# Where do you buy your feed?



## jeff47041

The local feed store closed its doors Friday. I stopped by the owners house today and talked to him with intentions of checking into the possibility of buying the feed mill and reopening it.
His biggest problem was Rural King and Tractor supply.(each has opened 20 miles away from us) He said that all of the small (2 to 5 pigs, 10 chickens in the back yard) growers just run to Rural King and buy their premixed feed instead of getting feed mixed at the feed mill.

I'm on good terms with locals, and I'm pretty sure I can get big farmers that grind their own feed to at least buy their supplements from me. But I would have to get small, back yard farmers to come. 

So my questions are:
Do you go to a feed mill or just buy from a place like Rural King or Tractor Supply?
What would get you to consider making a trip to your local feed store to buy feed? Is it just price? or convenience?


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## UncleJoe

We get ours from a smaller semi-local supplier that grows and mixes his own. We get horse and chicken feed from him. The difference is, he has a large delivery route and we are on it. His minimum purchase for delivery is 500#.


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## ilovetigger

We buy ours from the local feed mill..............both feed and straw.


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## Country Living

We don't have a local feed mill so we buy from the local feed store.


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## *Andi

We use a local mill that will make our blend/recipe (as long as we buy it by the ton... which is no problem, as we feed it to one an all ... horses and down)

Not to say we don't use TS because we do ... our local mill does not sell dog food, cat food or any type of chick feed ... So for some feeds we must go somewhere else.


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## worldengineer

We don't have a feed mill that I know of anywhere close. So I usually use Southern States, cheapest and most friendly.

To be honest if someone were to open one near here I would probably start going there. As long as the prices were relatively competitive. The main thing is good customer service. I know several of the guys at Southern, so I enjoy going there to be able to talk a bit with people I know.


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## oif_ghost_tod

If you don't have a mill close by, or a co-op, just make friends with a local farmer. 

Most cattle farmers I know have their own pto driven grain mill and will happily grind up a load of feed for a real reasonable price. If they don't have the extra grain, they know who does.

People so quickly forget that this is the way people networked pre-Facebook. Just drive up and ask. Worst that can happen is they say no.

Trust me, they are gonna be glad that you are there for feed, rather than to preach or sell something.


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## cowboyhermit

We have a lot of livestock so we grow 99% of our own feed, there is a huge markup at retail compared to the price/bushel or ton.
As to salt and mineral we buy it as cheap as we can:sorry3:, buying locally isn't really an option with that stuff but it tends to be shipped as little as possible because of it's low price/pound. I do try to buy from companies that I like more though (not Cargill).

We sell a quite a bit of feed to others with livestock as well, tons of hay and straw but some grain.


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## dirtgrrl

My marketing degree in a nutshell ...

In my humble opinion, it's both price and convenience. Check into producing your own pre-mixed and pre-bagged feed. Emphasize fresh and local in your marketing. No unwanted ingredients, etc. Try not to mark it up too much so that you are competitive with (not cheaper than) the chains. Maybe add other feeds too, so that you are a one-stop shop for those calorie-burning four-leggeds. Figure out ways to take local relatively inexpensive materials and turn them into value-added products. A tomato turned into salsa is much more profitable than one from the vine.

If many customers are part-time farmers with city jobs, they may need local and expert advice on feeding their animals. Figuring out what they need can be very intimidating to the newbies, and they will pay more for convenience than others will. Find out what people need. A friendly and knowledgeable store owner or manager can sell much more than any clerk in a chain store. Cultivate a wide range of customers but stay focused on the services and products you provide.


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## Tank_Girl

You don't think you could make up some mixes and sell it by the full bag or half bag lots?

Offer your own premixes and customer specified mixes.

Also there is a vast move towards non-medicated animal feeds.
Too many antibiotics are making their way into the food chain.

I hang out on a lot of sites where townies and small holders talk about their "backyard farming" and this issue is raised time and time again about what their animals are eating and, in turn, what ends up on their plate.

Marketing yourself with an eye towards this demographic might be the ticket.
If you are able to buy grain from growers who don't plant GMO crops then that adds a lot to the appeal as well.

I know myself I pay extra for non-medicated feed for my animals from my local feed store.
So the need is def. out there.

You'll just need to get word out there so that they know what you're about and that you're there.

What I'm also hearing, or reading, is it's the lady of the house who buys the animal feed as hubby has a town job.
I know that with myself, I try to roll appointments, shopping and feed store visits into one trip to town.
That means that I'm dressed in a skirt and heels.
What I love about my feed store is that I don't have to wrestle bales of hay and 20 kg bags of feed into the back of my ute.
They have old fashioned service and they'll take my purchases out to my ute and load it for me so I don't get dirty for my appointments.


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## Jason

We grind our own cow feed in a New Holland grinder/mixer, and we sell some to a couple neighbors. We advertised this on Craigslist this spring and got 0 hits, but I only ran the ad for one day. We buy chicken feed from TS most of the time but if we happen to be at or near a small local feed store we'll stock up there instead.

There have been a couple local feed mills close up in the last 10 years or so here, but in all fairness the big one closed due to horrible management by the new owner. The old guy that built the business and ran it well for decades retired and sold it to a young guy that bought big new tractors and trucks (rigs, not pickups) out the wazoo and it folded in no time.


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## ZoomZoom

Jason said:


> We grind our own cow feed in a New Holland grinder/mixer, and we sell some to a couple neighbors. We advertised this on Craigslist this spring and got 0 hits, but I only ran the ad for one day.


Jason - I'm going to be looking for about 1000 pounds of corn (off the cob but not cracked) this fall. If you think you'll have some, please send me a PM so we can discuss and arrange.


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## LincTex

Two places nearby (within 20 miles) sell organic, non-soy, non-GMO laying pellets. $20 for 50 lb bag 

I bought some different grains from local farmers and added some vitamin powder and oyster shell and ran it through a Chinese pellet mill I bought. I am still experimenting. Not quite there yet. I need a die with smaller holes... and I think I need to run the grain mix through the hammer mill first before the pellet mill.


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## lilmissy0740

LincTex said:


> Two places nearby (within 20 miles) sell organic, non-soy, non-GMO laying pellets. $20 for 50 lb bag
> 
> Eek????? I just bought a tad better than crap feed today and paid $15 for 50#. So non soy, non gmo, that is an excellent price. I wasted 3 hrs this morning trying to find some place local to buy non gmo chicken feed, yah right. If I ran to OH and got Hilland something, that is about as close as I can get. Lancaster, PA is about the same drive but they all have soy in it. Called for organic feed for broilers and they want $35 for 50# plus $5 per bag delivery!!!!! I think it is cheaper to go buy chicken at Whole Foods. It is a shame.


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## Jason

ZoomZoom said:


> Jason - I'm going to be looking for about 1000 pounds of corn (off the cob but not cracked) this fall. If you think you'll have some, please send me a PM so we can discuss and arrange.


We have plenty of corn but don't have a sheller. I'm in Pittsburgh. Are you close to there?


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## ZoomZoom

Yea, I'm relatively close.
Have you tried Witmer's over in Ohio? They're probably the cheapest around for feed.
http://www.witmersfeed3.com/


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## Roslyn

In my town we have a locally owned Feed Store, a locally owned Agway and a Tractor Supply.

I bought my first peeps at Tractor Supply, so I bought the feed there. Until I read on the label that "porcine-by product meal" was the first ingredient and I didn't like that.

Agway sells vegetable only chicken feed and so I have bought from there for 10 years. I now know the owner quite well and she will let me order things she doesn't normally carry etc. 

I also buy things at the local feed store, but their chicken feed also has pork as the first ingredient, so I buy other things there.

I support each store, but in different ways. Overall Agway probably gets more than the others.


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## valannb22

I buy from Tractor Supply. There is a feed mill about the same distance as the TS, but they are not open the same hours. I have a very small amount to buy for, 5 rabbits and 8 chickens so I don't need or want to buy in huge quantities either. The feed mill isn't open by the time I leave for work and is already closed by the time I get off. I believe they are open half days on Saturday and closed on Sunday. I really don't want to get up early on my weekend and make another special trip into town if I don't have to. It's about 18 miles each way, and I'd rather just stop on my way home from work and save the gas.


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## LincTex

valannb22 said:


> I have a very small amount to buy for, 5 rabbits and 8 chickens so I don't need or want to buy in huge quantities either.


maybe?

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/grq/3805498411.html


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## valannb22

No thanks, that's over an hour drive from where I live. I'm waaaay south of there.


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