From regenerative@earthlink.net Thu Jun 3 04:28:11 1999 Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 18:06:23 -0700 From: Fred Chambers To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: probiotics and chicken feed Hi Lisa, et al poultry-heads. Is there a list for "sustainable poultry?" Or "appropriate meats?" I'd be interested in a list like that. I don't know much about probiotics. We don't use them. I like to think that the aquatic plants, weeds, and reclaimed water have homeopathic properties. Salatin uses acidophilus. Below is a rambling note on poultry feeds. Two recipes from Joel Salatin's work, and our own spin on it. Correct me if I'm wrong anyone, but most commercial poultry feed includes meat, blood, and bone meal from slaughterhouses. We stopped using feeds with renderings a couple of years ago. At my school's facility, public concern regarding "Mad Cow Disease," or more precisely, transmissible bovine spongiform encephalopathy, seems well founded. TBSE is caused by a prion, also known as a "slow virus" or virino, and passes from mammal to mammal through the food chain. When mammal offal is inhaled or ingested, e.g. incorporating sheep scraps into cow feeds, the prions infect new hosts. English rose gardeners, who use bone meal as a soil amendment, seem to be contracting human spongiform encephalopathy called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in inexplicably high numbers. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was very rare, only found in human cannibals until a few years ago. Prions withstand cooking, and feeding mammal renderings which may contain prions to poultry may be unwise. If the poultry can't pass it on, the dust from the feed could still infect workers. Animal protein that our chickens do not make themselves comes from fish and insects. Fish offal can be pelletized for poultry feed by freezing fish byproducts in the solar freezer until there's enough to merit a mill run. Fish skin, bones, heads, and entrails can be run through a pelletizing mill with alfalfa greens. The pressure of the mill actually cooks the ingredients while pressing pellets, which slows decomposition and reduces odors. Landscaping with perennials along the pens can act as insectories. Unlucky insects from these borders become part of the poultry diet. >From Joel Salatin's book/video "Pasture Poultry Profits." He feeds his Polyface Farm birds the following (approximately): 60% corn 11.5% peanut meal 6.5% soybean meal 5.5% roasted soybeans 7?% meat & bone meal 4% fishmeal 2.5% alfalfa meal 1.5% kelp meal for trace metals .5% brewers yeast a tiny bit of probiotics like acidophilus By mass, the Polyface recipe: 4,600 lbs. of cornmeal 875 lbs. of peanut meal 500 lbs. soybean meal 425 lbs. roasted soy beans 525 lbs. meat and bone meal 300 lbs. fish meal 200 lbs. alfalfa meal 110 lbs. kelp 50 lbs. yeast 20 lbs. probiotic Another diet for a farmer with 3000 birds 2240 lbs. tritical 800 lbs. soy bean meal 150 lbs. alfalfa pellets 9 lbs. calcium 4 lbs. poultry vitamins 7 lbs. XP4 phosphorus Our regenerative poultry diet per dozen layers: 600 lbs. of cracked corn and/or other grains 150 lbs. of cracked peanut/soy and/or other bean/seed 50 lbs. roasted peanut/soy and/or other bean/seed 80 lbs. fish meal 40 lbs. alfalfa 20 lbs. aquatic plants (at least) 10 lbs. yeast and brewing wastes reclaimed water - as much as they want poultry grit with lime - as much as they want - That's what we try to do. With student labor, the true numbers vary. The fish offal comes from our aquaculture operation: mostly tilapia and carp. Fred FMChambers@CSUPomona.edu Agricultural Sciences ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earning an MS in Sustainable Aquaculture at Cal Poly Pomona, I enjoy the rewards and challenges of living, learning, working, and playing. The dedicated, hard working team of students, staff, and faculty is the best part of being involved with the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies Anyone *CAN* live a comfortable, modern life, without the big environmental footprint. http://www.csupomona.edu/~crs/ Check out my peers in the NFB. They have it together! http://www.nfb.org To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail