Thoughts on corn in poultry feeds.

[Sunny75]

My Rhode Island Reds don't eat much of the corn! They pick through it and let the corn sit. But my cornish hen loves it all! The corn is eaten by other birds,especially Cardinals!

 

[Acre4Me]

My chickens love corn (as a treat). They get Kalmbach 20% grower feed with OS on side. 1st ingredient: corn.

As a customer of a feed manufacturer, I expect to buy a feed they will do well on. This feed seems very good for them. As a customer, I would expect the feed company to have done their R&D to produce a good, animal appropriate feed.

Chickens have been eating corn for a long long time. Corn does not worry me. But, based on my educational background in a STEM field, including an advanced degree in a field relating to human foods, I don’t easily fall for a bunch of internet crazy theories. However, GMO is an area of specific concern, bc that can be used in positive and negative ways. But, back to the feed company...as a customer, I would expect to get a good/healthy feed that would not harm my animals. I don’t personify or humanize my animals, so I’m not anticipating their beaks curving into a smile either if I were to provide them with a certain feed with certain ingredients.

FWIW, maybe you need to rename “corn” on your label as “maize fruit” or “seed of the maize plant” or “maize nutrient kernel”. kinda like various natural food companies use “evaporated cane juice” for sugar. It sounds so much healthier! I should go into marketing....

 

[GC-Raptor]

I've done a lot of research online about chickens, for over 3 years.
I don't remember where I read a lot of information, but I trusted it.

I have read that soy and corn complement each other nearly perfectly for a grain based feed.

I provide a non organic soy and corn based feed for my chickens and they gave me lots of eggs. I now have a new Flock 20 weeks old and starting to lay.
I like the price and I can find it fresh, which I feel is important. GC

 

[ShannonR]

Just as an FYI, I am an organic and non-gmo conventional manufacturer. So both types of feed that I manufacture are non-gmo.

Ironically, I don’t have particularly strong views on GMO’s, but do understand the concerns of others.

Hmm, corn isn't something I have ever thought of as bad for poultry. Soy, yes, I could see why. To the OP: it might help you to post a poll on whether folks here think corn is good, or bad... or whether they are indifferent to a corn free idea. My vote is for indifference, seeing as you aren't using GM corn to begin with.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've done a lot of research online about chickens, for over 3 years.
I don't remember where I read a lot of information, but I trusted it.

I have read that soy and corn complement each other nearly perfectly for a grain based feed.

I provide a non organic soy and corn based feed for my chickens and they gave me lots of eggs. I now have a new Flock 20 weeks old and starting to lay.
I like the price and I can find it fresh, which I feel is important. GC

Right. Corn and soybeans (or any grain and legume) will complement each other in terms of essential amino acids - as any vegan feeding themselves know.
However, there will still be deficiencies so some amino acids will still need to be supplemented.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have no issues with feeding corn (or soy) but I do end up feeding no corn or no soy feeds because sometimes those are the only organic feed options.

 

[centrarchid]

I use corn, but do have reservations that we are becoming overly reliant upon too few sources from which we make our complete and incomplete (scratch) feeds. Yes, corn has a good nutrient profile, but omnivores expected to live more than a couple of years are likely to live longer and healthier life if diets are a little more varied and less nutrient dense.

Can you incorporate oats, barley, wheat, millet and buckwheat into your formulations? When we used corn in our game fowl feeds, it was flint or popcorn rather than the more starch rich dent corn that I can get now. Growing up, those where very much a part of formulations we mixed up ourselves. They were not ground, rather they were intact grains. We grew much of those on our farm and could buy others from neighbors or the feed mill.

Take a look out the game fowl (fighting chicken) formulations still available in the southern US. You may find the appearance of those formulations in the hand will stimulate interest of your buyers.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

I have avoided corn in feed because my children and I feed the chickens corn and scratch as a treat. I try to feed a higher protein feed because it gets diluted with the "treats".

 

[21hens-incharge]

I too am posting to follow.
I KNOW the feed I use has corn. I have no issue with it.

 

[Timothy Menezes]

I have avoided corn in feed because my children and I feed the chickens corn and scratch as a treat. I try to feed a higher protein feed because it gets diluted with the "treats".

Exactly how I feel. If I don't keep an eye on my kids they will toss the whole bag of scratch in a day lol. One of several reasons I am switching from Purina 16 percent layer to Nutrena 18 percent layer.