Cutting out the feed mill

Is It possible to completely cut the feed mill out and source and mix our own feed supplements? Our 3 main ingredients in our complete feed are ground corn, canola meal, and dried distillers grain. Easy enough to source those 3 and save a fair bit. Would it be worth while mixing the other ingredients on farm ourselves? If you used a private nutritionist and could source the small ingredients to make a mix and then buy the 3 main ingredients as commodities? How much savings could there be? I’m betting it would be substantial savings for us but looking for opinions before we look hard at it.. has anyone attempted this before? How much would on farm milking cost?
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
Of course, do you feed through a mixer wagon? Just buy straights and mix to your own spec. Much easier to supplement variable home grown forages that way, why pay a feed company to do the same?
I would say the majority of U.K. dairy farms do this although many buy blends for convenience or if storage is inadequate.
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
Of course, do you feed through a mixer wagon? Just buy straights and mix to your own spec. Much easier to supplement variable home grown forages that way, why pay a feed company to do the same?
I would say the majority of U.K. dairy farms do this although many buy blends for convenience or if storage is inadequate.
 
Yes we feed a tmr. Right now we are on a complete blend just because storage is an issue. But if the savings are as good as we figure they are. Storage for commodities and bagged goodies for the rest of the mix and a mix mill could be payed for in no time. Then the savings really start.
 
We accidentally got a hold of our complete feed recipe. The big commodities like ground corn, soy or canola meal and ddg. Make the bulk of the mix. The remaining small ingredients is what I’m really interested in mixing. That’s where the bulk of the savings are in my eyes. Would it be worth it to set up a small mill for that? Doesn’t need to be high output just accurate.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
We accidentally got a hold of our complete feed recipe. The big commodities like ground corn, soy or canola meal and ddg. Make the bulk of the mix. The remaining small ingredients is what I’m really interested in mixing. That’s where the bulk of the savings are in my eyes. Would it be worth it to set up a small mill for that? Doesn’t need to be high output just accurate.
I’d say the small ingredients don’t make the difference,you won’t get any better than a tub mixer for mixing,even smaller mixes.
 

More to life

Member
Location
Somerset
We accidentally got a hold of our complete feed recipe. The big commodities like ground corn, soy or canola meal and ddg. Make the bulk of the mix. The remaining small ingredients is what I’m really interested in mixing. That’s where the bulk of the savings are in my eyes. Would it be worth it to set up a small mill for that? Doesn’t need to be high output just accurate.
Also your economics would be different from ours,I’d still recommend to bin the fairy dust.
 
We accidentally got a hold of our complete feed recipe. The big commodities like ground corn, soy or canola meal and ddg. Make the bulk of the mix. The remaining small ingredients is what I’m really interested in mixing. That’s where the bulk of the savings are in my eyes. Would it be worth it to set up a small mill for that? Doesn’t need to be high output just accurate.


Sorry are you talking about milling and pelleting your own grub or just making a pre-mix or blend of ingredients that are then fed to stock?

Many UK farmers make their own blends by buying in the necessary feed materials as straights and mixing them in the correct quantities themselves. There are advantages and disadvantages of course like anything. Some materials are used in tiny amounts, don't store very well or are problematic to keep on farm (IE feed grade urea can be poisonous to stock if they get access to it in significant quantities).

Also there is the need for labour (someone very conscientious), machinery and time to weigh out and mix these things. You can however buy in some materials in bulk form for a fair cost saving.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
What exactly are your small ingredients that you want to mix? At times we mix individual minerals with the tmr. Seems to be working fine.

Things to consider if you are sourcing your own commodities are how the cash flow will work out for you and storage. You have to buy things by the semi load.

We use a broker, three of them at times. Gives you lots of options
 
Sorry are you talking about milling and pelleting your own grub or just making a pre-mix or blend of ingredients that are then fed to stock?

Many UK farmers make their own blends by buying in the necessary feed materials as straights and mixing them in the correct quantities themselves. There are advantages and disadvantages of course like anything. Some materials are used in tiny amounts, don't store very well or are problematic to keep on farm (IE feed grade urea can be poisonous to stock if they get access to it in significant quantities).

Also there is the need for labour (someone very conscientious), machinery and time to weigh out and mix these things. You can however buy in some materials in bulk form for a fair cost saving.

We would mill our own ground corn, buy in distillers grains, canola/soy meal. Feed from a commodity shed.

What I’m interested in looking at is batch mixing ingredients like tallow, salt, urea, bloodmeal, mineral pack etc.. making that premix ourselves and forget buying it from the feedmill
 
What exactly are your small ingredients that you want to mix? At times we mix individual minerals with the tmr. Seems to be working fine.

Things to consider if you are sourcing your own commodities are how the cash flow will work out for you and storage. You have to buy things by the semi load.

We use a broker, three of them at times. Gives you lots of options

What I’m interested in looking at is batch mixing ingredients like tallow, salt, urea, bloodmeal, mineral pack etc..
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
Feed company’s just have a massive feeder wagon in the middle of there shed so no reason you can do the same ....
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
I know when we changed nutritionists, and used nothing other than mins and urea, in small bags, and stopped using the 'goodies' that came in them, our milk went up. and our MOF went up as well. so why do you want to include tallow, bloodmeal and similar ? We manage very well without them, keep it easy,and simple.
 
Location
southwest
Even the millers just use a few basic ingredients-wheat, barley, rapeseed, pk, and soya. And apart from soya, the percentages of the others in the mix can be varied pretty much at will depending on price and availability. Add a dairy cow specific to the mix-or even on free access and you wont go far wrong. The "extras" the OP is concerned about are used in such small amounts, they dont affect the feed value of the mix.
 

beefandsleep

Member
Location
Staffordshire
Blood and bonemeal, tallow etc are all banned as ruminant feeds here apparently because of the risk to human health. Do you mean to say we import meat and dairy products from a country that still allows it?
If post Brexit trade deals allow meat and dairy products from the US here in any significant quantity I will be one of those standing outside supermarkets making absolutely sure their customers are informed.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Blood and bonemeal, tallow etc are all banned as ruminant feeds here apparently because of the risk to human health. Do you mean to say we import meat and dairy products from a country that still allows it?
If post Brexit trade deals allow meat and dairy products from the US here in any significant quantity I will be one of those standing outside supermarkets making absolutely sure their customers are informed.

It’s one rule for one and one rule for another:banghead:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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