Why is chicken scratch more expensive than chicken feed?

[gtaus]

Last time I bought chicken scratch, it was a couple of dollars less expensive than chicken feed. I went into town yesterday and was going to pick up a fresh bag of chicken scratch, but I see that it is now almost $2.00 more than chicken feed! Anybody know what's going on with these prices? BTW, the chicken feed I normally get has gone up almost $3.00 per 50# bag from a few months ago when I last purchased a few.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Our feeds have all jumped 3-4 dollars, including cracked corn.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I think freezers are a great way to buy meat on sale and save some money. But how long does meat last in a freezer before it gets freezer burn? I heard somewhere that you should rotate your freezer meat so that it is used up within 6 months. Does it depend on the type of freezer you have - that is, frost free versus regular freezer? Don't really know. But we have taken out some meat that had freezer burn and that was not good.

BTW, I think it's a good idea to put a label on freezer products along with the date. So far, I have been able to convince myself but Dear Wife is taking a little longer to get on board with that idea.

FIFO - First IN, First OUT is a rule of inventory management, at home and in the warehouse.

Freezer Burn is (mostly) Oxygen. Use a vaccuum sealer, and freezer burn is (largely) a thing of the past.

Chest freezers let less cold air escape when you open them, and draw in less moisture. They tend to produce less freezer burn. They are also hella inconvenient to get stuff off the bottom, where it goes to be forgotten.

Uprights are convenient, but much less efficient. Open the door, all the cold heavy air flows out the bottom, while drawing warm, usually much more moist air from above the freezer. More burn, and slower freezing times, leading to greater textural differences post defrost. There are, of course "tricks" to minimize this.

Life is a series of trade offs.

 

[swamphiker]

That is very strange, scratch is definitely still less expensive than feed in my area, though prices are up all around, especially on feed.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I might just make up my own chicken scratch as the individual grain prices are much lower than the combined chicken scratch mix. I am lucky in that we have a local grain mill that will sell me the grain and I can mix it myself. In the past, there was really no money to be saved by mixing my own scratch, but there sure is now.

Even if the cost is a wash, this is probably a good plan. Whole grains hold their nutrition longer than cracked, and you can pick and choose what you want to give your flock.

Plus, whole seed, especially if soaked overnight, is likely to sprout in a chicken run compost system.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I was watching some Famer/Agriculture news program at 5 am this weekend (I forget the name, its pre-coffee, though a show I've woken up to many times) and they were talking about the impact of oil prices on the cost of nitrogen fertilizers, and that said fertilizers affect the cost to raise some crops more than others, adding between $30 and over $100 per acre to the annual costs for fertilizer right now. Then you have transportation surcharges for the extra fuel costs, and a shortage of truckers to make deliveries. Finally, while corn is not at the highs of last spring, it is trading well above the five year average.

Scratch, of course, is mostly corn.

Now, since it looks like China plans to buy less going forward, corn in hand is actually trading above corn in the future, for at least the next few months...

THIS IS NOT INVESTING ADVICE.

but I'm expecting at least a temporary jump in feed costs (again) after they softened somewhat in the fall. I too buy from a farm store that bulks from a local mill, so my prices change weekly.

 

[Isadora]

Prices are going up on everything.

 

[K0k0shka]

Could be a supply chain issue. For that particular product or area.

 

[Cecisflock]

Inflation. That's how it works.

 

[gtaus]

Inflation. That's how it works.

If it was just inflation, then the commercial feed would have also gone up in price and still be higher than scratch. This is the first time I can think of ever seeing chicken scratch costing more than chicken feed.

I might just make up my own chicken scratch as the individual grain prices are much lower than the combined chicken scratch mix. I am lucky in that we have a local grain mill that will sell me the grain and I can mix it myself. In the past, there was really no money to be saved by mixing my own scratch, but there sure is now.