Need formula advice for heritage chicken feed

[capayvalleychick]

I am a breeder of heritage chickens, free ranged on pasture, and have been researching feed.

I can't find a feed that is exactly what I am looking for, so I decided to try to mix my own feed. I ordered fish meal & Nutri-Balancer from Fertrell.
http://www.fertrell.com/poultry.htm

My biggest problem with finding the right feed for my flock is that, according to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, heritage chickens need a ration containing 28% protein for the first 16-18 weeks of age , and for adult birds, the feed protein level can be backed off to 18-20%.
In addition, breeding birds need additional calcium, sufficient vitamins and minerals to ensure high fertility and hatchability of eggs.

To complicate this even more, many of my egg & meat customers now want corn & soy free fed products.

I've found it impossible to find a feed that meets all this criteria, that is why I am trying to mix my own feed.

I can't find all the ingredients for the listed rations on the Fertrell site, so am trying to use this general formula for home mixes and adjust it:
http://tinyurl.com/3bodvhb

Can peanuts, sunflower & safflower seeds be substituted for soybean meal?

How much fish meal should be used to increase the protein to the 18-20% and 28% levels?

The Nutri-Balancer directions calls for additional Calcium. Can that be offered as free choice oyster shell or should it be mixed into the feed?

I would appreciate any advice from breeders of heritage chickens or people that understand poultry nutrition better than I do.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[WallTenters]

When figuring on increasing vitamins, protein, anything... here's what you do....
This is just an example...

Total pounds of finished feed = 100lbs
You want say 30% protein (again, example only here)

30% of 100 = 30lbs of pure protein

If food X has 50% protein in it, that means that I need to multiply 30lbs x 2 (50% x 2 = 100% of the 30lbs will be protein) = need to add a total of 60lbs of feed to get my 30% protein.

if X had only 20% protein in it, 20 goes into 100% 5 times, so I'd multiply 30lbs by 5... oops, that won't ever give you 30% in 100 lbs because what you're adding is too low in protein to move any protein beyond the 20% it contains.

The same goes for vitamins and minerals.

 

[drpeeps2014]

If they will be used for meat or eggs:

In my experience I have purchased meat from a farm that was feeding fish meal, and it was the worst meat I have ever tasted. It was VERY fishy tasting. I couldn't eat it.

I think this only occurs when feeding above a certain percentage of fish meal to other ingredients.

I don't know much more about it, just wanted to make you aware if you weren't already

 

[capayvalleychick]

Quote:
OMG I am an idiot when it comes to math. I reread that multiple times and still can't figure it out.

I'm also adding multiple sources of protein- fish meal + possibly peanuts, sunflower seeds & peas. And even the grains have a certain level of protein. So, do I add up all those levels of protein?

Drpeeps2014 is right about limiting the fish meal to avoid the bad taste. I have to check what the maximum recommended levels are.

Thank you both,
Kim

 

[KenK]

I just spent about a minute doing an excel spreadsheet to figure the resulting percentage protein of a feed using three different feed inputs. Not sure how I can explain or to upload it here...

I can try if anybody wants to know but I'm not sure I can make somebody without a passing knowledge of excel or high school algebra understand.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Quote:
Ouch!

I guess that I'm out of luck since I'm a Mac person and my HS algebra teacher had me drop the class instead of helping me when I asked, because, according to him, " You'll never need to know this."

Any chance that you could tell me your results if I give you my list of ingredients and their protein levels?

Kim

 

[Ariel301]

I mix my own feed, so I can calculate nutrient contents. You can PM me your ingredients and I'll give it a try.

 

[KenK]

Post your list of ingredients here with the protein content of each. List them in order of most expensive to least expensive per pound. Should be interesting to compare results.

 

[Cindy in PA]

Search Backyard Poultry magazine for Harvey Ussery's calculators. They are readily available & you can download & use them. You can plug in other values besides what he has on his sheets if you know the protein %. They are for calculating 100 lbs. at a time & work great.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Here is a rough draft of the ingredients that I am thinking of using in my feed. Protein (CP) levels were difficult to find info on and varied. I'm still researching cost- it seems very expensive!
I still need to figure out how much of each ingredient to use, the amounts listed are estimates from UC Davis's formula, which doesn't have the amount of protein that I need for the heritage breeds.

SAMPLE FORMULA for 100 lbs feed

46-50 lbs grain:
wheat 12-14% CP
oat groats 12.3% CP
flax 23-26% CP
white millet 11.6% CP

17 lbs. rice bran 13% CP

16-30 lbs. protein meal:
peanuts, 8g protein per 30 g
Canadian peas, 23-24% CP
sunflower seed 17-21 % CP (for meal)

5 lbs. fish meal 60% protein

4 lbs. alfalfa pellets 15% CP

3 lbs. Nutri-Balancer
For info on this and the fish meal: http://www.fertrell.com/poultry.htm

This formula also calls for yeast, mineral salt, bone meal & oyster shell. I offer oyster shell free choice. I think that the yeast, mineral salt & bone meal are not needed, due to the Nutri-Balancer.

Thanks for all the comments so far!
Kim