Poor quality feeds lead to a slow growth in chickens, low egg production, diseases or even death. Making poultry feeds on the farm is one of the best ways to maintain quality and cut the cost of production.
The common ingredients are whole maize, maize germ, cotton seed cake, soya beans, sunflower or fish meal (omena).
In addition, farmers need to add several feed additives (micronutrients, minerals and vitamins) to make ensure their chicken have a balanced feed that meets their daily nutrient requirements.
Material is available cheaply, especially after the harvesting season. Depending on the cost of raw material, farmers who make their own feeds at home save between 30 to 50 per cent for every 70kg bag of chicken feed, depending on the source of their raw materials.
Due to government regulation, major feed companies have reduced the standard quantity of feed from 70kg to 50kg per bag, but the price of feed still remains almost the same.
This means that farmers who are able to make their own feeds make great savings on feeds which take up to 80 per cent of the production costs.
To formulate feeds, farmers have to use the Pearson Square method. In this method, the digestible crude protein (DCP) is the basic nutritional requirement for any feed preparation for all animals and birds.
Now, assuming that a farmer wants to make feed for their chicken using this method, they have to know the crude protein content of each of the ingredients they want to use to make their feed.
The following are the DCP values for each of the common ingredients used in feed making:
Each category of chicken has its nutritional requirement. For example, if we want to make feed for layers, the feed should have at least 18 per cent crude protein.
If one was to formulate feed for layers, then they would have to calculate the percentage of DCP in each of the ingredients they want to use to ensure that the total crude protein content is at least 18 per cent.
Therefore, to make a 70kg bag of feed for layers, a farmer would require the following ingredients:
6kg of lime (as a calcium source)
To find out if all the above ingredients meet this standard of 18% crude protein, a farmer can do a simple calculation as follows:
Whole maize — 34kg x 8.23 ÷100 = 2.80 %
Soya — 12kg x 45kg ÷ 100 = 5.40 %
Omena — 8 kg x 55kg ÷ 100 = 4.40 %
Lime — 6 kg x 0 kg ÷ 100 = 0.00%
Total % of crude protein = 13.30%
To get the total crude protein percentage of all these ingredients in a 70kg bag of feed, the farmer should take this crude protein content of the combined ingredients, divide by 70kg and multiply by 100, thus — 13.30 ÷70 ×100 = 19%; this shows that the crude protein content of the above feed formulation is 19%, which is quite adequate for layers.chicks
To ensure the chicken to get all they need in terms of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids, you need these additives in their standard quantities.
In order to make it even simpler for farmers who would wish to make their own feeds, below are feed formulations for each category of chickens and stage of growth already worked out such that all the farmer needs is to buy the ingredients and mix them
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