Feed costs are one of the biggest expenses livestock producers have. How you feed your animals is likely the biggest factor in whether they are profitable or not. Thus, it makes sense to do everything you can to minimize your feed costs. On our farm, almost exclusively feeding locally sourced feed is the most logical, economical choice.

As an added bonus, we are supporting our local farmers by putting money directly into their hands and our local community instead of into the pockets of big corporations. Your local grain farmers need and appreciate community support just as much as the boutique micro green farmers at the farmers markets.

Today we are going to give you our take on feeding locally sourced whole grains to our animals.

But first let’s address the issue of feeding whole grains. There are a lot of myths floating around on the internet about feeding animals. Many of which most people have completely bought into. It has gotten to the point that if you mention online that you feed whole grains instead of pelleted complete feeds, you’re told your feed choices are the cause of all your problems. You may be accused of ‘neglecting’ or ‘abusing’ your animals. People will tear you to shreds for even mentioning feeding whole corn to chickens. So, you might be questioning whether it’s safe to feed whole grains to your animals.

The answer is yes! Whole grains are safe to feed and are typically well utilized. Did you know that pelleted feed like so commonly seen didn’t really become a thing until after World War II? It wasn’t until the 50’s when they really started to perfect making complete feeds. Not that long ago we started making this feed animals now ‘can’t live without’. Prior to pelleted feeds, animals were mainly fed whole food diets. The point being, no matter how much big ag wants you to believe that you have to feed your animals their approved brand of pelleted feed, you don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, pelleted feed certainly has its advantages.

It’s convenient and very much simplifies things particularly in confined operations like keeping chickens that do not get to free range. But it also has its disadvantages, and is definitely not required for healthy animals.

Studies have proven time and again that animals can utilize whole grains very effectively, and that they can even be safer to feed because they don’t carry as much risk of acidosis as pelleted feeds. Livestock like sheep are capable of performing well on a variety of different whole feed diets. Thus, when feeding livestock you should utilize whatever feeds are most readily available and economical—typically feeds from local farmers.

If you have a pasture based operation where your animals are getting the majority of their diet from the food they forage, you can likely very easily utilize locally sourced whole feeds. You will likely see little to no performance change. However, to derive benefit you need to understand what feed value it has and why you’re feeding it.

As a general rule, energy and protein are the two nutrients most likely to be lacking in livestock’s diet.

Lucky for us the gold standards for energy and protein are the most commonly grown grains. They are very easily sourced and cheap. Read on to see how we utilize whole grains to reduce our feed bill.

Our flock is pasture based. The sheep get almost everything they need from pasture, and a trace mineral salt. They don’t need a complete feed, they are herbivores designed to thrive off of forage only. The grass in our pastures provides almost everything sheep need for the majority of the year. We’ve done forage tests and know this to be true.

The exception being when we ask them for high production. During late gestation and early lactation, nutritional needs are very high, particularly if they have triplets. While our flock can raise lambs on a forage only diet, they will hold condition better and make more milk with some supplementation. And we want that, because that is better for them and better for us.

Energy and protein are often lacking in their diets because they cannot consume enough grass to meet their higher needs during gestation and lactation. This can easily be remedied by feeding them a mixture of whole corn (energy) and raw soybeans (protein). We source them from a local farmer, at a significant cost saving to us over bagged feed. Our lambs can also effectively utilize the same whole grains as long as their rumens are functioning.

If you are feeding omnivores like chickens instead of herbivores, you need to utilize whole feed diets a little more carefully to make sure their nutritional needs are being met.

The requirements of omnivores are somewhat more complex, and you need to have at least a basic understanding of their nutritional requirements. If you do not feel comfortable with designing a diet for omnivores it is probably best to supplement with a complete feed. Alternatively, utilize one of the available feed supplements. They are designed to be fed along side whole grains to make complete poultry/hog diets. This ensures your animals are getting what they need while you learn.

Keep in mind that transitioning your animals doesn’t have to happen immediately or all at once. You can experiment a small amount as you are able and move forward when you feel comfortable with your increased knowledge and how your animals are performing. If you can find a local mentor with experience utilizing whatever feeds are available locally, even better.

As a side note, since we mentioned feeding soybeans above, we would also like to clarify that ruminants like sheep can effectively utilize raw soybeans. You just need to keep in mind they are high in fats so can easily be overfed. Monogastrics like chickens CANNOT eat raw soybeans. For non-ruminants, soybeans need to be cooked/heat treated. You can likely get soybean meal which is safe to feed them from local feed mills.

Lastly, we want to mention the main downside we see to buying feed locally.

Availability. Most of the grain farmers harvest and take everything directly to the grain mill which means that feed is often only available seasonally. You have to get it from the farmer at harvest. Thus, it requires some planning ahead and the ability to store extra feed somewhere dry.

Storage can be as simple as trash cans with lids, or as complicated as a grain bin. Whatever fits your needs and budget. Our preference is to feed our animals seasonally to make logistics easier. We purchase wheat in July when it is harvested and use that to feed our poultry and any sheep who need some extra groceries in the summer or fall. Then in the fall we purchase enough corn to get through the winter and spring.

We hope this has given you some ideas of how you might lower the feed costs on your farm while simultaneously supporting your fellow farmers!

If you would like to read more articles about how we do things on our farm, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Slashing Your Feed Bill With Locally Sourced Feed first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Why not heat lamps?

First and foremost. Heat lamps can be very dangerous. Even if you are careful when using one, they are a huge fire hazard. The bulbs get extremely hot and can ignite things that touch them on fire. This can be dust that accumulated on them, or some shavings or a feather that blew up into them. Alternatively, they could get knocked down. The reality is that countless fires have been caused by heat lamps.

Additionally, because heat lamps are so hot something as simple as a drop of cold water from your ducklings splashing about can cause them to shatter spraying glass everywhere. Or a chick could fly up into the lamp and get badly burned.

Heat lamps also provide light 24 hours a day which isn’t ideal. Essentially all animals are born with a natural circadian rhythm. Having light on around the clock can disrupt this natural rhythm, and can affect development. This is why they warn you against using white light heat lamps and most heat lamps are red.

Lastly, heat lamps require that you have a reasonably warm room. In very cold areas, they often do not have the ability to create enough heat to keep the temperatures high enough for just hatched chicks. If the temperatures get too cold during the night the chicks can pile on each other and crush one another to death. This often means you have to raise chicks in your house, and nobody wants that. Though cute little things, they are loud, messy and stinky.

So what if you could avoid all these pitfalls?

You can. There are alternatives out there. You might have seen one of the most common alternatives, a brooder plate, next to the heat lamps at the feed store. There are more and more brooder plates that you see being used. They work well and chicks like them. Most importantly they are safe. They do not reach the high temperatures that heat lamps do.

Unfortunately, they are often small, and can be shockingly expensive. This can make it prohibitively expensive if you wish to raise a large number of chicks or choose to raise larger birds like ducklings or goslings. Also, just like heat lamps, brooder plates often do not produce enough heat to be used in a cold room.

A cheaper alternative to a brooder plate that many people use is a heat mat for small animals. This is inexpensive, simple, and provides a warm surface for chicks to lay on. Just like brooder plates, they are safe, but also like brooder plates, it can be difficult to keep the chicks warm enough in a cool room.

We felt that neither heat lamps, brooder plates or heat mats met our needs.

We want to be able to raise our poultry outside in an unheated greenhouse while it is still frosting at night. Heat lamps, brooder plates, and heat mats would not allow us to do this. So, we decided that we needed to think outside of the box. Incidentally, the solution we came up with was something we endearingly call the ‘Mother Box’.

The problem with heat lamps, brooder plates, and heat mats is that there is nothing to trap the heat. The heat rises up and dissipates into the cold air of the room making it difficult to maintain the 90 degree temperatures in the brooder that chicks require. Our solution was to take some hints from a mother bird.

If you have ever watched chicks with their mother, you probably noticed that they run out to do chick things, and when they get cold, they will run back under her to warm up. Using this technique, birds can successfully raise chicks at very cold temperature. So to emulate this we created a well-insulated Mother Box.

This simple, cheap solution works remarkably well for us.

To build our Mother Box prototypes, we used cardboard boxes, but a plastic tote that is easy to wash would be better. We simply took a box that was about 12 x 12 x 8, cut a door hole in the side of it about 5” wide and 4” tall. Then we thoroughly wrapped the box with two layers of silver bubble wrap insulation, and set it on a heat mat. We found a box of this size would hold 15-20 chicks comfortably.

The big question was of course: What would the chicks think of the Mother Box?

We introduced the Mother Box to a mixed batch of recently hatched chicks and goslings. At first we had to shove them under the box, but once they realized it was warm inside, they were popping in and out to alternately eat and then warm up.

The first night as the light started to fade and the temperatures started to fall we found almost every single one of them contentedly sprawled out under the box, and we also helped a few stragglers find their way. We checked on them several times that night as the temperatures fell. Every time they were still contentedly sleeping. The next morning chicks were popping in and out eating breakfast in the chilly morning air. Success!

This worked so well that we created a Mother Box 2.0 for the transition to the coop. Mother Box 2.0 is much larger, and unheated. It relies only upon the body heat of the partially feathered chicks.

As the chicks grew we added a second box so that they still all had ample space to get inside.

When our batch of Mother Box test chicks outgrew their brooder space, we apprehensively moved the partially feathered chicks to our coop. It was early spring so nighttime temperatures were still low, and we did not have any easy way to get electricity to the coop for a heat source.

For this transition, we created Mother Box 2.0. This time we used a box about 2 feet long, 18” wide and 1 foot tall. We made it exactly the same way minus the heat source. It was large enough for all of the chicks to fit inside together. And it worked. They quickly figured out the new box and come night fall they were all happily sleeping under it.

We found that this method worked for us to raise chicks, ducklings and goslings in temperatures down close to freezing. We have also found that the chicks raised this way required less heat for a shorter amount of time than those raised under heat lamps.

Some things to keep in mind

Just like with a heat lamp, it is important to check chick behavior to determine if they are warm enough. Don’t just rely on a thermometer, and what the internet tells you the temperature should be. If they are warm and content, they will be laying spaced out and not trying to pile on top of each other. Also keep in mind that this method will likely work better with a larger amount of chicks than just 2 or 3. For this heat method to work, you are relying partially on trapping the body heat the chicks are making. Understandably, 15 chicks will make a lot more body heat than 3 and will be better able to keep warm.

On the same line of thinking, we think it is important to size your Mother Box appropriately. It needs to be big enough that all the chicks will fit comfortably. It also needs to be big enough that they have space to do some growing, but not so big that enough heat cannot be retained. This is why we started with one 12 x 12 box, and then added a second one as the chicks outgrew the first box.

Lastly, if you are planning to use this method to brood chicks in a cold environment, make sure to check on them repeatedly to ensure that they are warm enough. Also equally importantly, make sure everyone makes it into the box to sleep. The first few nights we had to help a few stragglers find their way home.

We hope that you have a successful chick hatching and rearing season, and we hope that this has given you some new ideas to try if you are unsatisfied with other methods you have tried.

If you would like to read more articles about things that we have tried on our farm, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post The Perfect Alternative Heat Source For Brooding Chicks first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.