Making your own feed

[MarkRainbolt]

I was curious who makes their own feed for their chickens ? Was watching a YouTube video on a young lady making her own feed, she was using whole corn, black oil sun flower seeds,white millet, flaxseed , whole oats. She said she gets 22% protein out of the mix instead of 16% you get out of layer feed. She also said that the cost of her mix comes in at .23 cents a pound compared to the .26 cents a pound for the layer feed.
Was wondering what you all use in making your feed if you do make your own.
Mark

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I was curious who makes their own feed for their chickens ? Was watching a YouTube video on a young lady making her own feed, she was using whole corn, black oil sun flower seeds,white millet, flaxseed , whole oats. She said she gets 22% protein out of the mix instead of 16% you get out of layer feed. She also said that the cost of her mix comes in at .23 cents a pound compared to the .26 cents a pound for the layer feed.
Was wondering what you all use in making your feed if you do make your own.
Mark

LINK????

Before I tell you about fatty liver disease, recommendations for optimum chicken diets, and how grossly deficient in amino acid profile that recipe is, I'd like the exact ratios, so as to do it proper justice.

I'd also like to know when the video was made, since feed costs are up roughly 50% in the last year or so.

and I still don't pay that price for layer, but $13/50# for layer would be VERY good at a TSC, Rural King, or the like right now.

 

[MarkRainbolt]

Well it was made 2 years ago, which I did not notice. Here is the link to the video.
Mark

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I thought so.

First, she needs to go back to grade school. She can't do algebra.

Second, I have no idea where she gets her nutrition info from, but her protein numbers for her raw ingredients are WAY WAY off. Possibly she got them from Garden Betty, another source of terrible feed info.

This is my source: Feedipedia.Org

Corn
Flax Seed
Proso Millet
BOSS
Whole Oats
End result: 12.69% protein, 10.99% fiber (between 2x and 3x the recommended), 19.4%!!!!!! fat (roughly 6x recommended), with an amino acid profile below recommended levels in the four most critical - honestly, It takes doing to miss on Tryptophan, and yet...

Sources for recommends:
NRCS/USDA
UGA
2021 Metastudy
Others...


PLEASE don't do that to your birds.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

From her own video:

Protein Analysis:
Black Oil Sunflower Seeds - 26% protein (40 lbs = 10.4% protein)
Whole Corn - 9% protein (40 lbs = 3.6% protein)
Whole Oats - 15% protein (40 lbs = 6% protein)
Flax Seed - 37% protein (5 lbs = 1.85% protein)
Millet - 9% protein (5 lbs = .45% protein)
=22.3% protein

Ummmm. NO.
That's 22.3# of protein in 130# of ingredients, using her own figures for the nutritional values. 17.15% protein.

Again, I have NO IDEA where she sourced those from.
Her numbers for flax seed are roughly twice what I can find on any reputable source. USDA puts it at 18g/100. So does Hodgson Mill (roughly) who sell the stuff. Likewise for Bob's Red Mill. Studies on ResearchGate, Healthline.com, VeryWellFit.com, FeastGood.com, and even less reliable sources all in the same 18% range. All agree fat content is roughly twice the protein content. What you want in chicken feed is protein content roughly 5x fat content. (Bobs red mill label, below)

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Her nutrition source for BOSS seems to have been for SHELL REMOVED, and "generous" at that - not what she used. Also, much more expensive.

Here's BOSS from Chewy:

I hope you see several problems there.

Here it is from the TSC website, for the brand she seems to be using:

Crude Protein (min): 14%, Crude Fat (min): 25%, Crude Fiber (max): 30%
These are even WORSE numbers than what I use in my calculator.

Different source (Meijer)
13% Protein, 30% fat (min), 30% fiber (max)

etc...

If you can't do math, and you can't read a label, I'm not trusting your recipe.

I would suggest you not trust her recipe either.

 

[MarkRainbolt]

I was just asking if anybody made their own feed!!! I don’t want to start a fight with anyone, just asking a question.
Mark

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I was just asking if anybody made their own feed!!! I don’t want to start a fight with anyone, just asking a question.
Mark

No fight. Some few do make their own feed. Most efforts are nutritionally nferior, and often more expensive - but some have no choice, and a rare few can make it work in their conditons.

Finding a good recipe on the internet, however, isn't as easy as many might think. Likes and shares and follower count is no guarantee of good nutrition for your birds.

If you do want to look into doing it, and you don't know much about feeding chickens, I suggest you start with Justin Rhodes' recipe, and price that out for comparison with a decent, non-premium, off the shelf feed.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

There is confusion between nutrient formulation based on Dry Matter or As Fed. Mixing those values in a mix will result in a feed that is not formulated properly. Poultry feeds are formulated on AS FED basis. You have to use an AS FED nutrient profile, if you use Dry Matter you are over stating the nutrient content.

I work in the Feed Industry, I formulate rations everyday. I can tell you all that the nutrients shared on BYC regularly are NOT what the feed industry is using. No way, No how. For example, I use a Crude Protein value for corn of 6.85% AS FED and my Soybean Meal value is 46.65%.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

There is confusion between nutrient formulation based on Dry Matter or As Fed. Mixing those values in a mix will result in a feed that is not formulated properly. Poultry feeds are formulated on AS FED basis. You have to use an AS FED nutrient profile, if you use Dry Matter you are over stating the nutrient content.

I work in the Feed Industry, I formulate rations everyday. I can tell you all that the nutrients shared on BYC regularly are NOT what the feed industry is using. No way, No how. For example, I use a Crude Protein value for corn of 6.85% AS FED and my Soybean Meal value is 46.65%.

The as fed, if you use dry ingredients, typically drops things about 10%, since most things are dried to a moisture content of 10% or less.

and if you have a better source for current nutritional assays on various ingredients, I'd be happy to update my calculator. We can only work with the info available to us - and like any good calculator - garbage in, garbage out. I understand the limitations of it.

Of course, most of the home brew feed recipes are so bad that correcting for as fed only makes them a little more terrible.