What's the deal with people only feeding corn????

[bnentrup]

okra: per the 'web' http://ajol.info/index.php/wajae/article/viewFile/45677/29155
shows 15-22% protein -- therefore comparable --

I did know that turnip greens were high-- and fed them plenty this year! I tied in bundles and hung on strings in the tractors. YUM! - I am much more intrigued about feeding them from easy to grow 'stuff' in the garden. Okra was just crazily plentiful and shockingly easy for us to grow-- heck, it is STILL GROWING NOW!!! when nothing else in my garden is.

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[karimw]

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Love that phrase! How true!

 

[Olive Hill]

The short answer; it's cheap and they don't know any better (and in some cases don't care if they do).

You'll find this a lot in circles of people raising any animal for hobby. If it was good enough for their grandpappy's [insert animal of choice here -- chickens, cows, horses, hogs] it's gotta be good enough for theirs, too!

Don't "get me wrong", I'm all for learning from the experience of both our predecessors and peers, but not to the point of blatantly ignoring all science (and, heck, common sense).

 

[jaku]

I wouldn't think it would be sufficient. Chickens are omnivores, plus it would probably be the chicken equivilant to us eating McDonald's every day. Consider dog food- on cheap junk, what's the number one ingredient? Corn. They need more protein, but that's much more expensive than corn. I think the old timers fed cracked corn for the same reason they put butter on burns- they didn't know better. Plus, their birds were probably free range, having access to other things, and they weren't raising broilers for meat production, rather, butchering roos and extra layers.

 

[cpegram]

Well i can say this a co worker of my DH got chicks the same time we did and he only feeds them corn or cracked corn no feed.....we are getting up to 8 eggs a day and he has not got one yet......i say this because my DH kept questioning me on the feed ..........

I told him i was right LOL

 

[Beekissed]

I free ranged my CX...and, yes, they actually do forage quite a bit right up until butchering time....and I fed them layer ration right along with my laying flock but near the end they sort of lost appetite for regular feed. They did, however, still seem interested in the cracked corn that I feathered into their feed. They loved the cracked corn near the end of their finishing....maybe self regulating the protein levels, who knows?

They tasted great and finished out to normal size in the normal time without the high protein broiler ration, so the cracked corn seemed to make no matter at all. Would I feed them entirely cracked corn? Probably not....next time will be a mix of whole grains instead of my more expensive layer mash.

My niece fed hers cracked corn only and they finished out just fine and were appropriately sized.