Saving 1/2 price on your feed bill

[frenchblackcopper]

Has anyone out there made a small scale feed grinder-mixer for making their own feed and saving tons of money in the process? From pricing feed ingredients and having a easy supply of field corn costing $4.00 a bushel all around me,if you grind and mix your own the savings are close to 1/2 the cost of custom made and bagged rations.
70% of an 18% Grower rations weight is corn,,Chick Developer from Hubbard ranges in price here from $11.50 to $15.00 a 50 pound bag. 35 pounds of this ration is corn,and at .07 cents a pound for corn based on a $4.00 a bushel buying price,this is $2.45 worth used in a 50 pound bag. There is not another $9.05-$12.55 imput cost for the added supplement to get the protein level to 18%,,
So I bought this little gem,

It will grind or crack a 5 gal bucket of corn in about a minute.I want to make this a stationary set up,and incorperate a mixing tank where all added supplements can be mixed with the cracked corn and then store the feed as it is being used.
Does anyone else grind-mix their own feed? Do you have a set up to mix and store the feed,as in a large scale grinder? I'm looking for possible solutions for this aspect,from something the size of a 55 gallon drum,to a 300 gallon unused-new fuel tank.I would need a cone bottom on it,and an auger going thru the middle to get the cracked grain to the top,and then out so it can be mixed,just as in larger grinders.Or I have considered using a small concrete mixer framework,only adding a larger barrel to hold more.
If any mechanical gurus are out here,and knows how a large grinder works and can help with ideas,please advise.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

wow! where did you buy that and what did it cost?

 

[Germaine_11.20]

COOL!!

 

[frenchblackcopper]

It was on E-Bay last week,,noone else bid on this,,the ad said it was made by Amish tradesman,seems parts are redily available and are of standard size,,,was $500 for the starting bid,and that was without the engine,,thats what I got it bought for as well.

 

[crazy huhn]

That is awesome!!!
There is another big benefit here which has not been mentioned yet: if you grind and mix your grain fresh, it is not only cheaper, it has a higher nutritional value than commercially mixed feed, because the older the ground up feed gets, the less nutritional value it has. Also, the grinding process always causes some kind of heat development to the grain which means, the older a commercial feed gets, the higher the risk of mold and mildew spores in the feed just because of that.
Congratulations on your great purchase. You will love it: not only the reduced feed bill - your birds will be healthier as well!!! Just DO NOT grind up too much at a time for the reasons mentioned above. I used to grind and mix my own horse feed every day.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I want one . . . does it have a name?

 

[Burbs]

You could use one of those plastic compost tumblers for storage and mixing in the protein concentrates.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Katy,,the seller was from Tennessee,,I can ask them for more information about it,as it will be a few weeks until I get it from them,they said in their e-bay ad,these are,or were made by the Amish and was advertised in an Amish Magazine,,so evidently many of them were made.
Burbs,,your on the right track for a mixing container,,they also now make small poly bulk tanks to store feed-grain in,and I was going to see what one of those costs,,they have a cone shaped bottom to them.If you look at a big grinder-mixer,once the grain is cracked or ground,it then is conveyed from under the grinder,to the bottom of the cone tank where it is then conveyed to the top and the cycle continues until all your additives are in and you feel they have mixed enough.
Crazy huhn,,the benefits of grinding and making your own feed easily outweight any of my costs to make a small scale grinder mixer.We do plan on having a few hundred chickens here by the end of the summer,and buying feed is just not economical.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Just talked to the seller about taking delivery on this. He said they made 2 models,this one is the heavier built of the two.Supposedly about 60 or so have been built,and more can be made.If it's still findable,the E-BAY item number for this was 160368587466 so you can see more pictures. You can contact the man who makes them directly at [email protected] or call him at 931-628-6396.
He says they will never wear out,and can fine grind,or course crack corn depending on how fast it's fed into the machine,and also how close the rollers are adjusted,which can be done in just a few minutes with 1 wrench. I may decide to mount this on a trailer,as we have a friend that also needs feed ground at times,but I still want to add a mixing-holding tank on this to make it a complete unit that will do everything at once.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

thanks for the info . . . now to track one down!