Fermented feed follow up quest; working out the kinks...

[Nao57]

So I'd been doing fermented feed recently following the guide and instructions of others.

It works very well in improving nutrition balance I believe. And the animals seem to like it more for some types.

But then I felt very discouraged when I looked into the feed barrel and see how fast its going.

I'm having problems with not being able to tell how much I'm actually feeding them with this type of setup, because of how the water mixes in. I hope I can get a solution, fix for this and advise.

I always measure the feed going into the fermentation buckets. But after that when I have to add water then the water in the solution makes it so I can't tell if I'm scooping water or feed to the animals and this has been making me give them more and then go through feed faster, when the purpose of this was to reduce feed.

Thank you for advise.

 

[Beekissed]

So I'd been doing fermented feed recently following the guide and instructions of others.

It works very well in improving nutrition balance I believe. And the animals seem to like it more for some types.

But then I felt very discouraged when I looked into the feed barrel and see how fast its going.

I'm having problems with not being able to tell how much I'm actually feeding them with this type of setup, because of how the water mixes in. I hope I can get a solution, fix for this and advise.

I always measure the feed going into the fermentation buckets. But after that when I have to add water then the water in the solution makes it so I can't tell if I'm scooping water or feed to the animals and this has been making me give them more and then go through feed faster, when the purpose of this was to reduce feed.

Thank you for advise.

Then it's a YOU problem and not a feed problem. You are overthinking it. What you have to understand about FF is that, yes, it contains water AND feed in each scoop. That water holds nutrition and the feed has increased nutritive value for having been converted to a more usable form for the animal. When you feed dry feed, a lot of that nutrition comes out the other end....you can smell it and dogs will consume it, because it still has valuable nutrition in it~a monogastric animal has a hard time processing an all grain diet whereas ruminates have several chambers in which to do so~chickens and pigs do not.

When you feed fermented feed, dogs will no longer touch the poop...all the nutrition has been used out of it and it no longer holds any appeal. That smell you smell in your coop...that awful stench from feces is largely due to undigested sugars/cellulose. After you've been feeding FF for a bit you'll start to notice less smell in your coop....mine has none at all as I also use composting deep litter. I haven't cleaned out my coop in 9 yrs now and you can't smell a thing in there, not even on the hottest day of summer. Also no flies....when the poop no longer holds any nutritive value, the flies don't wish to partake of it.

What all of that tells you is that you can feed LESS overall feed to get the same amount of nutrition to your flock, so the water in the feed doesn't matter when it comes to sheer volume.

At first your flock is going to gobble up all you give it....then later, as they are more nutritional served by the new kind of feed, their consumption will slow down and you'll see them leaving feed behind. That's when you titrate your levels given out each day to suit their current needs....if they are leaving feed behind each day, feed less the next day and thereafter until their seasonal needs change once again. I've found they usually consume about the same number of scoops of wet, fermented feed as they used to when it was dry, even though there's about half the amount of actual grain/feed in that scoop, with the rest being water.

Just play with it and you'll get used to the new method but you need to get it out of your head that you need to feed them the same amount of DRY feed as you used to...you don't, as that dry feed now has been converted to the point it holds more nutrition per scoop.

Here's an interesting thing to note also....note the smell and flavor of eggs you have from when they were eating regular feed vs. the smell and flavor of those after they've been eating FF for a week or so. It changes and the change is so noticeable that customers have reported the change and also reported they had less stomach upset from eating the eggs as well~I had an old Mennonite lady tell me she's always gotten an upset stomach from eating eggs since she was little, but the eggs from FF fed chickens didn't upset her stomach...though she didn't know I had made changes when she reported this. They have a less sulfur smell and taste when eating FF and I'm not sure why but they do. It also translates into their meat flavor as well.

 

[Nao57]

OK< thanks. I'll look at this again.

I felt better reading your comments. You were right.

But also one quick question... if ducks normally need 6 ounces of dry food a day, what would you assign as the fermented feed figure? (Its like 20 to 30% less right?) So does that mean in FF terms for ducks it would end up as like a bit over 4 ounces?

 

[Beekissed]

No, you'd give the same amount you'd normally give when giving dry.