Regular feed to organic change ?

[Brittanymorgan1986]

I'm currently growing out 10 cornish cross they are 4 weeks. Very happy healthy birds. I have been feeding just regular meat bird feed no medicated feed. I was thinking of changing over to organic after a friend talked to me about it. Would it make any difference at this point to change it. Will anything flush out of their system or are they stuck with what ever is in them. I would love to do organic but not sure it's worth the price of feed if it won't make any difference at this point. The next batch I raise will be totally organic.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Curious what your friend said about it that has you eager to change.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You can feed them whatever you wish but the resulting meat won't be "organic." Obviously for your own use if that's good enough, then by all means switch over, but if you're hoping for something closer to organic standards they'd have to be raised on organic feed at the start, plus the land they're raised on would need to be organically managed as well.

In none of the above cases could the meat be sold as organic, you'd need certification for that.

 

[NatJ]

Would it make any difference at this point to change it. Will anything flush out of their system or are they stuck with what ever is in them. I would love to do organic but not sure it's worth the price of feed if it won't make any difference at this point. The next batch I raise will be totally organic.

For personal use:
If organic feed makes any difference at all, I would expect that eating it for half their life would be almost as good as eating it for their entire life.

If you want official organic certification, then it's too late for these birds, because they've already been eating conventional food for several weeks.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Wouldn't eating it for half their life be half as good as eating it for their entire life instead of almost as good?

 

[NatJ]

Wouldn't eating it for half their life be half as good as eating it for their entire life instead of almost as good?

Eating it for the first half would be less than half as good, eating it for the second half would be more than half as good.

Partly because they eat more pounds in the second half of their life.
And partly because what they ate most recently would have more effect on the meat than the stuff they ate longer ago (like withdrawal times for medicines: the longer ago it was, the less remains.)

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm just curious as to what the supposed benefit is? Apart from a massive increase in price to feed them (I guess that's a plus in some people's mind - "It costs more, thus it must be better!"), the forums on BYC are absolutely littered with people whose birds are suffering dietary imbalance on their very expensive organic feed.

Not because there's a problem with "organic", but because Organic is often also Soy-free (depriving the birds of important amino acids they'll need to get from other sources - aminos not listed on the typical feed label). And/or "whole grain" - which is fine if your birds eat a balanced meal of whole grains (and the very important vitamin powder added to the bag to make it a complete feed for gallus gallus domesticus), but many owners complain that birds select out their favorite grains for themselves, leaving the less tasty bits for those lower in the pecking order, and fostering dietary imbalances.

Wetting the whole grain organic feed and allowing it to sprout, while requiring more effort on your part, will help mitigate some of those concerns, and also help the flock deal with the unusual heat we've been seeing around the nation. If you should go that route.

If your feed is soy free, you want to look for alternate sources of the amino acids soy is high in (but corn, wheat, oats, sunflower, and barley are lacking in) - other legumes like alfalfa meal, fenugreek, or animal sources such asmenhaden fish meal or porcine blood meal (not sure how much organic certified porcine blood meal is available on the market, but I know there's commercial sources of non-GMO porcine blood meal at reasonable price to the larger mills).

Ultimately, its your money, you decidewhat to do with it - just be aware that "organic certified" is not necessarily better, and may actually be worse in some cases. It is more expensive, and different, for good or ill.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Eating it for the first half would be less than half as good, eating it for the second half would be more than half as good.

Partly because they eat more pounds in the second half of their life.
And partly because what they ate most recently would have more effect on the meat than the stuff they ate longer ago (like withdrawal times for medicines: the longer ago it was, the less remains.)

I agree eating it the last half would be better then the first half but can't agree it's "almost as good as eating it for their entire life"

 

[Brooks_]

I would counter that beginning stage nutrition is more important.

 

[3KillerBs]

Curious what your friend said about it that has you eager to change.

I'm just curious as to what the supposed benefit is?

Me too.