How long could you feed your livestock if the feed store closed tomorrow?

[squirescastle]

Our town and the surrounding bigger city Hospitals has laid off thousands in the past month and it got me thinking.... How long could we feed our farm animals in the event the feed store shut the doors. In addition to the Hospitals, other businesses are feeling the economic crisis we are in, and it's only a matter of time before the feed supply is affected. Hay farmers are also giving up all around us. The cost to harvest, ship feed and grain is becoming such a burden that they are not making enough of a profit to reinvest in business, the bottom line is.... How long can you feed your farm animals when the feed store closes the doors? Or if in any emergency when the grocery shelves are bare, the feed store shelves will be bare too.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

I would be in trouble. Maybe a week and half.

 

[CityFarmer202]

right now, i could feed them for about a month without free ranging and scrapes....Good question...makes you think.

 

[RJSorensen]

This is a issue I have worked over in my mind for quite sometime. I am torn between keeping a dozen sacks on hand, or feeding fresh feed. Which is correct? My great grandfather had a dirt cellar where he kept the apples from the prior fall. He would treat the grand children by giving them each a sweet apple. However the rule was that you had to eat the ones with worms or holes in them first. So over time, all the apples the kids got were damaged in some way. Though there were always some good ones that they could not choose, well until the bad ones were eaten.

This is how I view this topic, should I always feed stale feed, to make sure I have some, or should I only keep a bag or two and have fresh food in the feeders? I have decided to go with fresh feed… Having said that, we have a small farm still and have grain and hay around most of the time. So what works for me might not for you. It is a very perplexing question. The old glass half full or half empty saying for sure.

Best to all,

RJ

 

[Drivernumber22]

Push come to shuv I would have to start ordering online, Tractor Supply near me is ALWAYS OUT of anything to do with chickens! (uggggggggggggggggh)

So honestly when I need something I travel a little bit as is to get it.....

 

[bustedchicks]

If that happened my freezer would be full and keep a handful that can scavenge on their own.

 

[Clay Mudd]

It would be about six weeks, maybe two months before I had to start being creative. I keep a few hundred pounds of corn and small grains on hand, as well as fish meal and a vitamin/mineral supplement. After a while, I'd have to thin the flock, but they have pretty good forage here.

 

[ezicash]

I am an avid prepper and i do lots of gardening, dehydrating and canning. Yes I wonder that because it is not if the SHTF it is when the SHTF so i know I need to be prepared. I always keep an extra 50 lb bag of feed, with 3 rain barrels and I have Myla bags i can start storing my bags in my crawlspace or garage which ever is cooler. I wish I did have a place to store like they did in the 30's but I have to make do with what I have.

I only have 3 chicks so food would last a few months before I had to worry. I tried fermenting a 5 gal bucket this pass week and my chicks will not touch it??? So that is out of the question. I may ferment then dehydrate - got to research quickly because I feel things are moving quickly with the economy some are saying to watch this month 7-15 thru 7-20 for something real life changing to happen so all I can say is make sure we have plenty of water, food and medicine for us and our pets and pray nothing happens.

 

[chickenlover847]

I would be in TROUBLE i have goats and chickens i just buy feed when i run out consedring the tractor supply is so close to my house I guess lol i guess i would have to drive farther but id problably have the rest of the feed i had i would drive 100 miles to another feed store before i got rid of my babies!!!!!! im sure half of the people here would do the same

 

[subhanalah]

[...]

I only have 3 chicks so food would last a few months before I had to worry.  I tried fermenting a 5 gal bucket this pass week and my chicks will not touch it???  So that is out of the question.  I may ferment then dehydrate - got to research quickly because[...].

are you sure you did it right? Did you give in? You gotta only offer it and nothing else for two or three days. Before that, and anything "new" is "poison" to them. It's a survival mechanism to avoid new and unfamiliar things.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/901514/fermented-feed-should-you-be-doing-it