Whats better, soy and corn free or organic?

[Chicken love to infinity]

Henlo! I'm currently feeding my hens naturecrest which is soy and corn free but it's not organic... My feed store started carrying Dumor organic pellets but it has soy and corn which I have read is bad. Which is better?

I really like new country organics and scratch and peck, but its too expensive...

 

[MysteryChicken]

Soy, & Corn aren't bad for the birds. Soy is high in protein, part of the reason it's used as a part of chicken feed.

@U_Stormcrow, can explain feed better then I can.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The important thing is that the feed is fresh and meets the minimum nutritional levels for adequate performance at a price you are willing to pay.

"Corn Free", "Soy Free", and "Organic" are largely marketing, they have little if anything to do with the adequacy of the feed.

Not to stir the pot, but the research on the health effects of soy (see the CA Teacher's Study, the largest, longest duration, human food trial in history) is "complicated". Its clearly of benefit to some - and clearly a risk to others with certain health conditions. Plenty of people who know just enough to show their ignorance will claim, "but phytoestrogens!". Yes, Soy contains phytoestrogens in significant amount. So does flax, sesame, wheat, barley, alfala, lentils, beans, and in more moderate amounts, rice, and a number of fruits and veggies. But only soy gets the bad rap, almost as if its reputation has nothing to do with its nutrition.

Otoh, Soy is one of the only essentially complete proteins in the plant world - Soy meal is among a bare few of low fat, high protein, reasonable cost ingredients for animal feed (such as chickens) which has a high methionine level. Met is the #1 most critical limiting amino acid in a chicken's diet, and its difficult to find elsewhere without using aimal ingredients. So difficult, in fact, that synthetic methionine (appears as DL-Methionine on the feed label) can be added to feed while maintaining its "Organic" designation.

 

[Chicken love to infinity]

Accordi

The important thing is that the feed is fresh and meets the minimum nutritional levels for adequate performance at a price you are willing to pay.

"Corn Free", "Soy Free", and "Organic" are largely marketing, they have little if anything to do with the adequacy of the feed.

Not to stir the pot, but the research on the health effects of soy (see the CA Teacher's Study, the largest, longest duration, human food trial in history) is "complicated". Its clearly of benefit to some - and clearly a risk to others with certain health conditions. Plenty of people who know just enough to show their ignorance will claim, "but phytoestrogens!". Yes, Soy contains phytoestrogens in significant amount. So does flax, sesame, wheat, barley, alfala, lentils, beans, and in more moderate amounts, rice, and a number of fruits and veggies. But only soy gets the bad rap, almost as if its reputation has nothing to do with its nutrition.

Otoh, Soy is one of the only essentially complete proteins in the plant world - Soy meal is among a bare few of low fat, high protein, reasonable cost ingredients for animal feed (such as chickens) which has a high methionine level. Met is the #1 most critical limiting amino acid in a chicken's diet, and its difficult to find elsewhere without using aimal ingredients. So difficult, in fact, that synthetic methionine (appears as DL-Methionine on the feed label) can be added to feed while maintaining its "Organic" designation.

Thanks for the info, but I also don't want my hens eating food that is potentially sprayed with glyphosate, which is heavily found in oats and wheat... What do you feed your chickens?

 

[Robertoo]

The important thing is that the feed is fresh and meets the minimum nutritional levels for adequate performance at a price you are willing to pay.

"Corn Free", "Soy Free", and "Organic" are largely marketing, they have little if anything to do with the adequacy of the feed.

Not to stir the pot, but the research on the health effects of soy (see the CA Teacher's Study, the largest, longest duration, human food trial in history) is "complicated". Its clearly of benefit to some - and clearly a risk to others with certain health conditions. Plenty of people who know just enough to show their ignorance will claim, "but phytoestrogens!". Yes, Soy contains phytoestrogens in significant amount. So does flax, sesame, wheat, barley, alfala, lentils, beans, and in more moderate amounts, rice, and a number of fruits and veggies. But only soy gets the bad rap, almost as if its reputation has nothing to do with its nutrition.

Otoh, Soy is one of the only essentially complete proteins in the plant world - Soy meal is among a bare few of low fat, high protein, reasonable cost ingredients for animal feed (such as chickens) which has a high methionine level. Met is the #1 most critical limiting amino acid in a chicken's diet, and its difficult to find elsewhere without using aimal ingredients. So difficult, in fact, that synthetic methionine (appears as DL-Methionine on the feed label) can be added to feed while maintaining its "Organic" designation.

If the soy is fermented, it is not harmful to anyone, but is a superfood.

 

[Mercyr79]

The important thing is that the feed is fresh and meets the minimum nutritional levels for adequate performance at a price you are willing to pay.

"Corn Free", "Soy Free", and "Organic" are largely marketing, they have little if anything to do with the adequacy of the feed.

Not to stir the pot, but the research on the health effects of soy (see the CA Teacher's Study, the largest, longest duration, human food trial in history) is "complicated". Its clearly of benefit to some - and clearly a risk to others with certain health conditions. Plenty of people who know just enough to show their ignorance will claim, "but phytoestrogens!". Yes, Soy contains phytoestrogens in significant amount. So does flax, sesame, wheat, barley, alfala, lentils, beans, and in more moderate amounts, rice, and a number of fruits and veggies. But only soy gets the bad rap, almost as if its reputation has nothing to do with its nutrition.

Otoh, Soy is one of the only essentially complete proteins in the plant world - Soy meal is among a bare few of low fat, high protein, reasonable cost ingredients for animal feed (such as chickens) which has a high methionine level. Met is the #1 most critical limiting amino acid in a chicken's diet, and its difficult to find elsewhere without using aimal ingredients. So difficult, in fact, that synthetic methionine (appears as DL-Methionine on the feed label) can be added to feed while maintaining its "Organic" designation.

My feed #1 ingredient is corn, isn’t corn bad for chickens? (Newbie here, just learning) Thank you for the soy info

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

My feed #1 ingredient is corn, isn’t corn bad for chickens? (Newbie here, just learning) Thank you for the soy info

NO! Corn is an economic, easily digested source of energy for livestock. Don't buy into the negative hype around corn and soy as feed ingredients for livestock.

 

[Mercyr79]

NO! Corn is an economic, easily digested source of energy for livestock. Don't buy into the negative hype around corn and soy as feed ingredients for livestock.

Phew! Thank you.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My feed #1 ingredient is corn, isn’t corn bad for chickens? (Newbie here, just learning) Thank you for the soy info

Lazy J has already covered it, but since you asked me.

Corn is a cheap (I mentioned cheap?) nutritionally deficient feed ingredient which is valuable primarily as a source of carbs.

Having said that, carbs ARE important. and corn's nutritional deficiencies are pretty much across the board low on the things we first focus on, but they aren't shockingly low. Which is a polite way of saying inadequate but not grossly deficient.

Remember above when I said cheap? Many would assume I meant that in a bad way. But no, a bunch of cheap corn provides cost savings sufficient that you can add more expensive, more nutritionally dense ingredients to correct for corn's inadequacies, generally cheaper than if you tried to make a feed with less cheap, somewhat nutritionally better ingredients all around.

As a gross generalization, of course.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and as prices adjust on the global market to various events, we can reasonably expect mills to adjust their "recipes" based on price and availability with an eye towards the final output, not specific amounts of various ingredient inputs.

Corn prices are still relatively high, but wheat prices have fallen roughly 40% from their highs of last year (of course, the flooding in Ukraine muight push wheat prices back up - its basically the bread basket of Europe - that and parts of Russia.)

{{{NOT INVESTING ADVICE - MERELY IDLE SPECULATION}}}