So When the Prices Rise--I say KEWL it with an ol' Fashion Barn Raising Good Time!

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Well I just got beat again. My own fault, leaving things till last minute, got down to the last bag of wheat, down to the bottom of the bag and said to myself : self you better go get some wheat. So off I go to the seed cleaning plant, NO WHEAT screenings for $6 a bag, just seed wheat- pedigree seed wheat with up to 20% protien. $14 a bag...nope going to the UFA store should only be $10 or so...nope $13 a bag for whatever old crud wheat they threw in the bag. No more screenings till fall, feed companies buying it up fast, do I bite it now and buy seed wheat for feed before it skyrockets in price, wait and hope for screenings this fall... From $6 to $14 is a bitter pill to swallow, I'd say ????it and buy a case of beer but @ $24 a case I'll make my own. Corn might exit the menu too, substituting with peas, $7 a bag and lots available just hafta roast em cause they're split, normally I'd just sprout them but maybe this time round I'll see how a little charcoal helps them. $13.....

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There was a really good article recently on using peas for poultry. I'm pretty sure I read it in the Exhibition Poultry online magazine a couple of months ago - March or April edition I think. I can't seem to find it right now, but if I do I'll include a link here.

There is lots of info out there on feeding peas to chickens. Here's a link to a research document from U of Manitoba.
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I think when we are looking for more economical ways to feed our chickens the best diet we can, it sometimes comes down to what is available in our local area. I am really lucky my dad grows wheat every year. He is an old fashioned farmer (and an old farmer!) who saves his own seed each year, grows it in small fields, and is happy to share with me in return for some nice plump chickens in the fall ready for his freezer! So wheat makes up the majority of my feed.
I've also been mixing in coarsely ground peas. Had to do some adjusting, and I'm still experimenting with how much to add. The poor birds had dark green, runny poop for a couple days, so I quickly cut back and now things are much improved!

Good info in that link KathyS. Last winter I fed sprouted whole peas, or at least softened by soaking, the volume increases dramatically so when they get 20% in their feed Its not such a strain on their systems, more naturally digesting I think. Bright green nuggets, not runny at all and they love the peas almost as much as corn. The trouble is that chemical found in all beans and peas, it needs to be destroyed by cooking at 180F for 20 minutes, longer if lower temp and quicker if higher temp like roasting. I used to boil the peas but that consumes a lot of energy resources and so I opted for just sprouting them. If I grind these dry split peas and roast them, then add to my feed mix I wouldnt use much more than 10% myself, but definitely 20% or more by weight if they are soaked first.

Oats are another beast eh? I did base my first feed mixes on oats, still do. The info I could find pointed towards oats being the best staple food as far as the nutritional spectrum goes. Hulls are the trouble, oats are best cracked, ground, rolled, crimped whatever it doesnt matter except that the more exposed to oxygen the kernel is the sooner it spoils or loses nutrition. The point is that the kernel is exposed to the digestive juices directly instead of the bird having to fight with the hull first. The hull contains also a chemical that inhibits uptake of nutrients in the bird, this is easily removed by starting the sprouting process, actually sprouting them will increase the protein and other feed values too. Even the old books recommend grits, hulled oats, roasted, they were touted as almost a perfect poultry food in this form. Now with pedigree oats and wheat reaching 25% protein content Id worry they were getting too hot of feed, souped up corn souped up peas souped up grains, everything affected by the inputs farmers are required to do for profit sake. I am fortunate too to have access to a full bin of organic(not licenced) oats, enough to last me many years if hard pressed, but nothing is for free... I have bags full of heritage heirloom weed seeds as proof of cost...just waiting to be reseeded asap, our fields unfortunately have now been sprayed and planted with CRAPOLA!!!!

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The tripsin inhibitors found in modern field peas are generally considered low enough not to need roasting, says so in the article KathyS posted. Don't know if it's true, but our birds get unroasted peas and I see no ill efects from it.

On a similar note to where this topic is going, I've worked out a deal with a local seed potato grower friend of ours to buy cull potatoes from him for pretty cheap. I read an interesting side note in one of my duck books last year saying that potatoes can be substituted for the entire corn ration in feed, going to try it out. They DO need cooking though.

I would like to know more about sprouting grains. Ive been experimenting with this, just adding water to a pail of mixed whole grains and seeds. But they start to mold before actually sprouting. So what is the secret?

KathyS wrote:I would like to know more about sprouting grains. Ive been experimenting with this, just adding water to a pail of mixed whole grains and seeds. But they start to mold before actually sprouting. So what is the secret?

There is a small chance you are drowning them, but in my experience most grain and legume seeds tolerate soaking fairly well. Strictly speaking, the enzymes in the seed start becoming active in after a pretty short time in water, so even though you don't see anything emerging, I think you would get most of the benefits of sprouting by just soaking over night and feeding the next morning.

If you're looking to get greens, you would probably have better luck spreading them out in a tray and keeping it moist. Seems to work well that way in the top of the grain bins nd elevators anyway!

The only other reason I can think of for them not to sprout is of they are dead, so if they've been irradiated or are very old.

They need warm and moist, light also stimulates germination. Mould? Too warm or too wet maybe. Not enough oxygen?
What I do is fill a pail 1/3 with oats pea whatever, then fill pail with water. All the debris and bad seed will float to the top, remove that stuff. Let it soak over night, 24 hours ok too, then pour off all the liquid. After this you can spread out the seed and keep it moist for a week or two, or keep it in the pail and mix it up daily. The seed needs to breathe, and drainage. Another method I use is a baking sheet with a moist tea towel on the bottom...1/2" of moist grain...moist tea towel on top...water and drain as needed

Thanks for the good information. I hope I am still keeping to the original intent of Higgins' topic of cost of feeds. But still have a coupld of questions...

First, here's the reason I'm wondering about soaking/sprouting. I got a deal on some screenings from a pea processing plant. The screenings is mainly made up of chunks of broken peas, weed seeds including quite a lot of wild oats and a bit of canola. There is very little actual grain in there, so I'm not too worried about nasty stuff like ergot. For the price, I thought it was worth mixing in with my own wheat and and barley to provide a wider range of nutrients and protein. My goal with soaking was mainly to improve digestibility.

If sprouting is not really necessary, I'll just stick with the overnight soaking as I've been doing.
So then the liquid from soaking should be discarded and not fed to them? Are tripsin inhibitors detrimental to poultry?
I'm pretty clueless about the finer points of grains and feeding.

The liquid should be fine, my cats like to lick it too, the bad enzyme gets used up when the kernel starts sprouting.

And in praise of Warburg Seed Cleaning Co-op, Tom brought in some very nice seed wheat for those of us who need feed wheat. It's older seed wheat and the germination rate can't be guaranteed so we get it for $8 a bag, the current rate for feed wheat!!

Hmmm...peas and crapola eh! Got plenty of wild crapola growing round here, lots in the oats bins. Im going to stock up on peas and make it a regular in their diet then. Besides, an old friend I recently met in person recently passed away, at this meeting of great minds (Lol) we discussed at length the virtues of feeding peas to poultry, he urged me to continue because it makes the meat taste sweeter. Sadly, as witnessed and stated by some, we cannot discuss this again but I think he would have been very pleased were he to have read this discussion.

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reneggaide wrote:Besides, an old friend I recently met in person recently passed away, at this meeting of great minds (Lol) we discussed at length the virtues of feeding peas to poultry, he urged me to continue because it makes the meat taste sweeter. Sadly, as witnessed and stated by some, we cannot discuss this again but I think he would have been very pleased were he to have read this discussion.

What on earth does that mean? Sorry, I need to be nosey and I am on a "need to know" basis, about everything that I want to question. What do you mean? Did I miss something here Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Youve missed nothing CynthiaM with a sad smile, This fellow and I ran in the same circles of friends for many years without meeting. When we did meet we talked of feeding peas to chickens, he fed up to 50% for many years raising broilers. Shortly after we met he perished in a terrible accident and there was some sadness expressed by our mutual friends that we could not meet again, everyone had enjoyed the conversation. I had started feeding peas at his encouragement, and he had enquired about my activities before the accident. I ran out of peas though and only recently can get them, so I had forgotten about this conversation, but it gives me a little more incentive to go on with peas in the feed. I just picked up 250lb, think Ill get another while its there.

And CynthiaM, there is no sadness here, OUR friend left this world thinking and acting for the well being of others and not himself, true to the end.

Reneggaide, I just bought some whole oats from the Warburg Coop for $7 a bag. They had a whole palate of bags.

Yes, lots n lots of oats around here. I usually give mine for around $3.50 bushel or $4.00 50lb bag, uncleaned though. I took in 1-1/2 tote bags of oats for cleaning, cost close to $200 in the end. Got back 250 lb in screenings. So, 35 bags of my own oats cost me dearly to be clean. I'll be doing my own cleaning if I can or even want to.

As of today wheat can be bought and sold freely so ??? But last week it's $13 at UFA for nasty FEED wheat, $14 at Warburg for cleaned SEED wheat. Yesterday I got old SEED wheat for $8 which is the official price for FEED wheat.
The split peas are $7 too so it's still reasonable to feed these grains.

My latest mix is this
25lb oats, 6lb wheat, 6lb peas, 4lb layer or grower mash 35%.

So rounding up,
Oats $2
Wheat. $1
Peas. $1
Mash. $2

A whopping $6 for 40lb of feed, might have to up the oats though it could be a bit protien rich

reneggaide wrote:Youve missed nothing CynthiaM with a sad smile, This fellow and I ran in the same circles of friends for many years without meeting. When we did meet we talked of feeding peas to chickens, he fed up to 50% for many years raising broilers. Shortly after we met he perished in a terrible accident and there was some sadness expressed by our mutual friends that we could not meet again, everyone had enjoyed the conversation. I had started feeding peas at his encouragement, and he had enquired about my activities before the accident. I ran out of peas though and only recently can get them, so I had forgotten about this conversation, but it gives me a little more incentive to go on with peas in the feed. I just picked up 250lb, think Ill get another while its there.

And CynthiaM, there is no sadness here, OUR friend left this world thinking and acting for the well being of others and not himself, true to the end.

Thanks for clarifying this Reneggaide, now I understand. Sad when such people leave our world for surely. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.