meat birds--grow feed corn and pasture for protein needs?

[Joy16Sarah]

We have an empty acre that we hope to plant feed corn on for our late summer meat chicken batch of 100 Jumbo Cornish Rock. Do you think it would be an okay balance to pasture the meat birds once they're old enough and give ground corn supplement-as much as they wanted past that first few hours after moving the chicken tractor? It would mean their only source of protein would be bugs and greens on a few acres using a chicken tractor. Would they fatten okay or is the protein/grain ratio very specific and would need to be specifically calculated?
Also, is it necessary to grind the corn? I was assuming that they birds are too young to handle full kernels.
We plan to buy chicken starter the first few weeks.
Our goal is to save money on chicken feed.

Thank-you in advance for any advice!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote:
It would be best to grind it a little
It's only about 9% protein though

 

[GreenMountainEric]

For Cornish Rocks, I would only feed a balanced broiler grower ration with pasture. I am willing to bet that you would have fairly serious health issues if you don't. You would have much better luck with something like freedom rangers for a diet like that. Even then, there is a chance that they won't do very well. That would mostly depend on what forages, etc. that they have available.

At the very least, putting them on a good chick starter, for a few weeks, is a good idea. And I would suggest using a slower growing bird.

The corn should be cracked or ground. Cracked would give better results, and less waste.

In all honesty, I don't think you will save any money by doing this. (Given the high potential for serious nutrition problems.) If you use Cornish Rocks, you will certainly have very bad luck with this feeding program. They are a fast growing, efficient bird, that needs to be on a very specific diet.

 

[Joy16Sarah]

Thank-you for that advice. It was what I was looking for!
Also, is there anything that I can grow in addition to corn to mix a broiler ration for myself with the correct protein amount? We have an extra acre of land that we pay someone to mow each summer and have the time and cheap labor--our 6 kids to grow stuff ourself.