Local feed mill egg layer mash

[bigz1983]

Hey everyone I would like to know your thoughts on my local feed mills egg layer mash.

Ok my local feed mill sells a egg layer mash that looks like sand and it not a crumble or pellet I guess you could say it's a true "mash". It's only $9 for 50 pound bag.

Well I usually give my chickens egg layer feed in the crumbles type. I gave them some of my local feed mills egg layer mash and the egg quality went down. The eggs when hard boiled had like a grainy taste in them. Kinda like when you get dirt on top of your can of soda and swallow some and it grinds in your teeth.

A lady I work with gave her chickens the same local feed mills egg layer mash and her egg quality went down too.

My local feed mill says it has the same ingredients as the egg layer crumble type. Do chickens digest the local feed mash differently than crumbles?

 

[bcarthen]

I work part time at our local mill and i am the one making feed. Everyone i have talked with and got them to try it has has no complaints. Everyones egg production has increased. We are local and we sell about 6-7 tons per week to our customers. Maybe its just their recipe but dont bash local mills for one bad experience.

 

[bigz1983]

I work part time at our local mill and i am the one making feed. Everyone i have talked with and got them to try it has has no complaints. Everyones egg production has increased. We are local and we sell about 6-7 tons per week to our customers. Maybe its just their recipe but dont bash local mills for one bad experience.

I buy my local feed mills other types of feed cracked corn, goat feed, egg layer crumbles type. I'm not trying to bash local feed mills.

If you fully read my original post I stated that I have had a bad experience with the mash and other people in the area like my co-worker. So I'm not basing this off "One bad experience" like you stated.

I posted this to get some responses on crumbles vs mash and get some info not to bash local feed mills.

 

[lazy gardener]

How are you feeding the mash? Dry? Wet? My understanding is that mash is intended to be fed wet. It would be the perfect opportunity to use a quality product (while saving money) to make fermented feed. I will buy mash for this purpose when it's available to me, simply b/c it saves me a few pennies/bag.

In the milling process, the grains are ground, and the amendments are added and mixed in. This is mash. That mash is then moistened, extruded through a die, and flash dried = pellets. The pellets are then chopped up = crumble. So, in theory, if you've gotten pellets or crumble from that mill, it's the exact same product, just in a different form.

What may be happening is that the amendments are settling to the bottom of the bag. This would cause your egg quality and production to go down till they get to the bottom of the bag. Have you discussed the issue with the mill manager? This would be a good place to start.

 

[rjohns39]

There could be a few things in play here. Speaking of my birds, they prefer a chunkier feed to fine powders. But they also don't like change. My mill ran out of the ingredients to make my feed and I had to switch to a pellet, they responded by not laying. It could also be the recipe, there are lots of different ingredients out there. And just as many opinions on what constitutes a good ration. I prefer a ration with cracked whole grains, and a vitamin pack. But I also like it to have alfalfa... the best way I've found to get there is to use an alfalfa pellet and then crack the pellets. Many mills will pelletize their feed after blending fine powders to get a more uniform mix and prevent the birds from cherry picking. I also drive my mill crazy as I want to know who grew the grains. I'll often exchange emails and phone calls with the growers, visit their websites and go visit them if I can. I like to know exactly what's in my feed, who grew it and how. Just some random thoughts from a feed lunatic.

 

[Percheron chick]

The shape of the feed can have a profound effect on how much feed a chicken eats. How much a chicken eats will effect laying proficiency. Mature chickens do better on pellets because it is easier for them to pick up and eat. They tend to waste mash just because they have trouble picking it up. Nutritionally, pellets, crumbles and mash of the same feed (say a 16% layer) from the same mill is identical just the shape is different. Pellets are simple mash that has been made into a paste and pressed through a die. Crumbles are simply pellets that are lightly rolled to produce a middle of the road feed shape. The equipment to pelletize feed is very specific and expensive so most local mills can not afford them and only offer feeds that they mill in a mash or whole grains.
A feed that is made with identical ingredients doesn't mean anything. The formulation has to be balanced for it to work. Compare the feed analysis in addition to the ingredients.