Is it worth the extra $$

[Cindy in PA]

I have noticed that some lesser brands (don't know if Dumor plain type qualifies) don't include pre & probiotics that many feeds have added in the last few years. Some also don't have marigold extract or alfalfa that color yolks which appeal to some. Not sure if they matter or not. I have never paid more than 50% more for organic, but it varies.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Growing organic DOES usually take more labor, plus the certification process isn’t cheap or easy.

I’d guess a lot of the price difference is just those costs being passed on to the consumer.

When assessing the environmental impact of your feed, organic vs non is one big element. Another is where it’s sourced from...if the organic feed is from much further away, it could be a wash or actually worse for the environment (the organic will still have the plus of no chemicals of course).

The greenest way to feed chickens is to turn things you already have (kitchen scraps, garden extras, weeds, forage) nearby, or things that would otherwise end up in a landfill (food waste, etc).

 

[CluckerFamily]

I personally think the cheap is okay.
I do allow my flock to free range in the spring, summer, and fall.
Not everyone can afford organic and not all chickens will eat organic.
For some reason my chickens turn there noise up to organic feed, not sure what it is.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I’ll add that more expensive isn’t always better. I usually buy Demor at TSC (since my local feed store closed). The few times they were out, I bought Purina crumbles and I got 50 lb bags of “food dust” that I had to soak to make edible.

 

[Wild-Turkey]

In my experience, in general the cheaper the feed, the more by-products. Once I bought some feed that made all of our ducks eggs taste and smell fishy. The feed had no meat products listed or unusual nutrition. The coop also smelled weird for a while.
I personally like to know what my birds are eating, especially when I also plan to eat them and their eggs.
From what I know, by-products can be anything made with what’s listed with the word, for example, grain by-products can be anything made with grain. Usually whatever is cheapest at the time.
We feed ours what we can afford with the least by-products. We can’t afford non-GMO unfortunately, because that would be my first choice if we had the money because of the effects normal feed production has on the environment.
I will not pay for Organic feed, my top priority is planetary health and poultry health, but Organic doesn’t mean better.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

In the US, "Organic" pricing is a factor of three components.

1) Cache. Marketing. Profit. You are, in part, paying for the ability to proclaim your use of Organic feed, like you pay to wear the Louis Vuitton (sp?) logo on your handbag. Its conspicuous consumption like a handmade silk tie - a piece of expensive frivolity which serves no purpose other than to advertise that you can afford to do so.

2) Scale. Organic feeds, due to their higher expense, are less in demand. While economies of scale grow ever smaller with volume, it remains considerably more economical to buy, store, mill, package, label, distribute, stock, and sell non-Organic feed than Organic feed - where every error, loss, or expiration of the product has to be spread across fewer actual product sales. Moreover, there is less competition on pricing for the raw ingredients, so input costs are higher, too.

3) Remember how I mentioned input costs??? Regulatory Capture by major market players has ensured that any producer much smaller than Purina/General Mills, Cargill, Tyson Foods, ConAgra etc can not afford the regulatory and reporting requirements needed to document that the entire chain of production, land, seed, growing, transport, milling, etc meets Organic standards. Jack and Jill Farmer, on 10,000 acres of property in Grainfield, NE can grow crops using the descendants of the seed corn their great great granpappy brought out west in the 1800s, grow it in native dirt with nothing but rainwater, harvest it, take it to their own millstone on property, grind it, bag it, and they still can't sell it as "Organic". Nor can they sell the grain to Purina as "Organic". That it is literally true does not make it LEGALLY true. Quite deliberately, as a bar to competition.

If that's how you choose to spend your money, promoting some big business in the name of saving the planet, its not for me to say otherwise. It is, after all, your money - not mine. Much as I would enjoy shooting fish in the proverbial barrel as a political discussion, BYC is not the place for it.

However, I will *briefly* address that spooky word, "poison". At least, to the extent that one can address the hint of a shadow, without more substance. Every trace metal naturally occurring in seeds and grains is a poison, IN SUFFICIENT QUANTITY. The Phrase "the dosage is the poison" expresses a medical truth.

Too little of Potassium or Sodium in your body and you will die. Its absolutely necessary to the regulation of our cardiovascular system. Too much? You die. They are "poisons". Sucrose - simple sugar - the basic carbohydrate used by the body for energy production. Too much? You die. Along the spectrum, there are horrible conditions associated with an excess of sugar in the bloodstream. Search Glucotoxicity and Glucose Toxicity - hint: you know them by other names.

Soy products contain isoflavones, estrogen-like chemicals which bind to the body's estrogen receptors (weakly) and can cause an imbalance in our endocrine systems with a host of related maladies. But those organic, all natural, compounds aren't "poison", except in their dosage. Unless you live in CA, where prop 65 would put a warning label on the Human Body for such hazardous, all natural, chemical compounds as Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Testosterone, Estrogen, and Progesterone, among others.

Have a great morning - I'm going to go sip another cup of hot poison: dihydrogen monoxide, sucrose, caffeine, acrymalides, and a bunch of things whose chemical names I don't know off the top of my head. Someone slap a prop 65 warning on my coffee.

/edit apologies for tone. I'm not fit for human company before my second cup.

 

[Kiki]

In my experience, in general the cheaper the feed, the more by-products. Once I bought some feed that made all of our ducks eggs taste and smell fishy. The feed had no meat products listed or unusual nutrition. The coop also smelled weird for a while.
From what I know, by-products can be anything made with what’s listed with the word, for example, grain by-products can be anything made with grain. Usually whatever is cheapest at the time.
We feed ours what we can afford with the least by-products. We can’t afford non-GMO unfortunately, because that would be my first choice if we had the money because of the effects normal feed production has on the environment.

Do you know that Poultry DMV is not a vet...just a regular old school blogger like most everyone here?

 

[Wild-Turkey]

Do you know that Poultry DMV is not a vet...just a regular old school blogger like most everyone here?

But they have photos of their clients surgeries and x-rays on their website and blog, and a whole database with accurate anatomy and medicine?
Do you have proof aside from word of mouth?

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

That explains the guy I keep seeing in the meat aisle of the grocery store with a portable X-ray machine!

 

[Kiki]

But they have photos of their clients surgeries and x-rays on their website and blog, and a whole database with accurate anatomy and medicine?
Do you have proof aside from word of mouth?

Start with her about me section on one of her sites.