U_Stormcrow
Crossing the Road
The "thumb rule" is that you want your birds to finish their feed w/i three months of its mill date. Like all "thumb rules" it relies on a LONG list of assumptions and some arbitrary line drawing. There is no "one right answer", there are lots of wrong answers.
The thumb rule gets you in the right area, then you adjust for individual circumstances.
Those circumstances, in the main, are:
Temperature
Moisture
Oxygen
Light
Size
Feeds go bad faster at high temperatures. We all know this - its why we freeze or refrigerate food for long term storage. Two things going on here. One, things we don't want, bacteria primarily, are more active at warmer temps. Two, chemical processes, like fats going rancid, occur more quickly at higher temps. If you have significant daily temperature swings - such as feed stored on concrete in an uncontrolled environment - you have enabled multiple processes that will increase moisture in and around your feed, both from condensation and wicking - but even w/o concrete, condensation can be an issue.
Feeds go bad at higher moisture levels. Almost all living critters need water, its a key catalyst to numerous chemical processes, only a thin film is needed to support molds and mildews, and plenty of needed vitamins are water soluble - so damp or moist feed allows them to start transporting out. Wet feed will also cause whole seeds to crack and potentially sprout. Sprouting is a net loss to nutritional density, but may make some nutrients more bioavailable (and others less). It also breaks the seed coat, allowing oxygen into the nutrient-rich core.
Oxygen is needed for fats (and their fat soluble vitamins) to go rancid. Its also corrosive to many key metals and minerals, causing them to transform into less available forms. Rust, as you know, is Iron oxide - iron exposed to air. Oxygen does the same to almost everything else too - its not as effective a solvent as water (less universal), but its chemically reactive with a surprising number of things. Controlling oxygen (vacuum packing, those buckets, waxed, silicone permeated, or similar bags, whole seeds) can slow degradation of feed.
Light - primarily UV light - also causes chemical reactions that can degrade feed. and is needed to support many growing things. Its one of the least important factors, and one of the easiest to deal with - but its also why we don't generally use clear feed bags for storage.
The smaller the surface area of your feed relative to its volume, the slower it goes bad. Whole feeds slowest, then pellet, then crumble. Because less of the total feed volume is exposed to the corrosive effects of water, oxygen, light at any given time. Like dissolving milled flour into a sauce - a fine powder dissolves smoothly, but those lumps and clumps? they take more effort.
and as result, a bag of crumble in my high temperature, high humidity, outside storage shed will go bad much faster in July or August for me than that same bag in low temperature, low humidity, frozen Montana in January. Or a temperature controlled whole grain storage facility in Iowa.
Same processes, different answers, depending on circumstances.
The thumb rule gets you in the right area, then you adjust for individual circumstances.
Those circumstances, in the main, are:
Temperature
Moisture
Oxygen
Light
Size
Feeds go bad faster at high temperatures. We all know this - its why we freeze or refrigerate food for long term storage. Two things going on here. One, things we don't want, bacteria primarily, are more active at warmer temps. Two, chemical processes, like fats going rancid, occur more quickly at higher temps. If you have significant daily temperature swings - such as feed stored on concrete in an uncontrolled environment - you have enabled multiple processes that will increase moisture in and around your feed, both from condensation and wicking - but even w/o concrete, condensation can be an issue.
Feeds go bad at higher moisture levels. Almost all living critters need water, its a key catalyst to numerous chemical processes, only a thin film is needed to support molds and mildews, and plenty of needed vitamins are water soluble - so damp or moist feed allows them to start transporting out. Wet feed will also cause whole seeds to crack and potentially sprout. Sprouting is a net loss to nutritional density, but may make some nutrients more bioavailable (and others less). It also breaks the seed coat, allowing oxygen into the nutrient-rich core.
Oxygen is needed for fats (and their fat soluble vitamins) to go rancid. Its also corrosive to many key metals and minerals, causing them to transform into less available forms. Rust, as you know, is Iron oxide - iron exposed to air. Oxygen does the same to almost everything else too - its not as effective a solvent as water (less universal), but its chemically reactive with a surprising number of things. Controlling oxygen (vacuum packing, those buckets, waxed, silicone permeated, or similar bags, whole seeds) can slow degradation of feed.
Light - primarily UV light - also causes chemical reactions that can degrade feed. and is needed to support many growing things. Its one of the least important factors, and one of the easiest to deal with - but its also why we don't generally use clear feed bags for storage.
The smaller the surface area of your feed relative to its volume, the slower it goes bad. Whole feeds slowest, then pellet, then crumble. Because less of the total feed volume is exposed to the corrosive effects of water, oxygen, light at any given time. Like dissolving milled flour into a sauce - a fine powder dissolves smoothly, but those lumps and clumps? they take more effort.
and as result, a bag of crumble in my high temperature, high humidity, outside storage shed will go bad much faster in July or August for me than that same bag in low temperature, low humidity, frozen Montana in January. Or a temperature controlled whole grain storage facility in Iowa.
Same processes, different answers, depending on circumstances.
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