making my own feed

[wingstone]

combine came to clean out the barley field yesterday, I bagged and kept back 600 pounds and I will do the same in a couple of weeks with the wheat field, will have to buy the corn untill fall, so what else do I need and what protein do I shoot for when feeding multiple birds (layers, meaties, chicks, turkeys and eventually ducks)...not sure how to figure protein is there a list of what has what percentage of protein....would also like to use what i grow for scratch... I have mealworms I can add......we also grow soybeans but not sure if I can use them. and how far in advance can I mix this up without it going bad......I am not trying to get completely away from buying premixed food just trying to cut down on what I have to buy!! Any guidance would be appreciated....

 

[Chris09]

I'll see if I can help any.
Barley is around 12% protein and Wheat is around 14% protein, Barley is ok to feed to older birds but not the best grain for younger fowl. Wheat is a good all around grain for both younger and older fowl and would be a better "feedstuff" of the two. As for corn, corn is another good all around "feedstuff" with protein around 8%.

As for a protein level to shoot for your going to want to be around 20% protein depending on age of fowl. Since your not wanting to go completely off commercial feed what I would do is mix your grain with either a Poultry Concentrate or a High Protein Turkey Starter (one about 30% protein), that would get you the proteins, vitamins, minerals you need plus.


Chris

 

[sizerdarkegg]

I started mixing my own feed this spring. I kind of shoot from the hip with this, which is not normal for me because usually when I formulate feed, I do so carefully with an excel spreadsheet to check protein, fat, & fiber content.

So what I wanted was a lower GMO feed. Can't afford organic, so this is my alternative. I eliminated soy and corn because the total crop of these two is the highest percentage GMO (last time I checked, 65% of the entire corn crop is GMO).

I mix the following together: Field peas, barley, wheat, black oil sunflowers, mixed birdseed, oats, and flax seeds. I also throw in a little oyster shells. I'm not using equal portions, I use less field peas, flax seeds, and slightly less sunflower seeds depending on how much sunflower seeds the birdseed mix has in it. So far so good, they are laying well and looking good. I have to make them "clean it up" though, because they don't seem to care for the field peas or flax as well as the other stuff. I do not have any idea how well they will lay through the winter on this. My birds are turned loose during most of the day.

I am not feeding them anything else. Fertility is great as well.

HTH