I'm Sending Feed to be Analyzed

[Joel Just Joel]

Anyone know of a lab that checks for aflatoxins? Miscellaneous internet folks mention it as a possible contaminant in some feeds. Besides the usual protein content, etc., I'd like to have my feed tested for these mold-produced toxins and possibly others.

Incidentally, a couple of months back I found a softball-sized clump of feed in a new bag of Producer's Pride. It was pretty well covered with green mold so I tossed it in the trash. Maybe the feed did not dry completely at the factory? Anyway, no chickens seemed ill from eating that batch once I got rid of the mold.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Anyone know of a lab that checks for aflatoxins? Miscellaneous internet folks mention it as a possible contaminant in some feeds. Besides the usual protein content, etc., I'd like to have my feed tested for these mold-produced toxins and possibly others.

Incidentally, a couple of months back I found a softball-sized clump of feed in a new bag of Producer's Pride. It was pretty well covered with green mold so I tossed it in the trash. Maybe the feed did not dry completely at the factory? Anyway, no chickens seemed ill from eating that batch once I got rid of the mold.

MidWest Labs does. Most probably do, tbh.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Rock River as well.

 

[igorsMistress]

can someone in the US explain to one who's not why plain old crime is overlooked in favour of conspiracy theories and weird govt behaviour? We all know food prices have shot up since covid and the invasion of Ukraine, and issues with the food supply chain have been front and centre in media of all sorts. Historically in such circumstances food gets adulterated to make it go further. Animal feed is subject to less checks and interest than human food, so is even more likely to feel the squeeze. And homogenized products, which make it impossible to identify the ingredients on sight, are more obvious candidates for adulteration than recognizable things.

I don't buy commercial feed so I have no flesh in this game and no axe to grind. I just think if a lot of people are complaining about the feed, it is a bit patronizing to suppose they're all idiots, or arrogant to deny their expressed experiences, or lazy to blame social media, or dismissive to label them conspiracy theorists.

Nobody is saying it absolutely isn’t a problem with the feed. When people start accusing companies of ruining their own reputation and/or the government of doing this on purpose to starve us into submission, well in that case I think conspiracy theorist fits quite well. All companies exist to make money. The government doesn’t exist without people to support it.

 

[igorsMistress]

I hadn't heard about theory that bad feed was causing poor laying until today. One thought I had was to wonder if feed could have ben stockpiled (either by feed stores of by individuals) over the winter due to concerns about weather/supply uncertainty. Expired is less nutritious and could have an effect on egg laying. I also wondered if certain standards could have been relaxed in sourced feed ingredients due to supply chain issues or in a push to try to keep costs down. I know that corn, wheat, etc. grown in poor soil will not be as nutritious. Maybe some lots were made with the "same" but not as high a quality of ingredients?

But first, I would first be interested in understanding if there really are a measurable number of chicken keepers who are experiencing depressed chicken laying -- taking into consideration time of year and age of flock. I haven't followed the issue enough to know if there is really a problem, or just a couple of very vocal people on social media.

Very good point

 

[Joel Just Joel]

But first, I would first be interested in understanding if there really are a measurable number of chicken keepers who are experiencing depressed chicken laying -- taking into consideration time of year and age of flock. I haven't followed the issue enough to know if there is really a problem, or just a couple of very vocal people on social media.

I have not done an exhaustive search, but I've seen quite a number of complaints on more than one or two forums, so I don't think it's just a vocal few. It would be interesting to see some surveys that show just how many are experiencing egg laying problems, including the criteria you mentioned, plus a comparison to past years. Is it possible that some folks panic every winter when egg laying goes down? I don't know. This year there are more new backyard chicken owners and therefore more people to panic. Also, in the current political/economic world climate, it seems natural that people would expect yet another conspiracy to be the root cause. Let's not miss the fact that many of the new chicken owners are of the mindset that there's a food shortage coming and so they're raising chickens to help survive. That would need to be included in the survey. Not saying there is or isn't a gov't/big business conspiracy to starve and reduce the population, but people are definitely suspicious. It will also be very interesting to see Aunt Angus's test results as another set of data points to consider.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have not done an exhaustive search, but I've seen quite a number of complaints on more than one or two forums, so I don't think it's just a vocal few. It would be interesting to see some surveys that show just how many are experiencing egg laying problems, including the criteria you mentioned, plus a comparison to past years. Is it possible that some folks panic every winter when egg laying goes down? I don't know. This year there are more new backyard chicken owners and therefore more people to panic. In the current political/economic world climate, it seems natural that people would expect yet another conspiracy to be the root cause. Let's not miss the fact that many of the new chicken owners are of the mindset that there's a food shortage coming and so they're raising chickens to help survive. That would need to be included in the survey. Not saying there is or isn't a gov't/big business conspiracy to starve and reduce the population, but people are definitely suspicious. It will also be very interesting to see Aunt Angus's test results as another set of data points to consider.

The crazy thing is that Gov'ts generally don't want their people to starve. Some of the best research in thew world right now on feeding chickens is coming out of places like China and India. WHY???

Because happy, well fed citizens rarely rise up in effort to overthrow their gov't. Even unhappy well fed citizens rarely rise up. Starving citizens??? Historically, they do rise up in efforts to overthrow their governments, having nothing left to lose (but their lives). Sure, they fail at it often, but sometimes they succeed.

This is a truth even the Romans knew, recall Juvenal's quote re; "panem et circenses" (bread and circuses).

 

[Joel Just Joel]

...Gov'ts generally don't want their people to starve."

Sure. For instance, our global elite friends at the WEF want to make sure we are all well-fed:

 

[aking19]

I’ve been reading a lot of these feed posts like everyone else, I just want to comment if anyone has ever heard of naturalnews.com, Mike Adams has a food science lab and regularly tests products for human consumption (that he sells himself) and he has recently completed testing on 6 or 7 brands of chicken feed. He tested for heavy metals, aflatoxins, glyphosate, e.coli, salmonella and nutritive minerals such as copper and zinc. Results should be posted next week! Just throwing this out there for folks who may be interested.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sure. For instance, our global elite friends at the WEF want to make sure we are all well-fed:
View attachment 3401930

That supports my point, you realize? Insect protein is cheap and requires relatively little space to produce, unlike say "cow".

Shrimp, Crabs, Lobster. All "bugs". Plenty of the world eats worms, spiders, grasshoppers, insects of all sorts. That we don't (generally) in the US, Canada, or Europe is rather 1st world elitest of us.