Homemade feed

The feed is mixed, the bag costs less. Three weeks later, the chickens are behind on the weighing.

Most poultry farmers do it this way. The starter is purchased. The growth and finishing are done on the farm.

And in principle, they are right. The bag made on the farm costs less than the purchased bag.

But a chicken does not eat a price. It eats a formula, and it transforms it well or poorly.

If poorly formulated, it leads to more feed being consumed for the same weight. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) increases, and the savings from the bag diminish.

Take a thousand chickens that each eat half a kilo too much. That makes five hundred kilos. Ten bags of fifty.

So do your calculations. Your gain per bag made, multiplied by your bags. Against the price of those ten bags. You will know who wins.

What ruins homemade feed? I see three recurring mistakes.

The first is believing that more protein means more weight. It is not the number on paper that builds muscle.

A lot of poorly balanced protein guarantees nothing. What matters are the digestible amino acids, especially lysine and methionine.

Digestible means that the intestine can actually absorb them. And enough energy is needed alongside. A formula is judged as a whole.

The second mistake is forgetting about heat. When it is hot, the chicken eats less. Therefore, each bite must provide more, not less.

Lengthening the feed to lower its price does the opposite. It provides less, just when it eats less.

The third is grinding too finely. A powdery flour passes too quickly and is less well digested.

At the mill, look for a consistent grind, with as little dust as possible.

So how do you assess your feed? Not by its colour or smell. By the scales and the bags.

Each week, note the average weight of the batch and the number of bags used since the beginning.

If you change the formula, only one thing at a time. Otherwise, you will never know what worked.

Then compare two flocks, same building, same season. The good feed required the least number of bags for the same weight of chicken.

What matters is what a kilo of chicken costs. Not what a bag costs.

And at your place, how do you assess homemade feed? By the price of the bag, or by the weight of the chickens?

Send the weight at five weeks and the bags used, via WhatsApp to 05 44 83 27 79. The flock record book will be offered to you.

To reserve your next chicks, 07 07 72 78 67. Subscribe, the next part talks about the feed store.

Broilers, layers or hybrids, our chicks hatch in Agnibilékrou. With Nextekci, every customer is a satisfied poultry farmer.