I need some chicken feed expert advice please! I went to a new feed mill and co-op today and was checking out their feed and prices and the man gave me this website for the company he buys his feed from.
Please tell me if you think this would be a good feed for my birds as there is no meat products just vegetables.
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
Crude Protein, Min. 20.00%
Lysine, Min. 1.00%
Methionine, Min. 0.41%
Crude Fat, Min. 5.00%
Crude Fiber, Max. 4.50%
Calcium, Min. 0.75%
Calcium, Max. 1.25%
Phosphorus, Min. 0.75%
Salt, Min. 0.30%
Salt, Max. 0.40%
FEEDING DIRECTIONS:
5-Star F-R-M ABF All Vegetable Chick Starter Crumbles is a complete and balanced diet for starting chickens from egg-laying breeds. Begin feeding as the only source of feed after hatch to 6 weeks of age, then switch to 5-Star F-R-M ABF All Vegetable Pullet Grower. Always provide plenty of fresh, clean water.
*Note No antibiotics have been added independently to this feed. There may be a detectable residual level in DDGS, which is contained in this feed.
**No meat byproducts have been added to this feed.
This co-op does not have any other customers that buy chicken feed so he would have to buy 5 tons of it to get it delivered to him. Which means I would have to buy and use it all, not all at once but all!
So I really need some help here please!
I'd keep shopping.
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X2.5 tons is a lot of feed. How many months do you think this would last you??
My grain guy cautions me about bulk deliver ( he does that too) and Mr RHodes has his silos filled and gone in about 3 months as I remember. Grain guy thinks this is too long. ( Grain guy owns the mill)
THe general problem is that once ground, the vitamins start to loose potency. other nutrients don't change.
Can you store it in a cool dry building??
Don't worry about the lack of meat protein. IT is hard to find in feeds now do to laws. You can add tidbits of meat as you can from other sources.
I bought some organic 16% grower from a wholesaler to try it out and was upset when I saw it was 6 months old. I shopped around and most of the organic I found was two to three times as expensive. I found the same feed from one mill and it was the same age. When I mentioned that 6 months was too old, he said "that's not old for grain". I said, "you're right but this isn't grain, it's ground grain".
I went back to my wholesaler and she said, if I would buy a half ton, they'd get it fresh. So when it came in, it must have come straight from the mill as it was only 2 days old.
I also get fishmeal from them so I can use the 16% grower and mix in fish meal (60% protein) to up the protein for those that need it.
AgreedChicka - What other bird feed does he sell? Can you get turkey starter or game bird starter? Is there a TSC near you? I would be more comfortable feeding a mixture made of a higher protein starter and cut it with scratch or some other low protein feed to get the right percentage, You can use lots of other things to get the required nutrition for your birds. Calf Manna, black oil sunflower seeds, scratch, feed wheat, oats, etc. Just don't skip the trace minerals and vitamins that are added to the starters. I would never agree to buy 5000 lbs of feed without enough stock to eat it in a week or less.
I never buy feed from a store without looking at the bagging date.
So if you double your flock, they'll be eating 400-500 lbs. a week. 5 tons would last you 20-30 weeks. IMO that's too long. and at 20% protein, you'd have to cut it with grain for non-molting adults which will make it last even longer.I am not sure how fast I can use the feed but he can store it for us till I buy what I need. We went thru 4-5 bags of feed a week last year and I am nearly doubling my flock.
Thank you for you help and input! I appreciate it so much!
I do not have to buy it all at once but he will expect me to keep buying from him till it is all used up. So he will not be stuck with it.
I can store a couple hundred pounds in my feed room. But not a whole lot more than that. I did read the list of ing. in the store and it is all pure ing. and no GMO's.
Thank you for your help and input! I appreciate it very much.
There used to be an organic mill here in MO that had a soy free feed. They supplemented field peas.I agree, along with the ingredient label.
Personally, I like feeds without Soy.
That's the only one I've seen that was soy free.
I'm going with the organic, primarily to avoid GMO. The fact that I'm getting a good price and using less by fermenting makes it affordable.