The Price of Chicken Feed

[BarredBuff]

I pay
7.99 for 50 pounds of scratch
11.99 for Layena Crumbles

 

[Ariel301]

All our feed stores cost way too much. We live 100+ miles from any land capable of growing crops, (northern Arizona desert) so feed and hay must be trucked in, normally from California or Colorado. And of course, that makes the prices horrible!

At our feed stores, the prices fluctuate wildly, but this is what things cost:

Alfalfa hay: $8-17 per hundred pound bale...I need one bale a week for my goats. I can buy it by the ton and have it delivered for less, fortunately.

Cracked corn: Walmart is the only place carrying it, at $9 per 40 pound bag.

Sweet feed made for horses: (specialized livestock feeds like goat feed or hen layer feed are nonexistant here) Nearly $20 per 50 pounds! And people say my milk goats should get 2+ pounds each of that a day? I can't afford that! Just a few years ago, this same bag of feed was $4!

I buy 'cow' quality hay from a dealer that will deliver if I order a ton or more, at $5-7 a bale depending on time of year. I get the cracked corn at walmart just for treats for the animals. I also can buy brewery mash grains from a nearby brewery at $11 per 55 gallon barrel, and if I dry the stuff out it will last months. Wet, it will only last a few days. So dry, it's a good deal. I feed that to the chickens, and during milking season, to the female goats. They also get scraps from the garden and kitchen (we are mostly vegetarian, so we have lots of vegetable/fruit trash) and the goats get to browse about an hour a day, and the chickens are out for several hours a day to free range. So it costs me about $8 a week or so to feed five goats and five chickens. It was way more than that while we still had our horse! I miss the horse, but not the feed bill that went with it.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

I have posted on the high cost of feed before,,and if you grind and mix your own feed,it can be done for 1/2 of what you pay for commercial bagged feed.Common knowledge is notice the selling price of what corn is selling for daily on the Chicago Board of Trade,,last I knew a few days ago,it was selling for $3.75 a bushel,,56 pounds worth,,dried to 15.5% moisture,,,2/3 of poultry feed is corn based with a protein value of 8-9%,,you can then easily use the Pearson Square method to formulate any desired protein level of feed to be made,,as long as you know what the protein levels are in the ingredients your wanting to use.
I can buy a 40 pound bag of cracked corn for $7.84,,a 100lbs of Hubbard poultry developer for $23.00,,or a 40 pound bag of Nutrena chick starter for $8.75 a bag (both 16% protein levels) Because what was once a hobby has now turned into a cash cow for feed costs each week, I purchased a corn-roller crimper,that will crack or grind corn down to flour if you set the rollers tight enough. It is powered by a 9 hp Honda engine,,and you can crush,or crack a 5 gallon bucket of corn in less than a minute with this.I plan to mount on a frame and add two poly cone bottom bulk bins,a few augers,and then be able to grind,mix,and either store or unload the mix.It will be like a mini feed grinder,all done for less than $2500,,,
There are advantages and disadvantages to this,,but with feed cost the major factor in any livestock-poultry operation,,with the number now and intended number of chickens and poultry I plan to have,I can easily justify the initial cost of making my own grinder mixer,and paying for itself in less than 6 months time.

 

[BantyRooster]

I've been paying $18 for 100# of grower(24%) and $16 for 100# of layer (16%). It is locally grown and milled and I have been having outstanding results. 100# of whole wheat is $12.00. I use it for scratch. They eat some and scratch some into the ground and it sprouts. They love the fresh sprouts. No waste is the best part. That and it keeps my dollars local.

 

[TommyVT05]

Hello,

If I may add...
I know Wal-mart is cheap and everything but do you really think $9-$11 per 40lb cracked corn is worth it? Isn't it cheaper elsewhere with more "ingredients" rather than just cracked corn? Cracked corn is just...fatening, its not a good source of protein to feed them chickens anyhow...

- Tommy

 

[Maidservant]

Corn only has 9% protein, chickens need 16% at least, otherwise your growth rate and laying rate will drop off significantly. The only thing I use corn for is a treat. I pay $6.50 for a 50 pound bag of whole corn. They typically just get it whole, or if I'm feeling quite well, I'll crack it for them with the grain grinder.

 

[delawaregirl09]

I pay 11.50 for a 50lb bag of layena pellets, and 7.75 for a 50lb bag of cracked corn, and 12.95 for a bag of chick starter. They eat Layena (except the chicks) then I throw in the corn as a treat/fattener for them (mainly the roosters, having weight problems right now). I was told not to feed scratch, for it will make them skinnier or something like that.

 

[Ariel301]

Quote:
I use it for a treat. Walmart's the only place in my town that even has anything like that...at the feed store, there is rarely scratch, no corn, sometimes there is oats, but usually just a few bags of extremely overpriced sweet feed for horses and specialty horse feeds like Equine Senior. Cheaper elsewhere? Maybe, if there was an elsewhere around here. It's the cheapest grain available other than what I buy from the brewery, and I have to have something that rattles nice in a metal can because that is how I get my chickens to come in for the evening or when I want to catch them. They won't come unless they think there will be something tasty in it for them, and corn seems to work best for them. Or cat food, but that costs more than corn.

Grain for less than $20 per bag is hard to find here. I don't know how people afford to keep horses in this town if they are feeding grain. I miss the prices from further east, ahh the days of $3.99 bags of feed and $2 bales of hay picked up right behind the baling tractor...

I don't know that corn is so bad. When I was growing up, I had a flock of chickens and the feed store told us that we should feed them cracked corn or scratch feed, so that is what they ate. We didn't use any special commercial chicken feeds. They got their protein from bugs, I guess. Our chickens were healthy and laid daily. Maybe it's not optimal, but it worked back then. Feeding them for optimal longevity was never really a concern, honestly, because they got eaten before they reached 2 years old.

 

[melissa508]

The price of feed has gone way up, just 3 years ago i paid-

$4.75 50lbs of scratch
$5.50 laying pellets or starter

That was in O'burg SC & St George SC ..now i pay $13 for scratch & $12-14 for the others...unbelievable that 20 bux & change got me 200lbs of feed

 

[Kerjack]

It costs me $13.95 to get a 55lbs bag of layer crumb.