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SW Ohio | First time stock talk poster, long time listener.
A little background on my situation. My wife, kids, and I are moving back to the family farm. It is not set up for any type of livestock currently as its been strictly grain for all of my father's career as a full time farmer. I intend to carry on the legacy and I want to bring some livestock into the equation to diversify a little. I also really enjoy eating them, though I should cut that back some. We typically raise 100 fryer chickens once a year, have 70+- laying hens that we sell the eggs and put the money in the kids college funds (by the grace of these chickens and their grandparents, my girls are going to Ohio State!!), I usually raise 6-8 hogs from feeders to finish, and we will have 2-3 beef cattle to feed out.
Currently hauling my corn to local feed mill and having them grind and mix feed. Only problem with that is after we move, it will be 40 miles away. I'm not dragging a gravity wagon 40 miles to get feed so I'm looking for a grinder/mixer, preferably with scales though its not a requirement, I can figure weights with other equipment.
Going to ask for my current recipes from the feed mill so I can keep the stock on the same rations, as its working well so far. I can deliver beans to Cargill in Sidney, OH and pick up bean meal there for the return trip. My question is how much bean meal do you all think I will go through in a years time? Will I be ok to buy a cheap gravity wagon and store the meal on it until I need it or should I look at putting up a cone bottom feed bin of some kind? Does it keep decent or do I need to think about getting smaller loads so it doesn't go out of condition? The layers are the only thing that stays year-round, meat birds and hogs will come in spring and leave in fall. Also, like everyone else, doing this on as small a budget as we can. Starting small and wouldn't be scared a bit to expand if I can market the meat well.
Thanks for the input! | |
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Rations/bean meal question
