Trying to dial in FCR for broilers

[Coreyg003]

New here but have raised chickens for several years now and process on farm and sell locally.

We raise a few rounds of 50 broilers (Cornish) 3 times a year, and have been for the last few years. This year I am focusing on really dialing in costs and perfecting these small batches before scaling to batches of 100-200 birds.
Birds are kept in chicken tractors and moved 1-2 times daily. Fed 22% chick starter for 2 weeks, 24/7 feed then switching to 18% non gmo broiler feed 12 hrs available 12 no feed. Goal is 4.5-5 pound dressed weight.
I’ve been seeing advertised FCR of 1.7 and under, but I’m thinking that is live weight before processing.

I have many questions and scenarios to discuss, but I guess let’s begin with: will I get a better result by feeding a higher protein feed throughout ? Ie 22 or 20% for the entire run? What about allowing feed longer when they are older? I do care about their quality of life and don’t want to over feed and cause issues. We don’t lose many, if any birds currently and I don’t want to cause issues, but would like to develop a profitable operation.

I have many more questions, I’ve been looking into fermenting the feed as well, which I would really like to try on the next round of birds. Anything to get feed costs down, as a pallet is around $750 (don’t have the storage capability for totes yet but that would lower to around 625)..

 

[FunClucks]

If you feed higher protein (meatbird feed) throughout, they'll pack on weight faster, but expect ~3% loss by/at 8 wks due to leg and heart issues. At least, that's my experience from two larger batches of CX. I fed Purina or Dumor or Nature Wise meatbird feed (to CX from Welp) throughout, and was getting 5-6 lb birds, dressed, by 6 wks. If you make it dark at night you don't have to remove the food, but anytime it's light enough to see, they will eat. I calculated it out for my first batch, and it was around 1.8 FCR raising to 8 wks. I had to stop doing roasts around 7 wks and start doing parted chicken, as the legs were so big compared to the breast, that if you tried to roast the chicken the legs and breast wouldn't be done at the same time, one would be way overcooked.

As with anything meatbird related, your best info will come from trying something yourself in your own setup, and seeing how it turns out, since we all raise them differently.

 

[Coreyg003]

Thanks for the response. Yes there are so many different ways to raise them!
I’m learning even more this go round about the different feeds. They are currently on a non gmo broiler feed from a local producer (Sunrise Farms) but I am probably going to switch to Kalmbach.
The Sunrise Farms does not list lysine or methionine levels, waiting for a response to my email…also it is 18% protein, 7% crude fat and 5% fiber which is much higher than other feeds I’ve been investigating. Not sure if the higher fat is a good thing but my instincts say it’s not.

 

[FunClucks]

Thanks for the response. Yes there are so many different ways to raise them!
I’m learning even more this go round about the different feeds. They are currently on a non gmo broiler feed from a local producer (Sunrise Farms) but I am probably going to switch to Kalmbach.
The Sunrise Farms does not list lysine or methionine levels, waiting for a response to my email…also it is 18% protein, 7% crude fat and 5% fiber which is much higher than other feeds I’ve been investigating. Not sure if the higher fat is a good thing but my instincts say it’s not.

That high number of fat is not healthy, but if you only raise them for 3 months or less, should not matter as much I think. @Kiki might be able to help you out, she keeps a feed list and knows a lot about feed comparison. For meat birds I'm really surprised you're not doing at least 20% protein. I do 23% protein for meatbirds, and 20% for my eggers, maybe 2.5-4% fat tops. Kalmbach is a good feed.

 

[Kiki]

Thanks for the response. Yes there are so many different ways to raise them!
I’m learning even more this go round about the different feeds. They are currently on a non gmo broiler feed from a local producer (Sunrise Farms) but I am probably going to switch to Kalmbach.
The Sunrise Farms does not list lysine or methionine levels, waiting for a response to my email…also it is 18% protein, 7% crude fat and 5% fiber which is much higher than other feeds I’ve been investigating. Not sure if the higher fat is a good thing but my instincts say it’s not.

Notice the tabs at the bottom of the workbook:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1upDVFXEQPK8PUIF6Sj3Bt5CUQfX1PlTEhg799sDT-qM/edit#gid=0