Feeding Poultry: The Classic Guide to Poultry Nutrition for Chickens, Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, Gamebirds, and Pigeons

I was excited to receive this book and ripped open the package. I randomly opened it to page 242 and what I read almost caused me to return it immediately: “GREEN CROPS. Alfalfa and clover furnish a good feed when cut green and fed directly to hens. These feeds are especially desirable for birds closely confined or running on bare yards. They furnish a good source of green food in summer when second- and third-cutting alfalfa and clover are available. Soybean and the green cowpea plant have supplied green succulent fodder. Green forage crops have been used as a substitute for three-fourths of the mash for laying hens” (emphasis mine). The last sentence has the following reference: Goodman, J.G. Green crops as a partial substitute for laying mash. Poultry Sci. 26:665. 1948. Needless to say, I was floored by this, and decided to follow up. After making a free account with Elsevier I was able to access old volumes of Poultry Science. This is located in volume 27 instead of 26, and the author is J.B. as opposed to J.G. Goodman. Finally, it is only the abstract of a paper presented at the 37th meeting of the Poultry Science Association.When reading the abstract it became apparent that I misinterpreted the prior sentence. This is because producers at that time were still using a “mash-grain” system where they fed scratch grains along with a higher protein mash. Thus the greens were 75% of only the mash… not the entire ration. The actually amount of eggs laid or mash, grain, or forage consumed is not given… therefore one can’t say whether the per animal performance was what one would expect for a particular quality of mash or amount of grain. It doesn’t say whether chickens were able to eat as much grain or mash as they wished (free choice/ad libitum) or whether these were restricted somehow to force the chicken to consume more forage. There is mention that chickens who were confined to their house and had greens brought to them performed better than the ones that were allowed to graze the same crops—which is a very interesting result. Finally it does specify that there was a saving of 36 to 46% by feeding greens over the dry feed cost of the grain-mash system to produce the same eggs. If true this would be significant even at a reduced per animal performance. I have always read that having chickens on pasture increased feed use and cost due to the fact that the protein and energy in forage was not very digestible by monogastrics, and that the act of running around and scratching used more energy. The common reason given for feeding forage is not to realize feed cost savings but to increase animal welfare and produce a higher quality end product(due to increased taste, omega-3 content and pigmentation). I will follow up by researching all of the sources I’ve read that have stated the fact that forage doesn’t defer costs and update this post… Perhaps I’m wrong and tremendous savings are to be had!-J.D.

This book is a product of it's times -- high regard for the scientific poultry research that had been done (as opposed to the observations of experienced farmers), but of course this was prior to the big advances in breeding grain crops or in breeding fast growing chickens, etc. So the info is very useful for farms rearing heritage birds, especially if they want to make their own feed mixes &/or pasture rear the birds. Essentially, this book offers the best info that you might have gotten from an Agricultural Extension Agent in ~1960. Good stuff!

this gives you detail of grains and why. not a feed mix like you buy at feed mill

Since chickens are so popular as backyard pets, anything having to do with chickens has risen in price. Also corn prices are way up which makes the feed expensive. This book gives alternatives that are healthy feed for chickens and save money.

I have only read a few chapters of the book. It is clearly written and the concepts of feeding chicken is clearly laid out. The book arrived a few days after it was mailed. I wished it has an e-format.

This book takes all the misinformation put out by feed companies, so-called "chicken experts", and buries it where it belongs. Another informative reprint by Norton Creek Press.

for those that technical things are easy. this was just too complicated for me, but has lots of graphs and info for someone who has the ability to do something with it.

Very in depth book which covers a lot of research by a number of universities and colleges plus some history of feeds