fed up with feed company

Curious AS To WhAt Feed People Are Using. CuRrently Using Adm And I Am FeD Up Beyond Belief WithTheM. MoreThan Likely Switching This Fall. Since I Sell Feed I Would Really Like To Be Able To Have A DealershiP Too.

This won't answer your question so sorry. But I was down right fit to be tied for many years over the whole feed issue. I couldn't find a loose feed I was pleased with. Either to dry or to wet. Loose feed works for those who can go out by the deer and feed morning and night. Did that for years also.


Pellet quality sucks from most places I have used over the years. Quality control sucks also.


I always said if deer growers joined forces and had their own feed mill it would be awesome. However where would the mill be? Who would incur the majority of the trucking costs to get the feed to their own farm? Few deer farmers agree on what a mixture should really contain so having a common feed mixture to make things simpler would be unlikely. And many act like their feed mix is some kind of national security secret so sharing ideas is rare on the topic. I do know that feed costs is out of control and I feel like all the suppliers are raping us.


Again this didn't help you at all but it let me vent a little so thanks.

Electric cement mixer and mix your own. 18% pellet with rumensin, Nice sweet feed mix, Sunflower seeds Soybean mash. Mix with Soybean oil, Shock Effect products, Selenium and Calcium mixture. Add your favorite mineral and mix well. Works very well up here in the cold.

We have been using Purina Antler Max for a long time, 10 years or so. There is no way we can come up with a feed that PHD's have worked on for 50 years. They are constantly refining it and making it better. They are scientists who spend the time under the microscope and doing the endless feeding tests etc. we're convinced there is no way we can come up with anything better or even comparable. We recently had the opportunity to tour one of the pellet plants here in Wisconsin. Believe me, quality control is everywhere, from the first arrival of raw materials to the end pellet. Each batch of corn etc. is tested to meet standards. They add small quantities of minerals etc. all designed to give you and your animals the optimum feed. Purina has been around over 100 years and they feed every kind of animal.


They have recently come out with a new product called Antler Advantage that is less expensive than Antler Max. Check it out.

Ben,

I think my feed company Lowes Pellet & Grain delivers to Perdue turkey farms just north of you. You are welcome to try my feed. It is called Bell Calf Mix 18%. It is an improved version of the Armada feed companies deer feed. It is labeled for calves because of some of the things I've added like deccox. Their ph# is 812-663-7863 the mill is in Greensburg. I think it is very reasonably priced when I buy it bulk. The only thing I add is I top dress with Digestamax4 made by Vigortone which I mix in a bucket with an extruded bean meal called Mega19 which is around 40%protein but is much higher in soy bean oil than the dryer higher protein extruded bean meals. The first three days of the month I also mix sulfamedG or aureomycin10g crumbles in my top dress. This for us has worked well for years. I am not a feed expert. If you do deal with them and can give advice to improve my pellet please do. Thanks and good luck

Roger,

You are right about quality control.

I am sure that the filler grains in my pellet aren't 100% consistent and probably aren't in most pellets. I would guess they go down to the Ohio river and buy the cheapest grain sometimes they can get off the barges. My pellet quality is ok. Unless I grow my own grind it and mix it that's probably something that's never going to change for me.

Wild river, why is it less expensive then antler max? I used to feed antler max but every time you weren't looking the price would go up. I asked if they could match the price of ADM and of course they did at first. I kept tack of the ADM prices as well and the rate increases would fluctuate a bit but nothing like Antler max. It could have also been my dealer jacking up the price, who knows. I now have a ration that I have my local elevator mix which I'm very pleased with using a 16% pellet mixed with several other things, they love it and they do well on it. It comes out to around $360-$390 a ton bulk. It seems if you have the exact same feed mixture and it says deer feed and instead of calf feed, you better expect to pay more.

What does Purina run a ton? I have spoke with them at shows and been told my local rep would call, as well as contacted them via their website. I am not a fan of working hard to give someone my money. It should be the other way around.

I used to work in the feed business, and I will let you in on a not-so-secret about pellets: if the price isn't fluctuating, the ingredients are constantly changing. If you want consistent pellets, the price will change regularly. The same is true of your complete mix (to a degree): commodity prices can be all over the board, and if your price isn't changing accordingly, it's because they are using some cheap filler crap in something.


What do you want: consistent quality or consistent prices? It's often a lose/lose in the feed sales business, which is partly why I USED to be in the feed business

Jeff,

Good info, I have watched my pellet price over the years and it does follow the grain market price closely and changes daily on the price per ton. The info you posted makes me feel a little more confident they are making me a consistent quality pellet. I know the owner Allen Lowe is a person of integrity but I also understand he is trying to compete and make a profit like us all. I just suspected the worse because of my lack of knowledge.

The Antler Advantage is explained as not having some of the bells and whistles that Antlermax has. I believe it has to do with the bypass technology, where some of the protein is protected to go through to the end stage of the rumen, therefore delivering more of it to the final product.


What Jeff said is true about quality and price. We all know the drought two years ago drove prices up. If your price wasn't, going up it was because they were using lower cost ingredients. Purina has standards that every load from every producer has to meet.

Jeff,


 


Amen your are exactly right.  If a feed says it has Grain By Products as its #1 ingredient then it is CRAP=cardboard.  We get ours mixed at Kalmbach feeds in Upper Sandusky Ohio.  We used to get it mixed at a place up in Berne, IN.  2 years ago after fawning I had to pull 3 does out early before weaning because they were going to die if I didn't.  The were withering away to nothing.  I have the SAME textured recipe made by Kalmbach and our deer look the best they ever have.  They will have been on it 2 years this summer.  Kalmbach also makes heartland and I highly recommend it.  We use the pine creek when we start our fawns on feed because it is a smaller pellet.

Ben


I am curious as to what you are fed up with ADM about ?  I am new to deer farming and we are feeding ADM as a couple local feed mills carry it and it was recommended. It is very pricey here and some are cutting it with their own recipes.

I have a "stupid" question about feed...The feed mill i use is the cheapest i have found in my area but my biggest complaint to them has been the fines in the feed. My deer just wont eat it and leave it in the bottom of the feeder. I have complained many times about this and they grind it bigger a few times then it ends up back to the same..question is.. can i have then NOT grind it?? deer eat whole kernel corn in the wild so i dont see what the big deal would be leaving the corn whole. There are a few Blocks that hwould have to be ground but omittting the corn would cut back i suppose

Rick,


 


When I get my feed mixed by the ton I am always a couple bags short.  I called and asked why.  They told me that these bags are bags they toss because they are the fines, we are not charged for those.  So I would say a mill that knows what they are doing shouldn't sell you bags of fines.  I had a feed company that did that to me with my horse feed and they always credited me for the bags with fines but it kept happening time after time, the horses would not eat it.  I no longer do business with them.

Rick,


Bagged feed or bulk? Fines are usually not primarily corn, so changing to coarser corn would probably not make much difference. There are two ways to try and eliminate fines without significant changes to your mix: vegetable oil and liquid molasses. We decrease our liquid molasses in the winter to keep the feed from freezing into clumps so much, and increase it in the summer because the moisture evaporates more, making the feed seem drier in the trough. I don't know your mix, but I would increase molasses or oil in your mix by small increments to make the fines stick to the coarse ingredients.  (I think the difference in our cold weather mix vs. warm weather mix is 20 pounds of molasses per ton, but I wouldn't experiment with more than 10 pounds at a time.)

I used to buy a textured feed from the feed mill using Maxrax as the base pellet. The mill I used made the pellet there according to the specs from Shane Horrocks who owns Maxrax. My problem was not the pellet but the mix itself. There was absolutley zero consistency in the feed , it was always to dry and it never looked the same and a lot of times had other stuff in it such as left over hog and cattle feed. I bought my own mixer and have been doing it for 2 years now. It is perfect everytime and if is isn't it's my fault not the feed mill. I keep track of the price if I were to buy the same ration at the mill and I'm saving 90.00 per ton.

For those that are new there are two things we noticed with a lesser quality feed.  Poorer body condition coming out of the winter and loosing weight after fawning.  we have our protein 18% from march to august to cover the antler growth and nursing does and then back it down to 16 % the rest of the year saving us about 50 cents a bag.


What % does everyone else use?

Jerri Lee,

In the spring new growth in the pasture is naturally very high in protein. This is also when the bucks and doe need the highest protein. If the spring and early summer is dry the protein level of the pasture is going to plummet. The combination of them consuming the dried out lower protein in the pasture(maybe 6%) and my feed though 18% may not be adequate. That is why I top dress with a little extruded bean meal mixture . The fiber and mineral content does go up during drought in pasture and browse. Generally things dry out later in summer when antlers are hardening. The time when bucks need a little extra mineral. It is neat how Mother Nature takes care of everything down to the smallest detail. We feed 18% percent year round. We have tried in the fall to cut our doe's grain consumption way back then bring them back up to help with our conception and fertility. I have read where the experts say 16% protein is all you need. If the deer is consuming nothing else besides 16% protein in its roughage and a 16% feed mixture I think they are right.

,

I really like my ADM feed, my deer eat it great. Its not the feed that im fed up with its the company and their service. When I order feed and they say it will be here next friday and three and a half weeks later it finally shows up. This last time I ordered they changed my order from my custom feed to a feed that they determined was "close enough", when I am in the middle of antler growth and two weeks from fawning.


 


I wont hide it from anyone. currently I am adding 10oz of soybean oil and 6 scoops of shock effect to my feed for 4 of my bigger bucks. really seems to be doing well. use to mix it in the bucket but finally bought a concrete mixer and I wish i would have bought it 5 years ago. it mixes so much more evenly.

This all statred when they closed down the plant that was about 30 mins from my house and now im having to have it shipped from the other end of the state.