Can you imagine how much longer my posts would be if I added more nuance?
Which is to both agree with you and acknowledge that there are good reasons to forego some degree of nuance in most conversation, regardless of media.
I was a bit disappointed in TSC's statement, actually. They could have gone further with their quality control comments, but they were walking a legal tight rope. TSC is a retailer, not a feed manufacturer. There's only so far they can go w/o blurring things regarding their house "Brand"...
I'm not ignoring them.
I've alluded to them above, and in many other posts.
I submit that the rational animal, knowing that agricultural products are inherently variable from place to place, season to season, year to year, as well as within broad divisions within the product (i.e. "hard" wheat...
But all of those things are equally possible with everyone of the feed ingredients making feed at home. And unlike the commercial mills, you cannot separately assay your ingredients comma or test them for acceptable levels of mold mildew toxins etc.
What many have said, myself included, is that...
No one is saying that you can't get a bad bag, or a bad batch of commercial feed. No one is saying that the feed you bought may not have gone bad because it was stored too long or stored improperly. No one is saying that some supplier of your feed ingredients may not have tried to cut a corner...
If you don't understand the difference between a marketing exec thinking New Coke, Pepsi Zero, or the current A-B social tempest might be a good idea, and A-B deliberately tanking their beer business in an effort to sell more soda coozies (the effective "motive" behind feed companies tanking...
They "researched". Then said things that were patently, obviously untrue with just a trivial amount of "research". Which they then started spewing. Ad nauseum.
I submit there was no evidence poster was interested in education, merely regurgitating a broadly discredited worldview which...
Locally, egg producers for some of the names you recognize in the stores have to buy feed from the brand. Basically, the brand provides the birds, the brand provides the feed, the local grower provides the land, facilites, water, power, labor. It drove a lot of the growers to bankruptcy over...
Feed isn't a hot topic, its the usual disputes. How much does crude protein matter? Is 6% fat too much? How do I feed my rooters and hens at the same time? What's the best way to manage calcium intake? Why does my waterer leak? Ferment yes/no? ACV yes/no? Its been pretty steady for...
Essentially without exception, make at home feeds are more expensive, and generally less nutritious than an off the shelf commercial variety. They are also far less certain, reliable, and predictable. Even if you "know" what you are putting in it, you DO NOT know what its nutritional values...
and full discolosure, I tell people NOT to feed the way I do. The risks I choose to take, and the circumstances which make them effective for me, are not appropriate for most - and if they are looking to me for feed advice, they likely lack enough knowledge on the subject to be qualified to...
Defending one's beliefs, even in the face of contrary facts, is very human. There is NOTHING new about it. For many, those beliefs comprise a substantal portion fo their worldview, the way in which they define themselves - and their defense can take on an almost religious zealotry.
For what...
What is your feed mix?
However "amazing" your results, its likely your feed mix isn't. Making a good mix for chickens is HARD. What were your targets for Protein, Fat, Amino Acid Profile, non-phytate phosphorus, key vitamins?
Also, I see you were briefly active on BYC roughly two years ago...