Definition of Poultry Feed Mix
This refers to the mixture of different types of poultry feed ingredients or feedstuff systematically to provide the essential nutrients required by poultry birds for normal body functioning.
No single feedstuff or ingredients can supply the balanced nutrients needed by poultry birds for the overall performance of the birds.
Nutrient-rich poultry feed is needed for the good performance of the poultry. Poultry birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys, and pigeons require a well-formulated feed for normal body functioning.
A well-blended poultry feed should contain good nutritional value to enable birds to convert feed to meat and egg production.
The aim of establishing poultry industries is to produce meat, egg, or both meat and egg. To achieve this purpose, the feed formulated or mixed should contain an adequate nutrient for optimal growth and productivity.
More than 34 to 44 percent of the total feed consumed by the birds is used for meat and eggs. Poultry birds do not possess a well-developed organ for chewing and biting feed, hence their feed should be ground to provide good feed for the birds.
The feed for poultry should be ground into a fine powder and mixed with other nutritious feed or additives to increase palatability and feed quality.
Domesticated birds do not have holidays hence, feed is made available to poultry birds at all times, feed for poultry should constitute a large percent of the poultry’s total cost of production, therefore formulating feed can help to reduce the cost of production.
Read Also: Cornish Cross Broiler: Overview and Everything You Need to Know About Cornish Cross Broiler.
The Benefit of Poultry Feed Mix
The need to provide adequate nutrients for the growth and development of birds is paramount. Poultry birds require many essential nutrients for meat and egg production. The benefits of poultry feed mix are:
- Provision of Adequate Nutrient for Birds: the combination of essential nutrient elements is necessary for the overall performance of the poultry bird. Poor feeding in birds may lead to malnutrition, resulting in poor egg and meat production. Adequate poultry feed mix ensures that birds have all the balanced diets required for normal body functioning. For optimal productivity, poultry feed should be rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and lipids (fats and oil).
- Ensure Maximum Growth and Productivity Bird: A good Poultry feed mix provides birds with adequate nutrient elements essential for growth and development. The right combination of feed ensures that the bird gets the needed nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins in proportion to ensure adequate weight gain, good meat and egg production, proper bone, enzymes, and hormone formation. A good nutrient mixture ensures adequate eggshell formation in poultry birds.
- Boost Birds Immunity against Disease: nutritional diseases such as osteoporosis or osteomalacia, rickets, poor growth, poor eggshell, meat quality, and gout can be resisted with a good poultry feed mix. Balanced feed nutrient combination helps to boost the immune system of the birds against infectious diseases.
- Improve Palatability: a well-blended poultry feed mix will help to improve poultry feed’s palatability. When mixing feed, emphasis should be laid on feed ingredients capable of increasing palatability. Palatability of feed enables birds to consume a good proportion of feeds to increase weight and reach market value and egg production within a short period.
- Increase Feed Conversion Rate: a well-formulated poultry feed can improve bird feeding conversion rates, due to the inclusion of various feed additives and essential nutrients. These additives and nutrients help increase birds’ feed conversion to meat and egg production.
- Consistency in Feed Quality: A well-balanced poultry feed mix ensures consistency in feed production quality. The nutritional requirement for the feed formulation is already tabulated and fixed, which enables the feed formulator to be consistent in the production of feed with specific nutrient quantity and quality. This consistency in feed quality helps to increase the meat, egg, and overall performance of the birds
Poultry Feed Grinder and Mixer
A poultry feed grinder and mixer are mechanical instruments used in processing poultry feed ingredients to achieve a good mixture of adequate feed for poultry growth and productivity.
Poultry are simple stomach animals that do not have a well-structured organ for cutting and chewing food. Due to this factor, their feed needs to be well ground and mixed to ensure an efficient and homogenous mixture to provide good nutrients for poultry.
These farm machines can be operated manually or electronically depending on the type of production. Some of the poultry feed grinders and mixers as enumerated by chickenfeedmachinery.com are:
Batch Mixer
This is a poultry feed processing machine that is used to produce intermixed feedstuff in a ration. This type of machine consists of batch vertical and horizontal types.
The vertical mixer involved scattering the ingredients as they were discharged from the auger at the top of the mixing bin. This type of batch mixer is cost-effective but does not mix feed ingredients properly.
The horizontal mixer consists of a U-shaped bin, containing a central mixer blade mounted on the rotational shaft, the blade cuts through the feed ingredients thus producing a mechanical intermixing of the feedstuff in the ration.
Ensure that the U-shaped bin, the central mixer blade, rotational shaft blade are washed and dry after use, the metal part should be oiled and greased to prevent rusting or corrosion, and the damaged part should be serviced or replaced to increase the self-life of the machine..
The type of batch mixer is appropriate for blending a well-mixed feed and it is generally expensive.
The disadvantage of this type of mixer is that it can only handle a limited quantity of feed and the mixture may not be well blended.
Continuous Mixer
Continuous mixer is a type of poultry feed mixer and grinder that is used primarily in commercial feed industries for the continuous mixture of feed.
This type of poultry feed mix machine is used to mix feed ingredients continuously at one end and constantly at the other.
A continuous mixer consists of an inlet, mixing chamber, blade, control, and discharge system that is used to remove the already thoroughly blended feed.
This poultry feed mixer is made of different types such as ribbon, screw, and paddle type. The ribbon type of continuous mixer is constructed with ribbon-shaped agitators that are continuously used to mix poultry feed to create a good mixture while the paddle mixer is constructed with metal paddles or blades that are used to blend poultry feed.
The inlet, mixing chamber, blade, control, and discharge system of the continuous mixer should be thoroughly washed and dried after use, the metal part should be oil and greased to prevent rusting or corrosion, and the damaged part should be serviced or replaced.
The merit of these poultry feed mixes is they are suitable for commercial industries, they are more appropriate for mixing large quantities of feed, and the ability to mix poultry feed efficiently and accurately.
The demerit of the continuous mixer is that more expensive compared to the batch mixer, it requires technical know-how to operate effectively.
Hammer Mills
This poultry feed mix equipment is mechanically constructed for grinding and mixing fresh, semi-dried, and dried feedstuff. The Hammer milling machines consist of buckets and shafts that are used to blend different types of feed ingredients in a uniform mixture.
The hammer mills should be washed and kept dry after use, the metal part should be oil and grease to prevent rusting or corrosion, and service or replace worn-out parts.
The advantage of this type of poultry feed mix machine is that they can be used to blend both wet and dry feed, it is cheap to maintain and more efficient in the processing of raw feeds in the industries.
The demerit of the hammer mills is that they require special skill to maintain, the operation requires technical skills, and a high level of maintenance as raw feed may lead to corrosion of metal parts
Additive Mixer
The Additive Mixer machine is an electronic or manually operated machine used in the commercial poultry industries to apply liquids chemicals, nutrients, and drugs into feed during processing and packaging.
This type of mixer consists of a pump, tank, and valve used for applying liquid feed additive into Poultry feed to increase palatability and ensure a uniform feed mixture.
The additive mixer as a poultry feed mix equipment has an inbuilt mechanism that operates with precision to achieve optimal feed mixtures.
The advantage of this type of mixer is that it is more appropriate for adding and mixing liquid feed ingredients, minimizes the wastage of feedstuff, and creates an accurate mixture of oil, minerals, and vitamins to dry feed.
The disadvantage of the additive mixer is that it requires special skill to operate, the electronically operated additive mixer depends on electricity which may not be available all the time on the farm, maintenance, and repair require technical skills,
Bucket Mixer
The bucket mixer is sometimes referred to as the bucket elevator mixer. It is electronically or manually operated. The bucket mixer as a poultry feed mix equipment consisted of a bucket, blade, and elevator.
The bucket elevator mixer functions so that the feed ingredient is lifted with the aid of the belt or chain to the elevator where the feed is uniformly mixed with the aid of the attached blade.
To maintain this machine, ensure that the belt and chain are checked before operation, and wash the bucket, and blade after use, metal parts should be well greased and oiled to prevent friction and repair and remove worn-out parts.
Pellet-Making Machine or Mills
This is one of the most frequently used poultry feed mix equipment in the feed industries. The pellet mill is systematically designed to convert well-mixed poultry feed into different shapes, sizes, and categories for optimal bird consumption.
Pellet Making Machines or Mills consist of the hopper, conditioning, pelletizing chamber, cooling and screening, and control system.
The pellet-making machine is used in processing industries purposely to convert well-formulated and blended feed stuff into different shapes, such as small, rectangular shape, cylindrical, or spherical feed that are suitable for poultry birds.
The pellet-making machine should be washed and dried after use, the metal part should be oil and greased to prevent rusting or corrosion, and the damaged part should be serviced or replaced.
The advantage of this type of poultry feed mix equipment is that it can convert feed into a different shape, help to minimize feed wastage, and it be can used to convert large feed.
The machine requires special skill to operate, the electronic or sensor-operated pellet-making depends on electricity which may not be available all the time on the farm, and it requires technical skills to service and replace damaged parts.
Drum Mixer for Poultry Feed
This is another type of poultry feed mix equipment that is electronically or manually operated to create a good mixture of feed for birds.
The drum mixer machine consists of a drum, hopper, conveyor, and blade. This type of poultry feed mix is well-constructed with an inbuilt mechanism where the feed ingredients are loaded with the help of the conveyor, and the blade helps to grind the feed and mix the feed with the aid of the rotation of the drum.
The advantage of the drum mixer is that it can be cleaned easily, and prevents accidents and overloading.
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Feed Formulation Table
Poultry mixing processing is not done haphazardly, but thoroughly to obtain uniform feed nutrients necessary for poultry health.
There are levels of nutritional requirements for birds below and above that may be dangerous for the health status of the birds.
therefore it is necessary to follow the nutritional standard recommended for the optimal performance of the poultry bird or usually consult a nutritionist while compounding or mixing poultry feeds.
The feed formulation ratio for broiler and layer per percentage is shown below
| S/no | Broiler
Broiler starter 0-3 |
Layer
Starter feed 0-6 |
||
| S/no | Nutrient element | Percentage | Nutrient element | Percentage |
| protein | 20-23% | protein | 18-21% | |
| Metabolisable Energy rate | 3100-3200kcal kg | Metabolisable Energy rate | 2900-3000kcal kg | |
| Crude fibers | 60% | Crude fibers | ||
| calcium | 1.0-1.3% | calcium | 1.0-1.3% | |
| Phosphorus | 0.46-0.5% | Phosphorus | 0.46 -0.5% | |
| methionine | 7.5% | methionine | 3.5 | |
| lysine | 9.0% | lysine | 8.5 | |
| Broiler
Grower Broiler 4-6week |
Layer
Grower feed 7-16 week |
|||
| protein | 18-20% | protein | 16-18% | |
| Metabolisable Energy rate | 3000-3200kcal kg | Metabolisable Energy rate | 2900-3000kcal kg | |
| Crude fibers | Crude fibers | |||
| calcium | 0.1-0.3% | calcium | 1.0-1.3% | |
| Phosphorus | 0.46-0.5% | Phosphorus | 0.4-0.46% | |
| methionine | 2.7% | methionine | 5.0% | |
| lysine | 6.0% | lysine | 6.0% | |
| Broiler
Finisher Broiler 0-3 |
7week onward | Layer
Starter feed 16-18 |
||
| protein | 16-18% | protein | 14-16% | |
| Metabolizable Energy rate | 3000-3200kcal kg | Metabolizable Energy rate | 2900-3000kcal kg | |
| Crude fibers | 60% | Crude fibers | 80% | |
| calcium | 1.0-1.3% | calcium | 1.2-1.6% | |
| Phosphorus | 0.46-0.5% | Phosphorus | 0.4-0.46% | |
| methionine | 7.2 | methionine | 7.7 | |
| lysine | 9.0 | lysine | 6.0 | |
| Layer feed
pre-layer feed 19 onward |
||||
| protein | 16-18% | |||
| Metabolizable Energy rate | 2800-2900 kcal kg | |||
| Crude fibers | 80% | |||
| calcium | 3.6-4.0% | |||
| Phosphorus | 0.46-0.5% | |||
| methionine | 5.0% | |||
| lysine | 6.0% | |||
| Supplement | Supplement | |||
| calcium | Calcium | Oyster shell, eggshell, bone meal | ||
| vitamins | Vitamin A,E, D, K,C and B | vitamin | Vitamin A,E, D, K,C and B | |
| mineral | Selenium, Phosphorus, sodium, potassium chloride, iron, zinc | Mineral | Selenium
Phosphorus, sodium, potassium chloride, iron, zinc |
How to Mix Poultry Feed
Poultry feed has been reported to constitute about 60-70% of the total cost of production in the poultry industries.
The feeding of the poultry birds is such that feed must be available for them at all times. Feeding of poultry birds is very crucial because the feed contributes to a large percentage of growth and productivity.
About 30 to 40% of the food consumption in poultry is converted to meat and egg production. If birds are poorly fed there will be a delay in egg production and may not reach market weight on time.
Good quality feed is vital for good eggshell and bone formation, growth, enzymes and hormone synthesis, meat and egg formation, and the ability to resist disease attacks.
Feed compounding and formulation can be done by anybody either by the farmer, or in the feed industries, but the knowledge of the percentage and quality of feed to be used is paramount.
Compounding and formulating feed can reduce the cost of purchasing feed, enabling the poultry farmer to reduce the cost of production and maximize profit.
Feed Compounding and Formulation will help to supply a consistent amount of qualitative or nutritious feed for birds.
Poultry Feed Mix Ingredient
Feed ingredients are constituents of feed makeup. They are feedstuffs that are required to be added to get whole food.
Poultry feed consists of many feed ingredients and these feed ingredients must be present in adequate amounts to supply the needed nutrients needed for the growth and development of birds.
If these feed ingredients are lacking in the process of mixing the poultry feed. It can lead to serious health challenges in the body of the poultry.
Therefore gathering the right quantity and quality of feedstuff is necessary. The poultry feed ingredients should contain the following class of feed in the right proportion.
They include energy sources such as protein, vitamins, and minerals. The food sources of this class of food are
Poultry Feed Mix and Grinding Equipment
Equipment such as spades, buckets, and basins as well as grinding and mixing machines such as Batch mixers, Continuous mixers, Grinders and hammer mills, Liquid additive mixers, and Pellet mills can be used depending on the nature and scale of production.
The equipment to be used should be properly washed and kept clean, those with oil parts should be properly oiled and greased to prevent friction.
Ensure that the oil and fuel are properly gaged before starting the machine. Those that have electronic power are connected to the source of light.
The weighing or measuring instrument should be made available and well-calibrated to ensure accurate measurement.
The storage silos and bin should be made available for the storage of the mixed feed.
Procedure for Poultry Feed Fix
All the feed ingredients should be properly ground to a fine powder and sieved properly. feed ingredients that constitute less than 1 or 2 % of the final mixing volume must be premixed to avoid problems arising from poor distribution of feed ingredients.
Premixed can be accomplished by blending the minor ingredients with a small quantity of one major ingredient. For best result, a small mechanical mixer should be used.
Premixes should be prepared shortly before use and should not be stored for extended periods.
In batch mixers all the ingredients consisting of less than 5% of the feed formula should be added after the mixer is 1/3 full and before 2/3 of the total weight of the feed ingredients has been added.
Most mixers work best when used to their rated capacity. The following steps are necessary for mixing feed.
- Determine the type of ration or purpose for which the feed is to be mixed, which could be either supplementary feed, concentrate, or complete ration
- Determine the categories of poultry birds the feed is mixed for, whether is it starter, grower, finisher, and layer.
- Decide on the category of the poultry birds and the nutritional requirement for birds such as the age, breed, and purpose of keeping the birds (i.e. meat or egg production).
- Follow the nutrient requirement above or consult a good nutritionist
- The ingredients should be properly weighed using accurate measurements to determine the feed nutrients required for the feed blending (i.e. the amount of protein, vitamin, mineral, energy, and the additive required.)
- Pour all the weighed ground feedstuff into a clean poultry feed mixer and mix thoroughly to achieve a homogenous mixture.
- The thoroughly mixed poultry feed should be sun-dried or put in the dryer to ensure maximum drying before storing.
- The thoroughly mixed poultry feed should be properly stored in an airtight container to prevent the infestation of pests and disease
- The poultry feed should be fed to the bird, taking into consideration the type of breed of the bird and its age.
QFA
How to produce homemade poultry feed
Poultry feed making is as easy as one 123, just have the idea of the right feedstuff to combine to get a well-formulated poultry feed for your birds. The following steps will help you to manufacture your homemade poultry feed conveniently.
- Determine the type of ration or purpose for which the feed is to be produced, which could be either supplementary feed, concentrate, or complete ration
- Determine the categories of poultry birds the feed is produced for, whether is it starter, grower, finisher, and layer.
- Decide on the category of the poultry birds and the nutritional requirement for birds such as the age, breed, and purpose of keeping the birds (i.e. meat or egg production).
- If for layer measures 49 kg of any of energy grains e.g. maize/ort /sorghum/wheat meal, Add 19 kg of (protein concentrate) soybeans preferably, Add another 13 kg of fish meal (i.e. mineral source), 14 kg of maize bran with the broken kernel, 5 kg of limestone powder and Vitamin B (i.e. additive). The entire mixture should be able to give you 100kg or 100% this is for layer feed
- Follow the nutrient requirements above or consult a good nutritionist.
- The ingredients should be properly weighed using accurate measurements to determine the quantities of feed nutrients required for the feed blending (i.e. the amount of protein, vitamin, mineral, energy, and the additive required.)
- Pour all the weighed ground feed stuff into a clean poultry feed mixer, a big bow, clean flower, and mix thoroughly to achieve a homogenous mixture.
- The thoroughly mixed poultry feed should be sun-dried or put in the dryer to ensure maximum drying before storing.
- The thoroughly mixed poultry feed should be properly stored in an airtight container to prevent the infestation of pests and disease
- The poultry feed should be fed to the bird, taking into consideration the type of breed of the bird and its age.
Question People Frequently Ask
What are the best poultry feed grinders and mixers?
There are different types of grinders and mixer equipment used in the poultry industries, some are suitable for large-scale production while others are for small-scale production, but the best grinders and mixers for poultry feed mix are continuous mixers, drum mixers, additive mixers, and pellet mill.
These grinders and mixers are suitable for large-scale production, ensuring efficiency and homogeneity, and are cheap to maintain.
In Conclusion
Poultry feed mix for poultry birds is crucial in the poultry industries due to its ability to reduce the cost of production, consistency in nutrient quality, boost the animal’s ability to fight against diseases, and so on.
With the availability of poultry feed mix machines and equipment such as batch mixers, continuous mixers, pellet mills, grinding, and hammer mills it will be effortless to grind and mix feed for poultry even at home.