calcium into my soils (with lime, gypsum, and dicalcium phosphate), as well as trace elements which I add by using a fish emulsion fertilizer. This property is my practice property, we are hoping to move to a larger property in the near future.
I am lucky to live on an island country (New Zealand) and pretty well walking distance to the coast. So I have access to seaweed and shellfish if need be. And fish if there are any left by the time this might all go down.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I haven't set down with my calculator yet, but my gut tells me it would be a heavy soy/wheat mix with rice filling in the place of corn in more "traditional US-style" feeds. The soy is still going to need heat treatment, dried seaweed will be needed for trace nutrients, millet and/or oats might be useful for rounding out an amino acid profile, but again will need treatments specific to each - or the whole thing can be fermented. But an animal protein source at around 10% of the total feed weight (pre-fermentation, if you go that route) would make it MUCH easier.

So, I sat down with the calculator. 48# of rice. 24# of roasted soybeans. 24# of wheat (soft). 1# of dried seaweed for trace minerals, 3# of your calcium source (oyster shell?).

Based on published AVERAGES (your ingredients could be better, or worse, and could vary from season to season, field to field) that should (after correction for moisture content) be about 16.5% protein, 2.3% fiber (lower than target, if some rice hulls get in there, ITS FINE. Soybean hulls too, as long as they are roasted), 6% fat (higher than I want - blame the numbers I have for roasted soybeans, and DO NOT add BOSS), with a very good amino acid profile (so if your soy is lowere protein than average, its not as concerning). Your dried seaweed (depending on what type) should provide phosphorus and a host of needed vitamins and minerals.

*IF* the zombie apocalypes begins, start there, and adjust based on experience. If you can grow hard/winter/red wheat (the higher protein stuff) its an across the board improvement on the recipe. If you don't have a great calcium source, trade with your non-zombie neighbors for fish bones, roast they with your soybeans before inclusion in the recipe.

 

[NatJ]

I haven't set down with my calculator yet, but my gut tells me it would be a heavy soy/wheat mix with rice filling in the place of corn in more "traditional US-style" feeds.

OP listed corn, not rice, on the list of what they could grow.
Did you mix this up with someone else's thread?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

OP listed corn, not rice, on the list of what they could grow.
Did you mix this up with someone else's thread?

Nope. In their second post, they said they had five rice patties, only three of which are in use, currently producing all their family needs. Particularly when preparing for the S2HTF, why mess with success?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Honestly, if OP wasn't in Japan, and hadn't clarified that they had acres, equipment, and were already succesfully growing more rice than they needed, I would have stuck with "don't do it" - but rice is an unusual feed ingredient here in the US, I was curious, so this mental exercise was entertaining to me.

and @Zeoliter - I'm a complete amatuer in feeding chickens. I've read some stuff (admittedly more than most), this isn't my day job. You have between now and the end of civilization to find the best ways to roast your soybeans to reduce antinutritional factors, make sure your vitamin levels are good (I didn't look, that function isn't part of my calculator yet), nail down hard numbers (not published averages) for your ingredients, and source your calcium.

Consider the above to be an extra second or three out of the gate on me - the rest of the marathon is on you.

 

[NatJ]

Nope. In their second post, they said they had five rice patties, only three of which are in use, currently producing all their family needs. Particularly when preparing for the S2HTF, why mess with success?

I should have checked past the first post.

Yes, using what they already grow makes much more sense than growing something special for the purpose.

 

[saysfaa]

I am trying to remineralize my growing soil and forage lawn, so those minerals can keep cycling in the system in case of not being able to buy them in again. Right now my focus is on getting calcium into my soils (with lime, gypsum, and dicalcium phosphate), as well as trace elements which I add by using a fish emulsion fertilizer. This property is my practice property, we are hoping to move to a larger property in the near future.
I am lucky to live on an island country (New Zealand) and pretty well walking distance to the coast. So I have access to seaweed and shellfish if need be. And fish if there are any left by the time this might all go down.

You might consider learning which of your native plants (weeds) will help with mineralizing or otherwise feeding your soil. Usually these are the ones with very deep roots but there idiosyncrasies. Calcium, for example, will not stay in my soil. Between the sandy soil and rainfall and maybe other factors, it leaches away. Of course, getting it the right amount now is a good idea but if you are looking long term...

Often which weeds are growing where will tell you a lot about your microclimates and or microenvironments.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

You might consider learning which of your native plants (weeds) will help with mineralizing or otherwise feeding your soil. Usually these are the ones with very deep roots but there idiosyncrasies. Calcium, for example, will not stay in my soil. Between the sandy soil and rainfall and maybe other factors, it leaches away. Of course, getting it the right amount now is a good idea but if you are looking long term...

Often which weeds are growing where will tell you a lot about your microclimates and or microenvironments.

Yes I've had a bit of a go at working this out from what species are growing. That's why I'm doubling down on the calcium, for both pH reasons (soils/plant species growing indicate signs of acidity) and due to finding a lot of buttercup which I believe is a calcium accumulator that pops up when available calcium is low. From my research it seems like calcium is THE key player, with other minerals unable to do their jobs properly without it present. That hypothesis has played out in a small way in my garden, when I add dicalcium phosphate when seeing signs of plant stress, all those signs resolve rapidly. I'm using it because it was the only fast acting calcium I could get my hands on last season but I'm glad I gave it a try. I realize it is also a phosphorus source but on the balance of things I would lean towards the calcium being the major deficiency rather than phosphorus.
My soils should in theory be able to hold onto the calcium, being heavily clay based in the subsoil. I try to keep minerals bioavailable by constant cycling them through organic matter, and keeping my soil fungally active. No weeds leave the property they all end up back in the soil one way or another.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes I've had a bit of a go at working this out from what species are growing. That's why I'm doubling down on the calcium, for both pH reasons (soils/plant species growing indicate signs of acidity) and due to finding a lot of buttercup which I believe is a calcium accumulator that pops up when available calcium is low. From my research it seems like calcium is THE key player, with other minerals unable to do their jobs properly without it present. That hypothesis has played out in a small way in my garden, when I add dicalcium phosphate when seeing signs of plant stress, all those signs resolve rapidly. I'm using it because it was the only fast acting calcium I could get my hands on last season but I'm glad I gave it a try. I realize it is also a phosphorus source but on the balance of things I would lean towards the calcium being the major deficiency rather than phosphorus.
My soils should in theory be able to hold onto the calcium, being heavily clay based in the subsoil. I try to keep minerals bioavailable by constant cycling them through organic matter, and keeping my soil fungally active. No weeds leave the property they all end up back in the soil one way or another.

I have sandy clay soils here, almost 180 degrees across the globe from you, and recently got my test reports back. Very acid soil (4.9 pH), which is acidic even for many acid loving plants. and a big phosphorus need - my best soil sample had just 6 mg of Phosphorus per kg of soil, the others were 4mg! DO recommend getting your soil tested, indicator species tell you a bit (that's what I was doing before my testing), but the numbers I find ultimately more useful.

/edit and sitting on a prehistoric sandbar above a limestone aquifer, my soil calcium levels shouldn't be low. They are, but not nearly so low as my P and K values.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I have sandy clay soils here, almost 180 degrees across the globe from you, and recently got my test reports back. Very acid soil (4.9 pH), which is acidic even for many acid loving plants. and a big phosphorus need - my best soil sample had just 6 mg of Phosphorus per kg of soil, the others were 4mg! DO recommend getting your soil tested, indicator species tell you a bit (that's what I was doing before my testing), but the numbers I find ultimately more useful.

I can do pH testing myself although I haven't because I am 100% sure I am dealing with acidic soils, so am slowly treating as such. I should do some tests to monitor progress over time though. I would love to get a soil test but there aren't any affordable testing options here for a garden-level test, they run over $150 for one basic test and $150 is a lot of fish emulsion or bags of gypsum for my 1/3 acre! I suspect my lawn has phosphorus issues (perhaps less now than before the chicken-poop saturation) but my gardens have had years of animal manures applied in large quantities (horse and chicken, plus a lot of blood and bone) and I don't have any plant growth or productivity issues in most of them. I'm pretty sure my gardens are less acidic than the rest of my yard too.
I plan on getting extensive testing done when we finally move to our new property. Luckily I've lived around here all my life and have a good amount of experience with the soil types likely to be found and what's wrong and right with them all, from an observational perspective. Gives me a little bit of a leg-up!