One of the biggest expenses on a homestead is the feed bill.
Every animal on the homestead needs some sort of feed supplement (maybe with the exception of sheep) and most of the animals will get the bulk of their food from purchased feed.
Any way you can save money on your chicken feed bill (or any other animal for that matter) will help and in todays video you will learn one simple way to save 5% or even more on your total feed bill for the year!
SAVE BIG – BUY BIG
Most feed suppliers will offer a discount on your feed price when you purchase feed in bulk. How much is a bulk purchase?
Tractor supply offers a 5% discount when you purchase 20 50lb bags of feed(that is half a ton of feed). And that is with no haggling!
A smaller feed mill will usually give you an even better discount for a bulk purchase, all you have to do is a little wheeling and dealing.
Plus, you usually can do better than 5% when purchasing a full ton.
The feed mill we bought all our feed from for Squash Hollow Farm would offer us an 11% discount on our feed when we purchased individual bags by the ton, and even more of a discount when we purchased 1 ton in a 1 ton tote.
How Much Feed Can You Handle?
Feed is a product with a life span. It also takes up much space and CAN NOT be left out in the elements or where other animals can get access to it. SO if you are planning on buying in bulk, make sure you have a space that is cool, dry, and closed off to animals like rats and raccoons. We used to store our feed in a barn inside of an old chest freezer (not plugged in or running) as they were rodent proof.
Also be sure to buy only as much feed as you go through in a month to a few months time (depending on the season) as feed can spoil.
Our New Feed System Will Save Money and Time
On our farm we are setting up a feed storage room that can hold 1 ton of bagged feed. We can purchase 1 ton of feed mixed with various animals on that ton, so we will buy a few bags of chicken, cow, goat, as well as game bird and possibly pig (if we get them this year) and in our feed storage room we have the capacity to store all of that feed where it is safe from the elements, and it is highly visible to us what we have in our inventory. This means when we notice or piles getting lower, we can just order another shipment, instead of running out every two weeks to tractor supply because we are running out of feed.
If you have just a few chickens on your homestead you probably cant save much money buying in bulk this year, but for you larger homesteads with livestock, figure out how to make bulk purchases work on your farm and maybe you can see a bit more profit from your homestead this year!
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Hello
I Have about 28 chickens, so I’m going through a significant amount of food.About forty sounds every four or five days
I’m wondering if I can get a discount + home delivery.
I’m pretty darn old.
So it’s almost time for me to stop driving.But that doesn’t mean my chickens are gonna stop eating.Where are my dogs
At any rate I would appreciate any until you could offer
Thank you
May the Gods grant you a great day
I have a small farm with 2 cows and a bull around 30 goats , around 200 or more chickens , 20 turkey , ducks , goose, dogs and cats and they’re all pets but they’re getting so expensive
And I can barley afford the feed What can I do to feed them cheaper