The Middle Tennessee Thread

[Raven1]

Thanks Connie!

 

[Goose and Fig]

Happy Birthday, Becky- glad to see you getting some good news too.

 

[TinTennessee]

Happy Birthday Becky!!!

 

[Penny Hen]

Absolutely! That post also made me think: what about people who need assistance/service animals for whom a dog is not appropriate? I read an article not so long ago about a young blind woman in (I believe) New York or Boston for whom a dog was unsuitable due to her family's devout Muslim faith -dogs are viewed as unclean but horses are not, so she has a seeing eye mini-horse. The article had a photo of her and the mini-horse, which wears a guiding harness just like the ones some dogs wear...as well as a bright orange vest with its service animal credentials prominantly displayed; they were riding public transit.
Sorry for hopping on the OT bandwagon, but it's a round-about way of saying: Yeah, I agree, a sort of BBB of Ag' businesses, auctions, private sellers, would be a good resource. Especially if someone is moving to a new area, or new to owning let's say Backyard Chickens? ;-D

It could be based on how Angie's List collects credible services like plumbers, electricians and carpenters. I will have to go look at Angie's List to see just how they do things. I have had the site recommended to me but I haven't used it personaly yet.

 

[DMRippy]

BTW if you have emailed me at my bellsouth account and I have not responded it is because someone deleted my account at Yahoo. ..... are they a bunch of yahoos???? haha. No idea what happened or why but my account and all the emails since the 4th are GONE...... never to be recovered. PM me here if you need my new email.... well my OTHER email.

 

[Penny Hen]

I have sold all I am going to for the year but will have some Rhodebars and some Heritage Rose Comb Rhode Islands next year.
Early spring I may have some production layers... straight runs.

As far as non-GMO feed.... I grind and mix my own... and grind grains for several other poultry folks too who want soy free, gmo free rations.
Quite easy to do.... non-GMO grains are easy to grow here in TN and/or buy... hammermill, mix, ferment... easy.
Just balance the ration properly with the right amount of calcium, animal protein, etc... for your different management groups.

The grain mill next to the Co-Op in Springfield has non-GMO (all of their grain) grain (wheat, oats, corn). The smallest increments that you can buy from them is 1/2 ton (approximatly 3/4 of a standard pick up bed). Now if you have just a handful of chickens that might not be worth the extra work of storing and mixing but if you are feeding a large number of chickens or other livestock you can't beat the price of buying the grain from them. If you get some of those plastic 55 gallon drums you can store the grain in them.

I priced this for feeding my sheep about 5 years ago before my truck tanked and it came out to paying about $6.89 per 50 lbs of wheat. You have to do some math conversion because they price it in bushels. They know how many bushels (this can vary between different grains) are in a 1/2 ton. So a 1/2 ton is 1000 lbs.

1000lbs divided by No. of bushels of that type grain in a half ton (the feed mill knows this number) = The wieght of a bushel of that grain in lbs.

Now this next part is going to use numbers that are just hypothetical because without numbers it is tough to explain even if you remember your high school algebre.

Let's say that you calculate that a bushel of the grain you want to buy is 60 lbs. Now bushels are volumn. A bushel of wheat and a bushel of corn do not weigh the same. You are wanting to compare it to 50 lbs of grain that you would buy at the feed store. So for this example I will use whole corn because corn is a heavier grain and comes closer to being real for the following numbers that I plucked out of the nether region. The main purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the math that you will plug numbers from your own research into. If you call the Robertson CoOp they can tell you the name of the grain mill that my head is cramping on. If you are somewhere further away this math will help you work it out with what ever grain mill is closest to you.

60lbs bushel divided by 50lbs feed bag = 1.2 This is the conversion ratio number. It describes the relationship of these two numbers.{They are going steady.

}

Say the cost of the bushel of this corn, is $7.20. The cost for the 50 bag of corn from the TSC or CoOp is $9.99 (on sale).

So to convert the bushel corn price to 50 lb sack of corn price: $7.20 (bu price) divided by 1.2 (the ratio number

) = $6.00 for 50 lbs of corn bought at the feed mill in bulk.


Now when I did this for wheat a few years ago for my sheep, I came out with numbers that said I would be spending between $2.50 and $3 less per 50 lbs of feed if I bought in bulk instead of the sacks of the cheapest 10 % sweet feed. I compared it to sweet feed because the CoOp and the TSC didn't sell pure wheat which I found to have higher protien and didn't leave you wondering what was in the mystery pellets. I never got to implement it because of a string of events occurred that involved vehicles and health and all sorts of sidetracks. But I am putting this project back onto the agenda because once you solve the storage and the transport of the bulk grain you begin to save so much money. This grain is all locally grown too. You are buying from your agricultural neighbors. As of 5 years ago this feed mill was not dealing in any GMO grain. Double check to make sure that is still so when you call for priceing and the number of bushels your grain choices will be at 1/2 ton.

In wheat and oats the bushel may be less in weight than the 50 lbs sack. Divide the larger number by the smaller. Technically, it works out either way but the math is easier for the average person not to get confused. Dividing the smaller number by the larger one is like the first time you ever backed a trailer and had to get used to turning the wheel the opposite direction you wanted the trailer to go. Makes your head hurt for a while.

And if you ever need to answer that smart young pup's whine about when is he/she ever going to need that level of math feel free to use this.

 

[RedRidge]

I highly encourage everyone to consider their own ration... it is a huge savings.
I also encourage everyone to raise BSF... it's free, it's easy, and will save you a TON of money.

Because I used to own the sheep dairy here in TN and went through 4 tons of feed a week, the guys at the co-op know me well. ;-)
Yes, that was me on the cover of the Cooperator a while back holding the lamb.
I balance rations for people all over the country for poultry, sheep and cattle based on their needs, access, soil, climate... etc

The savings doing it this way is phenominal... even if you never free range or raise BSF.
The prepackaged non-gmo poultry feed runs 50% more than what we mix ourselves.
Add raising BSF... amazing how little it can cost you to feed poultry in TN.

 

[DaddyBird]

If any of you are going to be at Ellington Ag Center today, my wife and I are attending and would love to meet some of you in person.

 

[CatMom]

I went to one of his workshops when Nashville was just legalized for backyard hens for eggs. It was great! I was brand new to chickens back then and I got a lot of good info, plus he's really entertaning.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Look how big his hands are!