Tractor supply brands of feed

[Aunt Angus]

Warning - unpopular opinion ahead...

Chickens are living beings. They aren't machines (except maybe Leghorns). A gazillion things can cause variance: weather, temp, age, feed, sunlight, genetics, stress, illness, hormones, other things they're eating in the yard. But if you feel that the feed is off, then change it. Maybe it is the feed. Idk.

I feed TSC feed. TSC carries lots of brands. I'm fairly certain they don't mill their own feed.

My older girls stopped. Most of my pullets started. I get quite a few eggs daily - averaging 8-9 daily from 13 laying birds, which is approaching normal. We had about 30 inches of rain since late December. I imagine that's upset things a skosh. I know it'll pick back up in spring.
If it doesn't and my ladies are healthy otherwise, I'll shrug it off as just a quirk of dealing with living beings.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

There was a time when I used to only feed from a local feed mill and bought from a local feed store, same store I bought my layers from as chicks. I have given many of my own gamefowl to the store owner and he has raised many layers of the same stock he sells and I’ve bought from. So him and I have much of the same genetics in our flocks and were using the same feed source. One year, my birds totally shut down for months and his never did. We went through all of the variables we could and finally realized his coop and run had street lights for additional light, while my farm is in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution. His birds were inadvertently being exposed to more light for a consistent amount of time and it changed how they laid and molted.

I since installed a white street light over my layer coop and I would say its made them lay more consistently in the winter.

So many variables are at play. I wouldn’t be as skeptical if the ceasing and starting times people are reporting wasn’t lining up so well with the decreases and increases of daylight.

 

[Aunt Angus]

There was a time when I used to only feed from a local feed mill and bought from a local feed store, same store I bought my layers from as chicks. I have given many of my own gamefowl to the store owner and he has raised many layers of the same stock he sells and I’ve bought from. So him and I have much of the same genetics in our flocks and were using the same feed source. One year, my birds totally shut down for months and his never did. We went through all of the variables we could and finally realized his coop and run had street lights for additional light, while my farm is in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution. His birds were inadvertently being exposed to more light for a consistent amount of time and it changed how they laid and molted.

I since installed a white street light over my layer coop and I would say its made them lay more consistently in the winter.

So many variables are at play. I wouldn’t be as skeptical if the ceasing and starting times people are reporting wasn’t lining up so well with the decreases and increases of daylight.

That's really interesting. Street lights. I wonder if the new LEDs hubby installed so that we could see down to the goat barn at night are increasing their laying. I hadn't considered that before. We leave those lights on pretty late because it gets dark so early now, and the coyotes have been active. Huh.

 

[Jaybird14]

Update; my egg production is still two or three eggs per day. way better than nothing that was happening before I switched food.

Note; my oldest hen, she is a mutt and about 4 years old , is giving me an egg every other day. The rest I cannot tell the color of the shell is different .

Food for thought.

 

[Jaybird14]

Does anyone have a chart or graph showing which feed mill produces what feed such as “ what sub-brands does purine grind?”

Knowing the players and what they produce might help narrow this down a bit…. Knowledge is power.

 

[Jaybird14]

You see the feed as the only thing in common.

I see the feed AND THE SEASON as things in common.

If the birds start laying again with new feed and longer days, it could be caused by either the feed or the daylength.

If the birds start laying on new feed, and then you switch back to the "problem" feed and they STOP laying again with even more daylight, that will make a much stronger case for it being the feed. (Obviously, checking that will take several months.)

Well on that note I have quail that were not on supplemental light and they stopped laying last fall As they should .They are all fed the same thing. They are now getting the new feed .

The quail have not started laying with the little bit of longer daylight we are getting. Granted I’m in Wisconsin…it’s always dark. Lol

i should put two cages together and feed one the old food and one the new . Add light and see what happens.

i need to make the time to try that. time ,as usual, is at a premium right now.

 

[Silexian]

All of my chickens are fed the same feed and supplements. Which I purchase at TSC. They all get the same amount of light and outdoor time. This winter my gamefowl and bantams have been laying better. Than my flock of barnevelders. With about 50% of the barnevelders being young hens in the prime of their first laying cycle. Sometimes things just aren’t as they should be.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Does goat feed not have lysine & methionine?

Those are the two ingredients besides protein that I always want to be higher than recommended. (My local milled chicken feed is 1.1% lysine, & .4% methionine). Much higher than in the Purina above.

@U_Stormcrow taught me much about feed needs. If someone has a new TSC label of the feed they notice a difference with, I would love to hear an analysis.

Its nearly impossible to have protein, and not have some amount of Methionine and Lysine. Enough? Without a label, you can't be certain - but you can make educated guesses.

Though with goat feed, you don't need too. Both goat feed and rabbit feed have too much fiber to be good for chickens (a good rabbit feed is way high on fiber). Additionally, a good goat feed has too much copper for essentially anything.
We know our high Met ingredients - animal and insect proteins, which you generally don't find in goat or rabbit feeds, and some of the legume/oil seed meals. Lysine? Once again, the animal/insect proteins then a couple of the legume meals, then the field peas (black eyed peas, purple hull peas, creamer peas - generally "cowpeas", faba, and lentils. Here's the ingredient list for P's Goat Chow:

Grain Products, Processed Grain By-Products, Plant Protein Products, Molasses Products, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Forage Products, Soybean Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Propionic Acid (a Preservative), Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Ferrous Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Potassium Iodide, Basic Copper Chloride, Sodium Molybdate

How would you know??? "Plant Protein Products" is most likely CGM - corn gluten meal, which is surprisingly good in Met and Thre because the protein has been concentrated, decent in Lys, and actually low in Tryp.

Looking at the other things it discloses, it has 5x the copper a chicken needs (dangerous levels) and only 1/2 to 1/3 the vitamin A for a layer...

[Edit] TY for this, hadn't realized the P Layena was as low on Vitamin A as they are. asnd it looks like they have lowered their Met level (as have most other feed producers during the pandemic) - I'd have to look for an old post, but I thought they used to be 0.35 (though I could be thinking of their all flock. I probably am thinking about their all flock).

I would not recommend. Once again, "total crude protein" is only part of the answer.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Its nearly impossible to have protein, and not have some amount of Methionine and Lysine. Enough? Without a label, you can't be certain - but you can make educated guesses.

Though with goat feed, you don't need too. Both goat feed and rabbit feed have too much fiber to be good for chickens (a good rabbit feed is way high on fiber). Additionally, a good goat feed has too much copper for essentially anything.
We know our high Met ingredients - animal and insect proteins, which you generally don't find in goat or rabbit feeds, and some of the legume/oil seed meals. Lysine? Once again, the animal/insect proteins then a couple of the legume meals, then the field peas (black eyed peas, purple hull peas, creamer peas - generally "cowpeas", faba, and lentils. Here's the ingredient list for P's Goat Chow:

Grain Products, Processed Grain By-Products, Plant Protein Products, Molasses Products, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Forage Products, Soybean Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Propionic Acid (a Preservative), Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Ferrous Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Potassium Iodide, Basic Copper Chloride, Sodium Molybdate

How would you know??? "Plant Protein Products" is most likely CGM - corn gluten meal, which is surprisingly good in Met and Thre because the protein has been concentrated, decent in Lys, and actually low in Tryp.

Looking at the other things it discloses, it has 5x the copper a chicken needs (dangerous levels) and only 1/2 to 1/3 the vitamin A for a layer...

[Edit] TY for this, hadn't realized the P Layena was as low on Vitamin A as they are. asnd it looks like they have lowered their Met level (as have most other feed producers during the pandemic) - I'd have to look for an old post, but I thought they used to be 0.35 (though I could be thinking of their all flock. I probably am thinking about their all flock).

I would not recommend. Once again, "total crude protein" is only part of the answer.

Idk. I just yanked those off the interwebs. I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as yourself, so I am unable to make any further observations. I am glad you offered yours!

 

[Krugerrand]

Following, as I'm curious how this turns out.

I've only had chickens for about 1.5 years ... so not enough to build on previous knowledge. My girls are fed Nature's Best Organic All Flock Crumbles. Some are just about done with their first molt. They've been slowing down, but still producing through the molt - so i have no complaints. I have some youngins' that hatched mid-August. One started producing eggs last week. So, again no complaints.

I've been considering Kalmbach as they have an similar version in pellets. But, those are special order/store pick up the NB crumble is coming with free shipping.