Thoughts on corn in poultry feeds.

[centrarchid]

Have you folks ever seen the movie Interstellar where pretty much the only crop being grown globally is corn. That and soybeans is pretty close to reality in the US when it comes to typical poultry feeds. Variety is better, yet we have become complacent with such low variety and have issues with those saying uh oh.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm happy to buy a nice balanced ration for my birds, and other animals, and corn works very well in so many diets for them. No problems! I do have TWO! dogs with food and other allergies, who eat a very controlled special diet, but that's a special situation.
I like corn too!
I also had animal nutrition classes in college, and since then, so am not involved with the latest 'fad' diet stories either.
Mary

 

[Kiki]

I don't think corn in a complete feed is bad at all.

I think the problem with feeding corn comes into play particular with scratch....when people feed too much scratch.

 

[centrarchid]

My logic is not based on nutrition or economics alone. it is about having two few crops providing feed-stuff needs for us and our animals. More variety is better. One of these days a disease is going to knock back yields current varieties of corn or soybeans making for some significant supply issues that would not be as problematic if more plant varieties were being used.

 

[Folly's place]

There's so much fantasy 'information' out there about diets, for us, and our pets! People with no background in nutrition can easily be confused or led into believing some pretty strange dietary plans, and it's too bad.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

Centrarchid, I agree, and it's not just that some items are grown in such volume, but that each is so genetically uniform. That's what the Livestock Conservancy is about, and the Seed Exchange, and other attempts to keep more genetic diversity available.
Crops can fail, and then monoculture is not our friend.
Mary

 

[Criticalicious]

From a marketing perspective, and from my own searching, I can tell you that it is not easy to find corn-free, soy-free grower or starter feeds. If you have the opportunity to provide a fresh feed without corn or soy, you will readily find a market - especially if you can ship it outside your local area for a reasonable rate. I could not find a pellet or crumble that I was comfortable with either.

I chose corn-free over the summer when it was excessively hot because I had read that corn raises chicken's body temps (probably a wives' tale), and switched to the soy-free with corn for winter to keep them warmer. The feed mill salesperson believed based on his experience in talking with customers that it was in fact better to stick with the same feed throughout the year and not worry about the change in seasons. I'm not entirely sure I agree with that assessment. My chickens did not complain about these changes within the same brand.

Another thing to consider are people with soy or corn allergies. By not feeding those to the chickens, you reduce the likelihood of triggering allergies from the eggs or if nothing else, from having a reaction when they feed their chickens.

 

[Folly's place]

From a marketing standpoint, I agree, there is definitely a market out there for these products, at least for now.
If the poultry keeper is actually allergic to either ingredient, (or wheat, or whatever) then avoiding that ingredient in the chicken feed will avoid handling it, or inhaling it in the coop.
Dust and dust mites are bad for anyone to inhale; that's why we have N95 or better dust masks, and respirators!
Mary

 

[GreenMountainEric]

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.

We currently use barley and wheat in our formulations in place of some of the corn. We have also been making a coarse layer feed for about 10 years now (Whole barley, cracked corn, cracked roasted soybeans, minerals, etc.). The folks that use it, swear by it. But it isn’t very popular. Layer pellets outsell it probably 100:1.

 

[centrarchid]

Put some color in like with cat and dog foods. Millet and flint corn with actual color can render a mix that is eye catching and implies a healthy mix.