storing feed in the freezer?

[pdirt]

Thank you! I love every thing about having them

I did get the unfortunate word today that the guy who mills our feed will no longer be doing soy free

apparently, it's too hard to source the peas, not enough people buy it, and he has to clean out the mill in order to make it every time so it's not worth it to him. I guess we're going to have to start using the soy inclusive

at least it's organic so no fear of GMOs is just a little dissapointing. If well. You can't get 50 lbs of organic feed for $15 a bag anywhere else though. I also found out today that they are making labels for it. They had a nutritionist come and analyze it.

I think it was from Joel Salatin (Polyface Farm) who I learned from that ruminants (cows, sheep, etc) do not digest soy well. But pigs and chickens do. I've also read about how the meat on cows turns out with some very unfavorable traits (I think part of it had to do with omega-3 and omega-6 balance), but I don't recall exactly since I don't often eat beef. But apparently soy isn't such a hardship on chickens. And soy in particular, if it is fermented in any way, great! Most of the true soy ferments I am aware of require fairly high temps, 88F for tempeh and 104F for natto and generally require a starter powder to make them. But we're not making that when fermenting chicken feed and I am not exactly sure how soy is changed/improved via typical fermented feed methods, but it will be better than how it started out, IMO.

 

[MeepBeep]

I personally can't see the electrical cost vs feed cost savings to be much of a benefit for dry feeds...

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I personally can't see the electrical cost vs feed cost savings to be much of a benefit for dry feeds...

that is a thought but our electric bill really hasn't changed more than a dollar or so since we got our freezers.

 

[MeepBeep]

I personally can't see the electrical cost vs feed cost savings to be much of a benefit for dry feeds...

that is a thought but our electric bill really hasn't changed more than a dollar or so since we got our freezers.

I just looked at some estimated Energy star ratings, a medium sized 14.8 cubic foot chest freezer cost about $38 a year to run according to them... That's just over $3 per freezer per month... Probably upwards of $5 a month for older or less efficient freezers...

I found an estimate that poultry feed is about 28 lbs per cubic foot... So if you were to order 1000 lbs you would realistically need 3 or more freezers that size to accommodate it, so I'm seeing a cost of $10+ possibly even upwards of $20 a month in extra electricity...

 

[OneMountainAcres]

We have a 24 cubic ft and a 5 cubic for freezer (I think that's what it is but I'm not positive) and were planning to get a third freezer, 24 cubit ft freezer possibly. The small freezer easily fits at least 5 50 lb bags in it we've had 5-6 bags in the big freezer before, along with all of our meat and frozen stuff. We know that in order to fit 1000 lbs in a freezer we would need a third one. The convenient thing is, all of this is out in the garage which is unheated and will be freezing over the winter anyway. We haven't noticed an increase in our bill and we find it very convenient. Our energy costs may be lower than the national average that the amount you saw was based on. Who knows.