Pounds of Feed Consumed Per Cornish X Bird

[journey11]

Hi guys. I am just doing up my numbers on the 35 CX I processed spring. I kept very good records this year and I'm going to use them to hopefully make improvements in my flock management in the future. This is my 3rd year raising CX (and the first year I kept records). This has been my best/easiest year yet. I've been able to improve a lot of things in my set up (automatic waterers were a hallelujah moment for me!!) I think it also helped getting them a month earlier and raising them in the cooler temps of March/April.

I was wondering if anyone else was keeping intensive records on theirs and how your numbers were coming out. I still have to get the dressed weights on my 2nd processed batch (the females), but from my estimates there, I've gotten my meat at around $1.63/pound. I'm going to look to buy my feed in bulk next year, now that I know how much they'll go through. My birds consumed a calculated average of 17.86 pounds of feed each and I was wondering how everyone else was coming out on this for comparison... I got some numbers to look at here and so far it is looking like I did alright.

Once I've gotten all the final numbers in, I'll post my Excel spreadsheet if anyone is interested in seeing how I ran my calculations. I love Excel; it's so useful!

So how have your numbers turned out so far?

 

[Country Parson]

Your numbers are close to mine. My cost per lb (dressed weight) was $1.59. Each bird consumed an average of 21.85lbs, but these number suffers from a few problems.

First, we were uncharacteristically cold during their entire growing season, and especially during their last 4 weeks outside. They probably consumed more feed than normal for warmth. Second, I had 1 injured hen and 3 brooder chicks in with the meat birds. I didn't/couldn't factor in what they ate. Third, I caught my kids a few times feeding the turkeys from the meat chicken feed bag. Silly (but adorable) kids!

So, my guess is my average lb of feed was probably under 20lbs per bird, and probably a little less than $1.59.

Also, I did straight run whereas you did females.

 

[journey11]

I know I paid more for my feed at TSC than I might have at the grain mill too. I wasn't sure how much they would end up eating, so I was buying my feed 100# at a time. Now that I have that info for next year, I'm definitely going to buy in bulk. That should make a difference, I hope.

Everyone asked me from the first couple times I raised them, if I came out ahead, and most of them bet that I didn't. I'm just glad I can prove them wrong!