Another Great E-mail & My Response

I received yet another really good e-mail and provided a response that is of interest to us all. It is time that we, mankind, takes a hard look at the way we feed our livestock and find more sustainable ways to do this, as well as most everything else.

I want to share this with you and invite you all to look into what I say in my response and let's research and learn alternative ways to feed our birds and in turn, ourselves!

E-MAIL QUESTION: 

"I live in Canada, but I want to move back home Pakistan. My plan is to start broiler farming. However, feed is the biggest hurdle to get in my limited budget. I was searching youtube and all of a sudden found your lecture which was so practical. I liked it very much.
I watched few of your videos which were mostly on layers. I could not find any for Broiler. My target is to raise about 3000 broiler as one batch. Can you please let me know how can I make home mix feed for them > I am looking two main advantages of home mix feed. First , it is cheap. Second it is of higher quality as you are buy quality products.
please let me know"

HERE IS MY RESPONSE:

"Thank you for writing and for watching my videos! We raise our poultry for both meat and eggs at the same time. So we raise "dual purpose" chickens. I geared my farm and my videos for others with dual purpose flocks, so this is why I do not concentrate on broilers.

  

I do have firm opinions on raising and feeding broilers though and I will share these with you! First, here is the link to my feed mix recipe: http://eco-ranch.us/POULTRYFEEDMIX.pdf

One thing I have noticed in Asia, India in particular, is that the commercial feeds are expensive when compared to our commercial feeds. Also, many people in SE Asia have been taught that chickens must have commercial chicken feed to survive, or be the scrawny "village chickens" that many women tend. They are amazed at my "homemade" mix and that it works! I think that you, with some work and "entrepeneurism" can move well beyond this and perhaps even grow a "niche" product that will sell for a higher price.

My goal when I have raised just broilers, is to raise them quickly. Everyone feels this way! I used the same feed mix on my Cornish Crosses as I did for the rest of the flock. At 20% protein, it seemed to work great. My broilers grew to over 10 pounds, before starting to die of "flip-over". When the first one died, I processed the rest that day. This did take about 16-20  weeks though and the total feed conversion was close to 4-1. You and most growers want the turnover to be closer to 6-8 weeks and about 5 pounds and 3-1 or less. I achieved 5 pounds at 7-8 weeks and had a tender, dense birds with mild flavor. Incidentally, the 10 pound birds were the same, just BIG!

What I would recommend for a straight grain diet, is my recipe for 3-4 weeks, then increasing the protein to 25% for the rest of their lives. Substitute more corn, oats, or milo (sorghum) for wheat and be CERTAIN to use a vitamin/mineral premix.

Right now, I am looking at and hoping to work with growers in both Asia & Africa on moving away from a straight grain diet as it is costly and I think we can do far better with a little work! The moringa tree grows well in Pakistan and is a very excellent source of vegetable protein. Cultivating this could eliminate a great deal of the grains, as would growing a fodder. The down side to fodder though, is you still must buy the seed. Moringa will provide nutritious and viable seeds, so is self -sustaining.

The real way to provide excellent feed,  increased growth and flavor though, is through farming insects along with the chickens. Meal worms (darkling beetles) and black soldier flies can be grown on waste vegetation and even livestock manure. You can sustain your 3000 birds from a 20'x30' building, or less. Feeding these will further lower feed bills and a surplus of either can be sold for human consumption for extra income.

I am still working on this here, but I strongly feel this is the way we must go, particularly as grains go up in price and weather becomes more unstable.

Please stay in touch and let me know your progress!"