Cost Savings from Fermenting Feed for Chickens and Other poultry

By Justine -

I'm an accountant by profession. I am really good with numbers and enjoy breaking things down. I wanted to know what we were saving by fermenting/soaking our feed so I could share it with you all.

We fed dry feed for one week and gauged our total feed provided during that week. The next week we fed fermented/soaked feed.

These are the numbers:

Without soaking we would fill two feeders full of dry that would last 24 hours. Each feeder holds 2 scoops = 8 pounds of feed each. Plus one more scoop to feed the Silkies, and another for the chicks in the brooders.

Total fed was 6 scoops or 24 pounds a day.

Equivalent to 168 pounds of dry feed a week.

That would cost us $62.16 a week to feed them. (Feed here costs 18.50 a bag = .37 cents per pound.)

Broken down further, that is about .28¢ per bird per week or $14.56 per year.

Weekly Costs to Feed Flock of 225 (Dry):

• 42 scoops (168 lbs.)
• .28¢ per bird
• $62.16 in feed per week
• Yearly Total: $3,232.32

Costs to Feed Each Bird (Dry):

• .04¢ per bird/day
• .28¢ per bird/week
• Yearly Total: $14.56 per bird 

With fermented/soaked feed we do 3 scoops of dry a day + 3/5 of scratch + 3 handfuls of BOSS = total cost of $35.98 a week. We are saving $26.18 a week by fermenting/soaking it. (About .16¢ per bird per week or $8.32 per year.)

Costs to Feed Flock of 225 (Fermented):

• 21 scoops (84 lbs.)
• .16¢ per bird
• $35.98 in feed per week
• Yearly Total: $1,870.96

Costs to Feed Each Bird (Fermented):

• .02¢ per bird/day
• .16¢ per bird/week
• Yearly Total: $8.32 per bird

For us, fermenting/soaking means a savings of $1,361.36 a year!!!!

 

I’m excluding the grown birds being fed scratch in both scenarios, but to feed them 4 pounds of fermented scratch a day (one scoop) Costs us $1 a day (I am not 100% sure on the price per pound, but putting it at $15 for a 50 pound bag. I know it is less than this. I think it's $23 for 80 pounds, but again, not sure…  It doesn’t make our total savings by soaking it any different. However, it costs us a total of $36.98 to feed all of our birds a week. That is not bad! Not bad at all!

Note: We have at least 40 meat kings, 30 layer chicks, 21 adults, 2 geese, 1 duck, 20 Mottled Houdans that are 6-8 weeks old, 15 Easter Eggers that are 6-8 weeks old, 9 Silkies that are adults (in pens), 1 Margaret, 19 Rocks that are 3 weeks old, 20 Rocks that are 2 weeks, 15 bantams that are 4 weeks, 8 chicks that are 1-1.5 weeks, 16 Silkies that are 7-9 weeks, 5 Naked Necks that are 7 weeks, and 3 Sizzles that are adults in a pen (quarantine).

I had to write that out to make sure I didn't miss anyone. That brings our total to 225 birds. (HOLY COW.) I shouldn't have calculated that - LOL.

- Justine

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Want to learn more about fermenting your own feed? Click here!!

Leigh asks -

So tell us…

1. How many birds do you have?

2. What would your own yearly savings be assuming it would cost $14.56 per bird to feed dry or $8.32 per bird to ferment?

         (Number of birds in your flock X $14.56)

Minus  (Number of birds in your flock X $8.32)

      =               Yearly Savings

I myself currently have a flock of 40, therefore, 

 40 x $14.56 = $582.40

- 40 x $3.32 = $332.80

Yearly Savings $249.60

LOL – I am NOT an accountant and in high school I thought I’d never need to use basic algebra…

and now I'm using it voluntarily.

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