Agronauts
Chirping
Thank you. This is really helpful. My hubs was musing over "making" our own, but your math proves out my intuition that animal feed outfits are more reliable at gauging adequate nutrient content.Your mother, with respect, is long on erroneous assumption and very short on both facts and the relevant knowledge base.
Simple math.
If the peas plus the lentils add up to 25#, they you are looking at 200# total weight of nutritionally deficient feed. At mthe mill I use, I can have a vastly superior mix for $16.45 x4 = $65.80 or the actual blend I use for $58.80 for 200# of feed. Locally, my TSC is selling the Purina Layer for $24.49/50#, so basically $100 for 200#. BOSS pricing varies wildly, but I'd guess you have between $20 and $40 invested in that bag. Corn should be under $10/bag right now, though I've seen it as much as $13, depending on where you buy. 50# of wheat? $30-60 dependning on source. Oats? $23-38. Grocery store frozen peas, bulk almost $1/lb, dried lentil about $1.5/lb.
My guess is that you have at least $85 in ingredients, and maybe closer to $120 in ingredients before accounting for the peas and lentils. Remembering that the known quality and nutrition Purina Layer is right at $100 for 200#. Your mom's 175# of BOSS, Wheat, Oats, Corn is (my guess) close to the same price, and (before reductions for moisture content), coming in at 11.7% protein (way too low), 7.8% fiber (high), 10.1% fat (way too high) and deficient in Methionine, Lysine, Threonine, and Tryptophan, as well as most vitamins and minerals based on published averages for those bulk ingredients.
If she wants to make a BYC account, any number of us can provide some of the relevant information - but the simple truth is, you can't touch the economies of scale the commercial mills enjoy. You can't even get close. Particularly when some of your ingredients are coming from the (human) feed store.
Can I make a top notch dining experience at home for my family buy buying bulk and raw ingredients, then preparing my own at lower cost than prepackaged? ABSOLUTELY. Can I do the same for my birds? Not even REMOTELY close.