What happened to the price of feed?????

[seminolewind]

Four years ago I think I was paying $8.00 for 50 pounds. I just bought feed and it was $15.00 a 50 pound bag. That's unreal. Someone must have made out like a bandit on corn futures!

 

[sheila3935]

Its only goona get worse with the drought that alot of states have had this year. The farmers here are already harvesting corn which is early usually not done before October. We have not had any rain to speak of since July 1st. Texas is on fire in alot of the area. Most of their crps have failed. Oklahoma not much better. for the corn belt its been a hot dry summer.

 

[Fred's Hens]

All commodities are being pressured. Supply is NOT keeping up with demand and the US has very few acres left to put into production to increase supply. Ethanol is blamed for much of it, but all commodities are skyrocketing because of the currency crisis. Would you rather have a dollar or Euro or 1000 metric tons of wheat, corn, oats, soybeans or 1000 barrels of oil? Obvious.

The earth's population has reached the point where production of most grains is reaching the pressure point.

Thus, your chicken feed, which is mainly soybean meal and corn, plus the cost of trucking it around with $4 diesel prices, is much higher than 4 years ago. I'm afraid we haven't seen the top called yet.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Our crops here in Kansas haven't been good either. Even our irrigated corn made less bushels per acre than dryland usually does and the dryland was a total failure in a large part of the state. Dryland soybeans look to be a total loss in our area and the irrigated (which we haven't cut yet) aren't looking very good either. Right here in our area we're about 13-14 inches behind where we should be in moisture. We need to start planting wheat in a couple of weeks, but there's no moisture to get it up.

 

[saladin]

Quote:
Though it has been exceedingly dry in the midwest; our part of the South (generally speaking) had plenty of rain. Record numbers for our corn: most is coming in at 200 Bushels per acre in our county.

If you want to pay less then I'd suggest going to a local mill to get your feed. I'm paying $9/50 lbs of Oats and $10/50 lbs of 16% feed. The local mill still bases corn prices on the Chicago board but you don't have the high cost of shipping that is added at feed stores.

 

[chicmom]

Yeah, I feel ya! I used to by Dumor feed, which was around $11 for a 50 lb bag, then it went up to $13 per bag. I recently switched to Purina Flock Raiser, because I have turkeys now, and it's $16.00 per bag.

So I know what you mean! OUCH! Hurts the pocket book!

 

[crazychics4me]

Unfortunately the big hike in gas prices is making EVERYTHING go up in price....

Good thing the chickens love our leftovers. That helps a little bit...lol

 

[ColoradoGirl42]

Yep. I own a packing and shipping store, and the costs of shipping rise around 7% every few months. It's killing us. And it's all because of the price of diesel.

 

[chicmom]

Summers aren't so bad because I have enough land to free range my flock of 19, but the cost to feed sure goes up in the winter time. I wish that somehow, these billionaires who own the gas companies could be kept from raping our wallets! Utility companies too......my home is all electric and I'm on the budget, the amount is just ridiculous what I pay each month. I own a modest ranch home, with just 1352 sq ft, and I pay around $250 a month for the electric.......

Sorry for the graphic expression, but that's the only thing I could think of!

 

[saladin]

I will say again, 'The answer is your local feed mill.' Forget shipping cost! Buy local!