We had been buying regular chicken feed from a local store, but then found another local store that had "certified natural" feed for only about a dollar more ($12 for a 50lb bag.) It's Purina's Layena brand. So I went in yesterday and it had gone up to $15!!! So now it's costing me $120 a month to feed my girls. Goodness. That's a 20% price hike. I'm thinking of raising my egg prices. If I go up from $3.50 to $4, that'll be a 12.5% increase. I'm worried my customers will balk. I already have people snort and tell me they can get them for $1.25. Ugh - corn and diesel the lady said - both have gone up.
I'm wondering if it wouldn't be more cost effective to grow my own.
Feed Prices Going UP
I don't know what "certified natural" means. I suspect not much! I'd love to go organic but then we'd REALLY have to raise our prices. We're just charging $2/dozen; if feed goes up around here we may have to up it to $2.50.
Well, I know that a lot of farmers are going certified natural - http://www.naturallygrown.org/ . But...after further research, I found this thread where two people actually spoke with/emailed Purina to ask. http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=437110
Turns out it's an in-house label that means no animal byproducts are in the food. They don't guarantee that the corn and soy are GMO free and they say the only way to ensure that is to go organic. I have been unable to find a local feed store that carries organic. I can't afford to have 100lbs shipped to my farm every week!
My feed supplier changed the way they price the egg mash. It follows the corn price daily.
Last week I paid $119.00 for 600 lbs. This week it was $133.59.
That's right, I feed 600 lbs a week.
I sell some eggs to a fellow that raises quail eggs during the summer. He has been feeding the Purina stuff. Says he is going to change as they don't do well on it.
What I buy is mixed up by the feed mill I buy from. No antibiotics or other "miracle" ingredients, just corn, soybean meal, etc.
I tried to get flax seed put in for Omega 3, but that is next to impossible. One company sells it here, but at $25.00 for 50 lbs, forget it!
We get $3.00 a dozen at the Farmers market. We have around 300 hens just starting to lay. So I am figuring 22 dozen eggs a day, = $462.00 a week, -$120.00 for feed. We should make a little money!
Bernie
I was typing as you posted.
I worked as a feed mixer years ago. The only way to really know what goes in the feed is to talk to the person mixing it. The label is so generic it's impossible to know. Our labels listed oats as an example. What was really in there was oat hulls. That's whats leftover after they mill oats for human food. Basically fluffy hulls & dust.
GMO is bull. Don't mean a thing as far as food value goes. A lot less harmful chemicals are being sprayed on fields since GMO's came along. Before farmers were spraying 3 or 4 times a season with only heaven knows what. Now it's one shot of Round up.
I'm all for organic, but being friends with an organic farmer & listening to him as far as what goes on in organic circles, I won't cross the street to buy organic things.
Bernie
I buy from community Co-op and pay $9.50 each for 50 pounds layer and scratch which I mix. Now that Spring has come and grass has started to grow again I have reduced the amount of feed I give them . Free ranging the better part of the day and a little feed before they go to bed. I have to buy starter grower this week too and it runs the same.
GMO feed is not going to hurt the chickens.. it's the ecosystem that is going to be hurt. I don't worry about my chicken feed all that much. Organic is such a huge ball of red tape, it's a shame. At least in California, to be certified organic is next to impossible. I'm all for organic, but I wouldn't put myself out of biz to buy 100% organic feed.. unless my farm was certified. Especially if you can't claim it regarding your sales. You can say "raised with organic methods" but unless your farm is organic, really, it's all relative.
I do hope the price hike is not here to stay.. it's all the unrest in the world adding to the troubles at the pump and the checkout lines.. I think it's going to cause all businesspeople a hardship.
Personally, if you are getting $3.50 a dozen, I think you are getting a good price and I'd rather get a good price than run customers off by raising it... Surely you can offset some of your feed bill with sales?
I only get 2.00 dollars a dozen here and am having a hard time getting rid of eggs.
I have to agree with a lot of what Bernie said. So much of this so called organic is nothing but hype. When and how often has the business world told the real truth about anything. You can not know what your getting unless you can talk with the mixer. Labels are so misleading and manipulative, and often out right lies. Prices have gone up very high here and theres not much you can do about it. I quit raising standards and selling eggs as I would have to get five bucks a doz to make any real profit. I made most of my money off of selling the chickens and the eggs were kinda like a by product...our cheapest crumbles is not eighteen bucks a 50lb bag...Hay
I agree with ZZsBabies, although I have read some reports of GMO foods affecting fertility in animals:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april262010/gm-food-as.php
I know that all organic growers aren't saints, or even scrupulous business practitioners, but it's still the best chance we have of avoiding some substances that we'd rather not ingest. GMO foods are a huge experiment which uses us and our grandchildren as guinea pigs, and as with DDT resulting in bird eggs with shells too thin for the parents to incubate them, often the effects down the line are both unpredictable and unanticipated. Unfortunately with GMO, once the genie is out of the bottle there's no returning it.
I think the margarine commercial said it best many years ago.
"It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"
I am afraid you are also right Green. It's scary.
Also, my opinion comes from a farmer down the street that had an organic farm.. He told me about what he had to go through to be certified organic. It is a shame, cause I believe (or want to believe) that a lot of people don't bother to go "full blown" organic cause of the red tape.
Fortunately, I haven't had dealins with underhanded people regarding my chicken or veggie world.. I want to keep my head in the sand if they have. LOL
zz, we would definitely go organic certified if we could afford it. I think eventually we will look at the "Certified Natural" as an alternative, though our growing practices would still be organic. I think if I really want organic feed, I'll have to grow it myself and pray the wind off the Monsanto field don't make it over mine. Or the birds. Or bugs. I'd hate to be shut down for "stealing" their patent. Not a fan, can you tell?
I think my goal, whether or not it's safe or dangerous to feed GMO feed, is to NOT support companies that make GMO products. They affect the integrity of plant strains that mother nature has managed to keep growing for eons, and I just don't think anything good can come of messing with plant DNA. Especially when the goal is to unload even more corn products into our diet and feed into the feedlots to support our insatiable need for fast food.
I don't know everything about GMO and big Ag, but what I do know, I don't like.