Sunflower seed price hike. Worldwide or local?

[BlackBart]

For 44 pounds of black oil sunseeds, I pay$20 but I expect that to go up as it comes closer to winter.
That price is for untreated BOSS.

To comment on the spin off of your question.
Lots of information regarding feeding BOSS to horses and BOSS oil for humans. some info on poultry.
It is a Omega 6, relatively high in protein approx 15%, contains Vit E, B's Iron Calcium, fiber........ etc.
Pages have been written by Nutritionists on Black Oil sunseeds and the Nutritional benefits to humans and horses. Some of that information can be transfered to poultry.
Customers tell me they think my eggs taste better when I feed BOSS instead of a soy based feed.

 

[Sparklee]

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finis

 

[Chris09]

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finis

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Chris

 

[Oregon Blues]

I feed my ducks flax seed, which is a good fat source. However, it's over $25 for a 25 pound bag, so it's not any cheaper.

Poultry can have vegetable oil added to their feed as a good fat source. It doesn't take much and if you buy it when it is on sale, maybe that would be cheaper.

Bacon is full of salt, which poultry doesn't need. However, they can eat animal fat, so can have the fat melted or trimmed off the roast or hamburgers.

 

[Sparklee]

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All reasonable ideas. Thanks. I had begun to think about vegetable oil as a possible alternative. My current favorite is ... wait for it ... sunflower oil.

That will likely become out of the question. So maybe some olive oil will end up being the answer because, as you said, it doesn't take much. I'd just have to research the best way to include it. Yeah, I'll have to get out my nutrition books and the spread sheet and figure it out when we do have to cut back on the BO sunflower seeds. I am a bit leery of buying vegetable oil on sale because sometimes it can get old and rancid fairly quickly, especially if not stored properly. Besides making some oils taste really, really bad, rancid oils cause free radicals, not to mention that it would make a difference in the flavor of the eggs and their nutritional makeup. On the flax seed, we decided long ago that we'd save that for ourselves. But that was always an Omega 3 issue (in addition to money), which I presume chickens can get from grass, and not an issue of where they were getting their fat. Babies around here get a smidge of sesame seeds, which are a nice oil seed, but with sesame's high price, we can't feed them year round.

Anyway, so I guess I know that it's quite likely at least a US-wide price hike. And I've got a back up plan or sorts waiting in the wings if prices don't go down by late fall.

 

[BlackBart]

I feed both flaxseed (3) and BOSS (6) to counter the Omegas.
I couldn't afford to feed my chickens bacon even if i thought it was good for them

 

[KenK]

What about peanuts? Just checked and the commodity price is considerably cheaper than sunflower seed.

 

[hennyannie]

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We had almost 4 inches of rain in one storm yesterday, now the worry here will be crops destroyed by too much rain.(Some corn was blown down in the storm yesterday)

 

[Sparklee]

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Oooh. That's a good idea. I'll put peanuts on the list of possibilities.

Here's a funny. I just looked at my Feed Composition Tables and they have listed: Peanut hulls, peanut meal solvent and peanut skins. What that means is that some chicken growers (or maybe hog growers instead) will feed their chickens peanut hulls and peanut skins. It sounds so appetizing.

Of course, it's in a mix and the hulls are ground up. I guess that could sometimes be part of what is in the Roughage Product that is listed on some feed tags.

 

[Karrie13]

It is up here too... I was paying $13.79 a 50lb bag last fall and last week paied $22.59. But just down the road it is $26 for 50lb