hog and chicken feed

carl reitnauer · Sep 4, 2013

I can get a large amounts of day old bread for 10-15 cents per loaf. I've fed it as as a supplement to cows but didn't try it as a main ration to my laying birds or feeder pigs. Anyone with experience doing this? Opinions also welcome.

LAA · Sep 4, 2013

Figure the average weight of a loaf of bread is one pound and bread is roughly 30% moisture, this means on a dry matter basis bread @ 10 cents per loaf costs $285.00 per ton and @ 15 cents per loaf it would be $427.00 per ton, conversely, corn @ 12% moisture would have to be priced @ $7.20 per bushel to equal 10 cents per loaf bread and at $10.50 per bushel to equal 15 cents per loaf bread. In addition, bread has approximately 75% of the feed value (energy) as corn so it takes 25% more feed (dry matter basis) to equal corn, bread would have to be fiber and mineral supplemented but the protein needed to balance the ration with bread would be approximately the same as with corn. It would not be economical hog feed on any commercial scale, if you are feeding a few killer hogs and the bread is easier for you to get and handle than corn then it would probably make sense. The same feed values would apply to chickens but limited bread feeding to a laying flock may improve overall feed intake and egg production because chickens really love bread.

randallinMo · Sep 5, 2013

LAA gave you the most accurate answer you'll get. I wouldn't feed it unless it were free. Maybe "2 day old bread" would be?

GordoSD · Sep 5, 2013

Feed a couple slices per day to the dog also.

john in la · Sep 5, 2013

LAA gave you a very good answer.

Where bread works is if you can get out dated milk for next to nothing or you have left over whey from making cheese with family cow milk. The bread becomes a filler for the milk you are other wise throwing away.
This combined with pasturing and left over scraps from the garden becomes a way for a family pig to be fed at a lower cost. The pig will grow slower but with lower feed cost per lb of gain some use this as a alternative feed source.
You should also mix a mineral supplement with the milk/bread.

ben70b · Sep 5, 2013

an old timer once told me that years ago they would run corn thru a bur mill and put in one hog feeder and put the protein and mineral supliment in another feeder and the hogs would naturaly govern themselves and eat what they need. If a guy put a feeder with feed in and thru bread or other things you could get free into a troff would the hogs govern themselves?

JRSutton · Sep 11, 2013

supplement only.

We get truckloads of free bread around here, and it's tempting to over feed it.

Friend did this last year with his pigs, and now nobody want's to buy any of his ham this year.

Like everything in life - it's all about balance. They'll need protein and a good mix of veggies/hay for other nutrients to balance their diet out.

Exact mix depends of course on the type of bread - whole grain bread's obviously a lot different than processed white bread.

hog and chicken feed

carl reitnauer

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LAA

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randallinMo

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GordoSD

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john in la

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ben70b

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JRSutton

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