Is my recipe ok?

[MammaHen]

Because of the horrendous price of layers and growers mash in SA at the moment I'm trying everything to bring down the feed costs for my 80 totally free range chickens. Can anyone tell me if the following is acceptable:
50% growers pellets
13% Crushed maize ( i think you guys call it cracked corn)
26% Wheat bran - we can't get hold of wheat so is this going to be alright as a substitute
10% oats
with Oystershell available for the layers

I've actually got no idea what I'm doing in the nutrition dept and am finding it very difficult to get hold of alot of the ingredients listed on some fab recipe sites so am trying to make do with what we can get. I thought if I use the commercial feed as a base it would be ok to supplement with other stuff thats more reasonably priced. Am I right?

If anyone can give me an alternative recipe using the following ingredients which I can get, I would love you forever...
oatmeal
crushed or rolled oats
barleymeal
Canola oilcake
Cottonseed oilcake
Soya oilcake
Crushed maize

 

[MammaHen]

hello??? someone? anyone? Don't make me answer my own post. Thats really sad.....

 

[Teach97]

I would add in some of the cottonseed oil cake or the other...it will help with the protein content...I am assuming those cakes are the left overs from oil production...common animal feed over here as well but not as available around here...feed lots use it so only in major bulk! There are some programs available to do nutrition on...I only have them for cattle and horses though...hope that helps some...might check with a university ag nutrition department

 

[Cara]

Try this:

http://www.lionsgrip.com/recipes.html

 

[Machelle the chellbug!]

well from what i can tell it looks like great stuff! A gal at my horse barn makes her own mix, she owns a friesian, and his coat and all around health is wonderful, she uses a flax seed oil with her mix!
Just because something comes in a bag, doesn't mean it's all they can have! I give my girls get their layer feed but also a mix of seeds and they love my horses "cob"(corn oats and barley)
Let me know how they like it! I may just try it!

Remember!!! simple is always best! some recipes look to me as extreme!

 

[PortageGirl]

LOL it's hard to 'catch' new posts sometimes! It often takes some time, plus, it's the middle of the day here, so some people are at work etc, don't read up till they get home.

I'm not too sure myself, our layer feed isn't too, too expensive just now, but I can see how you'd want to come up with a good mix.

It doesn't sound bad to me, and with at least 50% layer pellets, they should still get lots of vitamins, but I'm NO expert at it really.

I can get shell corn for nearly nothing from farmers around here, just have to grind it up some myself. I think I'll be looking for a second hand grinder myself now that you bring this up!

They love rolled or steal cut oats, so I don't see why it wouldn't work, but that sounds more expensive. Does the mill where you might get the various grains from have the statistics of the nutritional value on things available? I'll look at some Agricultural University sites here for some of those.

I think any and all would provide decent nutrition, I guess the question to ask is, if your egg production dropped a bit, but the hens were happy and satisfied hunger wise, would that be satisfactory for you too? It is for me, but I'm an odd duck sometimes.

 

[Cara]

For some reason none of my birds will eat oats. If we give them a split bag of sweet feed, they eat everything but the oats. If I give them some of my goats' mix, they pick out the oats too

 

[ranchhand]

Hi MammaHen,
Welcome!

Not ignoring you, just thinking. The "oilcake" is what's throwing me off a bit, since I don't really know what one is. I feed "Layer Pellets" free choice, cracked corn as a treat in the evenings, and thinks like oatmeal I cook up hot as a treat when it's cold outside.

Even the roo's eat the Layer Pellets. I do take eggs that are too old to sell, crush the shells and scramble the whole mess. Not spoiled eggs, just old. The protein and calcium are good for them.

I think most everything would be good as a treat- but the majority of the diet should be layer feed and the bugs and worms they get. The other things are for treats around here!

My only rules about new feeds are: as a treat, and cooked first. There are a million people who will disagree, that's what BYC does so well!

 

[PortageGirl]

Quote:
That looks like a really GOOD site!!! Thanks Cara!!

 

[patandchickens]

It would really be worth looking up 'book' values for the protein content of your feed ingredients, and do the math to figure out what % total protein in the diet you'd be ending up with. Make sure it is plausible.

Obviously there is more to nutrition than that -- amino acid balance within your protein, and vitamins and minerals and such -- but the latter two should be fairly well taken care of by feeding 50% commercial mash, and the former is not the first and foremost thing to worry about.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat