Making Feed at Home

[U_Stormcrow]

Wow thats great
I would definitely try this
What if I replace soft wheat with hard one or medium one?
Do I need to change quantities of other ingredients?

There is no "medium" wheat. Its either soft (low protein) or hard (high protein). Using Hard wheat improves the total crude protein percentage, the amino acid profile, *slightly* increases fiber, and adds a bit of fat. I consider it an across the board improvement (but for the slight change in fat - which isn't enough to warrant adjusting the recipe otherwise.

With soft wheat, the recipe is 18% protein, 4% fiber, 4.8% fat. With hard wheat (usually called durum or winter wheat), its 19% protein, 4.1% fiber, 4.9% fat.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

OK; Ussery has sample recipes for chicks and for laying hens on pasture, and 1st thing to note is that the food he supplies he views as supplemental to "a lot of green forage, wild seeds, and animal foods" (by which I assume he means mainly insects with some amphibians and reptiles and occasional birds or mammals). His is a pastured poultry system.

The layers on pasture (aiming for 15% protein; some from the grass and insects etc.) sample recipe is:
a premix (all expressed as ratios per 100lb) of
Aragonite 6.5lb,
2lb nutribalancer,
0.5lb kelp meal,
4lb fish meal,
2lb crab meal (giving total premix of 15lb),
added to ground or whole
27lb corn,
20lb peas,
28lb wheat,
10lb oats.
This is from chapter 17, Making our own feeds, pp. 160-168, with lots of discussion of the different elements.

Arogonite is for minerals, mostly calcium. Kelp does some of that, too. Nutribalancer, I assume, is a vitamin mix?

I didn't put it crab meal (yet), but the fish meal plus the creab meal is where the recipe spikes the protein, provides a big boost to Lysine, Methionine, Threonine. Looking at just the grains, that's a 14% protein mix, about 4.7% fiber, 2.85% fat. Methionine is a mere .2 against a .3 minimum and a .5 target. Just scrapes minimum Lysine, Threonine is .5 against a .6 minimum and a .8 target. Adding 6# of fish meal (not quite the same as 4# fish, 2# crab) makes it 18.1% proteing, 4.5% fiber, 3.85% fat and fixes all the amino acids - "animal" proteins are THAT inmportant to the final feed. Obiously, adding 8# of vitamin and minerals will drop those numbers a bit (16.5, 4., 3.1) but that's a very useful example you provided, thank you!

THANK YOU!

 

[RoosterBird]

There is no "medium" wheat. Its either soft (low protein) or hard (high protein). Using Hard wheat improves the total crude protein percentage, the amino acid profile, *slightly* increases fiber, and adds a bit of fat. I consider it an across the board improvement (but for the slight change in fat - which isn't enough to warrant adjusting the recipe otherwise.

With soft wheat, the recipe is 18% protein, 4% fiber, 4.8% fat. With hard wheat (usually called durum or winter wheat), its 19% protein, 4.1% fiber, 4.9% fat.

Thats great

 

[Perris]

THANK YOU!

you're welcome. And thank you for crunching the numbers

 

[saysfaa]

I found a 1982 Feeds and Feeding college textbook this morning. I wish it had turned up sooner, it is late to contribute here but for anyone interested...

It has a table for "composition of feeds" too. That table covers both as-fed and dry on a % basis for: dry matter, ash, crude fiber, estee extract, n-free extract, and crude protein; and various other basises for several kinds of energy, N, Ca, P, and carotene for various classes of cattle and swine. Not poultry, though, and it is a lot of pages.
There are also more pages for the table of mineral composition.

I know we had a huge feeds book back when we were balancing rations for the dairy. It was a good two inches thick at least, of thin paper. It was oversize by a good bit and fine print with few pictures. That was fascinating for the extent of feeds in it and detail of composition and quirks of using it for each feed and the extent of the the variety of animal types it covered. It is gone now, though.
This one barely covers the basics. It is better than nothing.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I found a 1982 Feeds and Feeding college textbook this morning. I wish it had turned up sooner, it is late to contribute here but for anyone interested...

It has a table for "composition of feeds" too. That table covers both as-fed and dry on a % basis for: dry matter, ash, crude fiber, estee extract, n-free extract, and crude protein; and various other basises for several kinds of energy, N, Ca, P, and carotene for various classes of cattle and swine. Not poultry, though, and it is a lot of pages.
There are also more pages for the table of mineral composition.

I know we had a huge feeds book back when we were balancing rations for the dairy. It was a good two inches thick at least, of thin paper. It was oversize by a good bit and fine print with few pictures. That was fascinating for the extent of feeds in it and detail of composition and quirks of using it for each feed and the extent of the the variety of animal types it covered. It is gone now, though.
This one barely covers the basics. It is better than nothing.

Ester Extract is what we call "Fat". There's two ways of measuring it, the most common is simply called Ester Extract, and is the one you should read as "fat" with the same meaning as the label on poultry feed.

When looking at aminos, % protein, and g/16g N are the same thing, because g/16g N is the same as g/100g Protein, and /100 is the same as %.

 

[Miami Leghorn]

I am located in Pakistan
Till now I am using feed for chickens, but I don't think so its good quality
I want to make some good feed with better quality
As many of the feeds are given to broiler chicken

This is not a grain but;can you obtain mealworms to grow and breed ?

 

[Kiki]

Here is a book to read:

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/2114/nutrient-requirements-of-poultry-ninth-revised-edition-1994

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Here is a book to read:

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/2114/nutrient-requirements-of-poultry-ninth-revised-edition-1994View attachment 2864512

Downloading now, TY Kiki!

 

[saysfaa]

Here is a book to read:

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/2114/nutrient-requirements-of-poultry-ninth-revised-edition-1994

Much better than my books! Thank you.