Sunflower seed price hike. Worldwide or local?

[kuntrygirl]

$30.00 for a 50lb bag here.

 

[Sparklee]

Thanks to all those who discussed the price increase of sunflower seeds. It's just the information that I needed and I appreciate you taking the time to type a few lines. Now to figure out a good source to replace a small portion of the fat in their diet without affecting the great taste of the eggs. I could be crazy, but I love the flavor of the eggs and attribute some of that to sunflower seeds.

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
Flavor. Flavor. Flavor. Although, actually, it's because we don't use soy in their feed, which would contain usually X amount of the soy fat and is usually one of the sources of fat in chicken feed, that we ended up using sunflower. Since we don't have the soy source of fat, nor any others to speak of, we have to come up with a fat source. Sunflower seeds seemed like a great choice. The sunflower seeds coupled with other things we feed them would possibly account for the flavor difference we have tasted in the eggs since a few months after we switched from a soy-based feed. Also a lack of soy in their feed could also account for the change in egg flavor.

Quote:
Fingers crossed that something else they get will be counteracting that increase in cancer risk. Like maybe their antioxidant vitamins? Fingers crossed. Maybe "Five grasshoppers a day, keeps cancer away"?

Quote:
Yep, a little of this and a little of that. Moderation. (Disclaimer: Moderation with known carcinogens (or poisons) is probably not a good idea.) As wide a variety as possible ... within limits, of course. $30+ for a bag of sunflower seeds is giving my pocketbook convulsions. I'm not sure who mentioned bacon, but that's a good idea, but I don't like to turn on the stove if I don't have to and we don't regularly eat bacon.

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
I didn't mention the amount of sunflower seeds that I fed the chickens. Further, there are studies on diets where soy is replaced by sunflower with positive results. (Senkoylu and Dale (1999), Ravidran and Blair (1992) where 50% replacement was suggested, Rao et al. (2006))

Of course, it's not overkill based on fat percentage. It's not your fault that I gave you limited information. You usually have insightful posts, Chris, but I think you have me confused with someone who has never even heard of NRC's 1994 publication of Nutrient Requirements of Poultry or other reliable sources detailing poultry nutrition.

My sunflower seed bag claims 19% fat. Guaranteed analysis. I have no reason at this time to believe you over the bag, but if you have more information showing that whole black oil sunflower seeds contain 28% fat, I'm all ears. But really, I consulted other sources at the time that I formulated the chickens' feed and am not too concerned that they are experiencing any symptoms of overkill.

Edited to remove surplus comma.

Edited again to add: It would seem that some Black Oil Sunflower Seeds have mineral oil added to them to make them more appealing to wild birds. Possibly that would account for the discrepency between your 28% and my 19%. Mineral oil? Yum.

 

[chicken farmer 1997]

shelled corn is 16.25 for a 100 lb. last year it was 9.50 for a 100 lb. i have hear that the corn plants is what makes it so high.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Not quite understanding what you mean.

Price has risen because of supply and demand. Lots of growing areas (our farm included) have been fighting poor growing conditions which equals lower yields (some for several years in a row now) plus input costs have risen dramatically over the last several years.

 

[Cindy in PA]

It is $35/50 here after being about $20/50 last fall. I think it will go down soon, but not enough. No one can afford to feed wild birds anymore, so there goes a big market. I can go through 50 lbs. in two weeks feeding just birds, so it ain't happening here this year. Nothing else works for the wild birds, so they will be on their own. Chickens will get a lot less sunflower.

 

[Sparklee]

Here's something I found: After June numbers have come in, the US planted this year 105% of what they planted last year in OIL sunflowers. The link shows the state breakdowns based on reports to the USDA. Kansas, surprisingly, planted 118% of what they planted last year. Of course, these aren't harvest numbers, so time will tell if what was planted is harvested.

http://www.sunflowernsa.com/stats/usda-reports/june-plantings/

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Planted and harvested are two completely different numbers. I drive by fields that are withering away from no rain everyday. We don't plant sunflowers, only other grains, but there are many planted acres of fall crops that will not be harvested this year because of the drought.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
I didn't mention the amount of sunflower seeds that I fed the chickens. Further, there are studies on diets where soy is replaced by sunflower with positive results. (Senkoylu and Dale (1999), Ravidran and Blair (1992) where 50% replacement was suggested, Rao et al. (2006))

Of course, it's not overkill based on fat percentage. It's not your fault that I gave you limited information. You usually have insightful posts, Chris, but I think you have me confused with someone who has never even heard of NRC's 1994 publication of Nutrient Requirements of Poultry or other reliable sources detailing poultry nutrition.

My sunflower seed bag claims 19% fat. Guaranteed analysis. I have no reason at this time to believe you over the bag, but if you have more information showing that whole black oil sunflower seeds contain 28% fat, I'm all ears. But really, I consulted other sources at the time that I formulated the chickens' feed and am not too concerned that they are experiencing any symptoms of overkill.

Edited to remove surplus comma.

Edited again to add: It would seem that some Black Oil Sunflower Seeds have mineral oil added to them to make them more appealing to wild birds. Possibly that would account for the discrepency between your 28% and my 19%. Mineral oil? Yum.

Quote:
I'm not sure what that has to do with the question I asked but, Ok
Quote:
I would believe that they were comparing Sunflower Meal and Soybean Meal. **Note that Sunflower Meal is quit different nutritionally than Sunflower Seeds**.
Quote:
Thank You.
Quote:
That could be, a lot of the nutritional value of a feed product like a grain or seed depends on how it was grown. The amount of fat I posted (28%) is a average I have seen it from 20 to 30 percent fat and most of the information I have read stated the average being 28% fat.

Chris