Thoughts on corn in poultry feeds.

[foxtrotters19]

I am a dog and horse owner, for me corn is a filler - causes / can causes allergies in dogs/ and corn is too high in sugars and starches to be fed to horses... I expect that corn would be in chicken feed of some sort... just my opinion/thoughts

 

[Mossy Dell]

View attachment 1654459 I bring in 2.5 tons of my poultry ration when I need it. I always have them load a compartment when bringing my livestock or hog feed in. With that said, my ration is heavy on rolled corn and rolled milo, with soybean meal, fish meal, yeast, calcium, salt w/trace, dical phosphate, vit A, D and E, with a light shot of either molasses or sunflower oil to help in binding. (Runs about 18% overall based on 12% protein corn)

So, I guess you can figure out where I stand with corn in a poultry diet. LOL

I sure like the looks and explanation of your feed, Fire. I might add oats and wonder if you considered that? Milo and corn are very similar nutritionally, though milo can boost protein—but your corn is amazing, 12% vs. dent corn as low as 7.5%

For what it's worth, I like milo, or ideally millet, for the way those small, hard seeds work the gizzard.

 

[Mossy Dell]

Good Post!

Just figured id add my 2c onto this. I am a bit of what could be called a "hippie" now days so i do have personal concerns about foods which have chemical residue (pesticides herbicides) as well as GMO crops. But id agree with what some of the previous posters said about GMOs and such. I think that is typically the concern for some of us out there, but i also do feel that corn in general now days gets a bad rep in any animal feed. People think about "corn fed" beef....and that rings the "bad bell" in peoples heads. Unfortunately its just an overall lack of education i think. They assume that 'oh corn is bad for cows so it must be bad for my chickens'. Or 'oh most of my chickens food will be "cheap" corn and not have anything else in there'. So i think educating the customer about what is actually healthy and nutritious for their flock might be a good avenue to go down, so that they can be informed that corn isnt necessarily "unhealthy" for their flock.
M

This is very sensible. An economical but good traditional feed in parts of the lower south was/is 1 part corn, 1 part oats, 1-2 part laying pellets. The oats and corn were often soaked overnight to increase palatability and, in the case of the oats, digestibility. If you were going to feed only two grains, corn and oats are great because they compliment each other so well in terms of nutrition and fiber.

Now, depending on the pellet, the protein could run low in that mix unless the birds were free ranging. Some of those folks added a bit of meat-based dog food during molt or breeding. Having range is very forgiving, but that formula is also used as maintenance for penned fowl. I like more diversity in my mix. But that old recipe is informative.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good Post!

Just figured id add my 2c onto this. I am a bit of what could be called a "hippie" now days so i do have personal concerns about foods which have chemical residue (pesticides herbicides) as well as GMO crops. But id agree with what some of the previous posters said about GMOs and such. I think that is typically the concern for some of us out there, but i also do feel that corn in general now days gets a bad rep in any animal feed. People think about "corn fed" beef....and that rings the "bad bell" in peoples heads. Unfortunately its just an overall lack of education i think. They assume that 'oh corn is bad for cows so it must be bad for my chickens'. Or 'oh most of my chickens food will be "cheap" corn and not have anything else in there'. So i think educating the customer about what is actually healthy and nutritious for their flock might be a good avenue to go down, so that they can be informed that corn isnt necessarily "unhealthy" for their flock.
What i go back to is my grandpa and his family farm back in the day. They fed their chickens nothing but cracked corn they grew in the fields, and had been doing that for generations upon generations. Hes 96 and still in incredibly good condition, his whole farming family was very healthy eating these chickens and their eggs. The chickens did well with a corn fed diet, everything was fine back then, so i figure its probably ok for me to feed my chickens corn now, and i do. Good luck in your endeavor.

M

Back in the day, GMO didn't exist so when your grandfather grew and fed corn, it wasn't genetically modified.
Corn is already the main ingredient in most nutritionally complete feeds so additional corn isn't needed in the diet and can dramatically lower the protein and more importantly the amino acid profile.
Cattle are grazers. That means they are genetically predisposed to eat grasses and other pasture forbs, not grain. Eating grass is what they always ate - not grains. Finishing on corn causes them to develop unnatural fats.

 

[Mossy Dell]

Corn back then was also likely to be much higher protein. They breed now for high yield. Protein and yield seem hard to get together. And with so much soy as a protein source, they are using it.

 

[centrarchid]

Corn back then was also likely to be much higher protein. They breed now for high yield. Protein and yield seem hard to get together. And with so much soy as a protein source, they are using it.

The dent corn has been selected for abundant starch. My preferred flint / Indian / popcorn varieties differ most in the starch content.

 

[Mossy Dell]

there might be something to that..
but I like an occasional bowl anyhow..

for all of my chickens, I feed 50/50 finely pulverized oats and corn.
I even start the chicks out on it.
No crumbles on this homestead..
I used to feed starter crumbles , but I quit that as an experiment. it worked well for me..
I used to feed crumbles to the chickens right up to butchering time. but when cooking the chicken, I could smell the crumbles. not very appetizing..

jvls, that is a classic mix of half oats and half corn. I am used to it as whole grains more. Some old school folk used to feed a third each of oats, corn, and pellets to hens, with the oats and sometimes the corn soaked overnight.

I wonder, for chicks, do you add anything else to the mix or supplement on the side? I am thinking of a poultry pack with methionine, etc, in the mix and hard-boiled eggs on the side?

 

[srishti_isaave]

Hi BYCers!

I am a feed manufacturer, and I have been active here (Off and on) for about 7 or 8 years. Over the years, I have noticed an increasing opinion that corn is not a good ingredient for poultry feeds. I often see posts that point out corn as a “filler”, or that it is only used because it is cheap.

I am very honestly curious about the basis for these thoughts, and I am very interested in opinions, and data that supports it. As a manufacturer, I want to be as informed as possible, so that I can make appropriate decisions for future formulations. I am curious if I should be looking at offering a corn free option or not. We do currently offer some soy free options, but the advantages to that were easy to identify. There is a lot of science behind the advantages and disadvantages of using soy. I saw good reason to offer an option excluding soy products.

From my perspective- We use corn, because it actually has one of the best nutrient profiles that align with the energy needs of poultry. We definitely don’t use it as a filler. It is actually used as the complete opposite of a filler. It is actually one of the most energy nutrient dense ingredients available for livestock feeds. It’s also far from being the cheapest ingredient available for use as the energy portion of the rations. Small grains are much cheaper to use, with the exception of milling wheat (Milling wheat wouldn’t be used by a feed mill anyway. They would only be using wheat that didn’t make food grade). Barley, oats, rye, spelt, soft red wheat, etc., are typically cheaper.

I appreciate any input that can be provided! And thank you in advance for all of your views!

-Eric

According to me Soybean meal has high protein content and excellent amino acid profile that is comparable to corns, Poultry Farmers are also shifting towards soybeans meals to enhance nutritive value of feed ingredients. As a researcher myself, I gained a lot of insights when I came across https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/poultry-feed-market if you can find it helpful, let me know if it helped.

 

[factmrreports]

Corn is a low-fiber grain that is easy to digest for chickens. Yellow dent corn is the most common variety used in feed. It is a great source of dietary energy. It is usually coupled with soybean meal to boost protein and the enzyme phytase is added to allow birds to utilize the phosphorus in corn. When I was researching about poultry feed, I came across Poultry Feed Market you might find it useful. It helped me a lot.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Mary