What's that in scratch?

[Dutch552]

The last several bags of Purina that I have bought have actually had a good ratio of corn to other grains. Can't say that I can complain. Maybe you got a bum lot?

 

[halo]

I usually mix my own scratch, 50/50 crack corn and oats. I went to the mill yesterday to pick up my monthly load of feed, and when they were loading my truck I noticed they had scratch. I asked them what was in it, he said cracked corn, milo and wheat. I think next time I go Ill try some of it, and mix it with oats. Sounds like a nice mix. I know mine love milo, because on occasion Ill pick up some cheap bird seed, which is full of red milo seed (which the wild birds won't touch), and the chickens love it.

 

[Ole rooster]

It should tell you on the label what is in it, so there is no reason to be surprised when you open the bag.

Lots of people think that chickens are supposed to live on corn. So I'm going to guess that Purina puts a lot of corn into their scratch because that is what their customers want. If their customers complained about the corn, Purina would put something else in there. Their entire reason to exist is to sell lots of feed and they can't sell feed that the customers don't want.

Scratch around here has always been about 1/2 cracked corn. Usually, it has whole wheat, sometimes it has cracked barley, or whole oats. I've seen milo in scratch in another part of the country. I've never seen millet in scratch, or BOSS, but just because I've never seen it doesn't mean that it isn't in scratch someplace in the country.

What the ingredients were is not my concern, the amount of each was my disappointment. Corn is not the cheapest ingredient considering the governments introduction of corn in our gasoline supply. If you check the commodities market it ain't cheap. Plus all the export, they have it set pretty high.

 

[Chris09]

What the ingredients were is not my concern, the amount of each was my disappointment. Corn is not the cheapest ingredient considering the governments introduction of corn in our gasoline supply. If you check the commodities market it ain't cheap. Plus all the export, they have it set pretty high.

What are you paying for corn where your at?

The mill I use charges 10 to 13 cents a pound for Whole Corn and is the cheapest grain I can get, Whole Oats averages around 11 to 14 cents a pound.

Chris