⠀ Whole grains vs cracked or middlings

[shortgrass]

I've been looking at cutting a buck here and there with my feed recipe, and am switching from whole wheat to wheat middlings.. Nutrient ratio is a little bit different, so im having to shift concentrations of everything else...

I found some good info, including this one...
http://www.extension.org/pages/65504/feeding-wheat-middlings-to-poultry#.VeR1siPnbqB

It got me thinking 2 things... Besides the difference in crude fiber and protein, are middling better, worse, or just another form of good ol wheat?

And 2, does grain really NEED to be cracked for chickens? They have gizzards lol, so that leads me to believe i can get away with whole grains without needing them milled first, saving me another buck there...

Thinking replacing half of the cracked corn and all of the whole wheat rations, and subbing in wheat middlings, and lowering the cracked corn down to 10%, and using whole instead...

Thoughts? Anyone have great success (or failure) wuth wheat middlings and whole corn?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I always have a dish of whole corn available. They can digest it as well as cracked. The only problem is when they are younger it's too big to eat. I start feeding some cracked corn at about 2-3 months.

 

[MeepBeep]

As long as they have sufficient grit available to them they will do just fine with whole grains...

 

[shortgrass]

Oh they have plenty of grit; they free range

I don't use commercial feed, so they go on whole grain from about 6 weeks on, so I was just sifting through some other ideas to cut my workload lol...

Was more curious about the middlings, since that's what I'm switching up... From what I understand, its bulkier, so I can use less, but if I go to much middlings, I can actually put my layers out of production, so obviously concerned about THAT.... It's a better cheaper alternative to so much corn, maybe?...

Supposedly, it can reduce smell from ammonia in fecal matter too, so that's always got my interest