Another piece of equipment finally fully resurrected

Wesley Stephens · Feb 24, 2010

We have a Meadows 15" hammer mill that, according to my mother, had not been used since at least 1962. Back in the summer I pulled it out and confirmed that it was in operating condition but put it on the back burner. I finally figured out through trial and error how to get a belt lined up and made the first batch of feed with it yesterday. We ground about half a ton of corn through it to try it out, and it seems to work great. We use a pto powered cement mixer to mix chicken feed. After putting a pencil to it, it seems that my feed bill will be cut by about 35-40%. A lot of folks tried to tell me it was too much load for our MF 35 gas, but it seemed to handle it fine.

ChrisinMO · Feb 24, 2010

I'm assuming you grow your own grain? Or do you purchase it?

Christopher

Wesley Stephens · Feb 24, 2010

We do a little of both. We use most of our corn for silage but we'll probably hang on to a little more this year. My friend and neighbor is going to snap a lot of corn this year and I'll probably buy enough from him to fill our corn crib and when that runs out we'll buy more from local farmers. We don't have the capacity to grow enough to feed out all of our chickens and hogs, but we can get it locally on the cob or shelled for the price that the growers get at the elevator. I prefer to buy it shelled, but I can grind ear corn too and formulate the right ration. I've been swelling corn in barrels and letting it sour and feeding it to my hogs with good results. I will probably only use the ground feed for chickens, but I use a lot for that. I don't know how feed prices here compare to other areas, but Southern States has the best price and it is still much more expensive than what I can grind it myself for.

ChrisinMO · Feb 24, 2010

We raise both chickens, for eggs, and hogs for butcher. We are able to get a good enough premium on the eggs that we're making a decent profit. I am not happy with the money we're getting on the pork. We have really had difficulty getting good prices, especially with the high cost of processing them at a state inspected plant. We've got a pretty good feed mill not far from us which concentrates on having low prices. Nevertheless, I haven't been too happy with the prices on the hog feed items. I guess I might ask around about what we could buy corn for locally, direct from the grower.

Thanks for the reply.

Christopher

Wesley Stephens · Feb 24, 2010

We are lucky to have a good processor within a reasonable distance. The feed mills have been gone for a long time. Unless a customer wants something special, we have all of our hogs ground for sausage and we have done pretty well with it. The two things though that have done the best for me are started pullets and halves and quarters of beef. We have just had our first federally inspected and vacuum packed beef processed so we will see how selling it by the cut does. The same thing goes with chicken. I'm going to have about a hundred killed and inspected in a couple of weeks. The state university in Wilmington is trying to link local farmers to restaurants and they had a very nice dinner to serve as a meet and greet so I'm hoping to get some business from that. Time will tell I guess.

ChrisinMO · Feb 24, 2010

Wilmington, Delaware? Or perhaps another Wilmington? My mother used to live outside Lewes, DE after she retired. Nice place, but awful flat!

Christopher

Wesley Stephens · Feb 24, 2010

I often forget that there is a Wilmington Delaware. I'm in southeastern NC. Our area is very rural, but Wilmington, Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach, and Raleigh are all within a reasonable distance.

Leroy · Feb 25, 2010

Also one in Ohio

Another piece of equipment finally fully resurrected

Wesley Stephens

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ChrisinMO

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Wesley Stephens

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ChrisinMO

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Wesley Stephens

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ChrisinMO

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Wesley Stephens

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Leroy

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