RR Roosters on Pasture

[hillbillywelder]

My wife and I hatched out a combination of RR and some Barred Rock Crosses last weekend. We currently raise Non GMO Broilers on pasture. If I wanted to raise these roosters for meat, as I have a market, what do yall recommend for feed and a time frame to finish. Should we raise them as fryers or let them go a bit longer for roasters. Our starter is 22% and the grower is 20% Thank you!

 

[iwltfum]

Probably 16 to 20 weeks for 3ish pounds. I would put them on starter for 4 or 6 weeks, then grower, then as soon as you are a two or three weeks from butchering, start adding cracked corn to their feed in order to drop the protein down to about 16 or 17 percent. The corn and lower protein should fatten them up nicely for butchering. You will want to keep track of how much you feed them in order to price them properly. They will eat alot more feed to get to butchering weight than a standard broiler.

 

[hillbillywelder]

Probably 16 to 20 weeks for 3ish pounds. I would put them on starter for 4 or 6 weeks, then grower, then as soon as you are a two or three weeks from butchering, start adding cracked corn to their feed in order to drop the protein down to about 16 or 17 percent. The corn and lower protein should fatten them up nicely for butchering. You will want to keep track of how much you feed them in order to price them properly. They will eat alot more feed to get to butchering weight than a standard broiler.

Our local mill offers a 19% finisher. I was afraid of your last sentence there. I keep very good records of our Broilers and will have to do the same for these.

 

[iwltfum]

Our local mill offers a 19% finisher. I was afraid of your last sentence there. I keep very good records of our Broilers and will have to do the same for these.

Can you get cracked corn from your local mill? I find growers and finishers to be a bit pricey for what they are and they often contain a higher portion of soy than you really need so I usually mitigate that by only using starter and corn mixed at the proper ratio to get the right protein percentage out of it. It has saved my wallet on feed costs after changing to that method. Maybe mixing feed yourself sounds like a pain though, so I get it, but I try to cut costs as much as possible, sometimes to a fault as my wife would say.

 

[hillbillywelder]

Can you get cracked corn from your local mill? I find growers and finishers to be a bit pricey for what they are and they often contain a higher portion of soy than you really need so I usually mitigate that by only using starter and corn mixed at the proper ratio to get the right protein percentage out of it. It has saved my wallet on feed costs after changing to that method. Maybe mixing feed yourself sounds like a pain though, so I get it, but I try to cut costs as much as possible, sometimes to a fault as my wife would say.

Yes we can. They offer a Non GMO cracked corn, that we currently feed as scratch to our layer flock.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

Probably 16 to 20 weeks for 3ish pounds. I would put them on starter for 4 or 6 weeks, then grower, then as soon as you are a two or three weeks from butchering, start adding cracked corn to their feed in order to drop the protein down to about 16 or 17 percent. The corn and lower protein should fatten them up nicely for butchering. You will want to keep track of how much you feed them in order to price them properly. They will eat alot more feed to get to butchering weight than a standard broiler.

What does lowering the protein do?
I thought the protein was what made them more meaty

 

[iwltfum]

What does lowering the protein do?
I thought the protein was what made them more meaty

The protein is good at building the structure of the chicken and, yes, to a certain degree is how chickens gain muscle mass. But like with a human, protein helps build lean meat and carbs build fatty meat and fat in general. If I am on a high protein and low carb diet, I will be in shape and have good muscle tone, but if I drop the protein and up the carbs, I will gain fat and fill out. Same with a chicken. The way I think of it is, with the high protein to start you are building the "frame" of the bird - giving all of its bones, muscle tissue, and organs a great environment to thrive and grow. Once they have that frame and you start upping the ratio of corn (that's what I use for the carbs), they fatten up and fill out - which increases weight, slows down the metabolism, causes the birds to have slightly less energy (less burning of calories), and marbleizes the muscles with fat as well as puts a nice layer of fat under the skin and around the cavity opening that renders down and helps the meat to not go dry as quickly. Most feeding schedules for meat bird breeds include a drop in protein generally from about 21% down to 16 or 17% over the course of the entire life of the bird.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

The protein is good at building the structure of the chicken and, yes, to a certain degree is how chickens gain muscle mass. But like with a human, protein helps build lean meat and carbs build fatty meat and fat in general. If I am on a high protein and low carb diet, I will be in shape and have good muscle tone, but if I drop the protein and up the carbs, I will gain fat and fill out. Same with a chicken. The way I think of it is, with the high protein to start you are building the "frame" of the bird - giving all of its bones, muscle tissue, and organs a great environment to thrive and grow. Once they have that frame and you start upping the ratio of corn (that's what I use for the carbs), they fatten up and fill out - which increases weight, slows down the metabolism, causes the birds to have slightly less energy (less burning of calories), and marbleizes the muscles with fat as well as puts a nice layer of fat under the skin and around the cavity opening that renders down and helps the meat to not go dry as quickly. Most feeding schedules for meat bird breeds include a drop in protein generally from about 21% down to 16 or 17% over the course of the entire life of the bird.

When you say, fatten up and fill out, does it mean that they gain fat vs more meat?
Don't want to sound ignorant, just want to learn and understand.

 

[iwltfum]

When you say, fatten up and fill out, does it mean that they gain fat vs more meat?
Don't want to sound ignorant, just want to learn and understand.

I'm not an animal nutritionist or anything so maybe these questions are getting a little beyond my knowledge in terms of the sciencey bits. I mostly just know how it works based on my experience and research. From what I understand though, they still grow muscle and all the other stuff that was growing before the protein drop (a 5 or 6% drop in protein is relatively small really), but through some chemical processes the ratio of carbs/protein change increases the fat production and decreases the focus on creating "dense" muscle mass. As I understand it, a different type of muscle tissue grows that is more marbled and less dense when fed the diet fluctuation that I'm describing.

It's like finishing beef on corn vs 100% grass fed beef. There is a notable difference in texture. The animals still get the protein needed to sustain life, but it changes the focus of the body to increase or decrease different levels of chemicals that allow changes in how growth happens. But I'm not sure as to the reasons why exactly.

Sorry if that's vague. I'm not really sure of all the terminology, but I know it works. Since I've been feeding my broilers in this way, I've noticed a significant increase in carcass weight and have been able to shorten batch timing by as much as a few weeks compared to no change in protein levels. A couple years ago, I was raising my freedom rangers for 12 weeks for a 4 pound carcass and these days it's 8 or 9 weeks for the same weight yield.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

I'm not an animal nutritionist or anything so maybe these questions are getting a little beyond my knowledge in terms of the sciencey bits. I mostly just know how it works based on my experience and research. From what I understand though, they still grow muscle and all the other stuff that was growing before the protein drop (a 5 or 6% drop in protein is relatively small really), but through some chemical processes the ratio of carbs/protein change increases the fat production and decreases the focus on creating "dense" muscle mass. As I understand it, a different type of muscle tissue grows that is more marbled and less dense when fed the diet fluctuation that I'm describing.

It's like finishing beef on corn vs 100% grass fed beef. There is a notable difference in texture. The animals still get the protein needed to sustain life, but it changes the focus of the body to increase or decrease different levels of chemicals that allow changes in how growth happens. But I'm not sure as to the reasons why exactly.

Sorry if that's vague. I'm not really sure of all the terminology, but I know it works. Since I've been feeding my broilers in this way, I've noticed a significant increase in carcass weight and have been able to shorten batch timing by as much as a few weeks compared to no change in protein levels. A couple years ago, I was raising my freedom rangers for 12 weeks for a 4 pound carcass and these days it's 8 or 9 weeks for the same weight yield.

It was good, thank you for taking the time to reply.