Vital Feeds Farm Guides

Eggshell quality in layers depends on calcium, but not only on how much calcium is in the bag. Check when the hens eat it, how coarse the limestone is, what kind of limestone it is, and whether water, heat or disease is cutting intake. Fix those first, then talk to your feed mill. What does eggshell quality in layers really mean? Heat stress is a common reason for thin shells in Punjab summers. A good shell is thick enough to survive the belt, the tray and the road to the market. A weak shell shows up as thin, rough, soft or cracked eggs, and every cracked egg is money lost. The shell is mostly calcium carbonate, and a hen builds a new one almost every day, so even a small gap in daily calcium shows up fast. The University of Florida's poultry extension notes that a pullet's calcium need rises at least four times when the first eggs appear, almost all of it for the shell. You can read it in their fact sheet, Factors Affecting Egg Production in Backyard Chicken Flocks . The ...

Broiler water consumption in winter drops quietly, and feed intake follows it. A healthy flock drinks about 1.6 to 1.8 kg of water for every 1 kg of feed at 21 degrees C. If the shed is cold, the lines are stale or the drinkers are too high, birds drink less, eat less and grow slower. Check water first, every morning. Why does broiler water consumption change in winter? Check the drinker line and water every morning in winter. Because cold shifts how birds behave. Chicks crowd under the brooder, walk less to the drinker and sip less. Water that sits in pipes overnight turns very cold, and pipes that run through a heated shed can turn warm. Both hurt intake. Aviagen says water use and the water to feed ratio should be measured daily , because a change from the flock's normal is the earliest warning you will get. Many farmers watch the feeder and forget the drinker. In winter this is a costly habit, since a bird that drinks less cannot digest and use feed well. How much water sh...

For fish feeding in winter, let the pond decide. When the water cools, fish eat less and digest slowly, so cut the meal size, feed at midday and stop if fish do not come up. Check four things before every meal: water temperature, how fish behave, leftover feed and morning oxygen. Why do fish eat less in winter? Fish are cold-blooded. Their body temperature follows the water, so appetite and digestion slow down as the pond cools. Feed that the fish cannot eat or digest ends up in the water, and rotting feed uses up oxygen. Mississippi State University Extension, writing about recreational pond fish, advises to reduce the feeding rate to about one-fourth of the previous summer rate as winter approaches and not to feed in very cold water. That page covers bream and bass, not Punjab carp or tilapia, so treat the one-fourth figure as a guide and watch your own pond. What is the daily go or no-go check? Run this before each meal. It takes about five minutes. Check Go (feed a small me...

If your layers are laying less in winter, check light before feed. Shorter days switch egg production down, and a broken light schedule makes it worse. Walk the shed once at dusk and once at dawn, and check five things: light hours, bulb brightness, power cuts, feed and water. Most winter drops start there. Light, feed and water checks come first when layers lay less in winter. Why are layers laying less in winter? Daylight is the main driver. The Food and Agriculture Organization explains that decreasing day length slows egg production in laying hens, and that supplementary lighting only works when the electricity supply is regular and reliable. It also warns that breaks in the extra light can make the drop worse. Cold plays a smaller part. A hen that is warm enough, with full feeders and clean water, can still lay well on short days. A hen that is cold, thirsty or sitting in a dark shed will not. That is why a layer egg production drop in winter often looks sudden on a farm tha...

Broiler shed ventilation in winter should never stop completely. A closed, warm shed traps moisture and ammonia, and the litter turns wet. Keep a small, steady flow of fresh air high above the birds, check the shed at night, and keep humidity between 55 and 65 percent. Dry litter and gentle fresh air matter more than a sealed, warm shed. Why does broiler shed ventilation in winter matter, even in a warm shed? Many farmers close every curtain in the first cold nights. The shed feels warm, so it feels safe. But birds breathe out water all day, and the litter adds more. In a sealed shed that water has nowhere to go. Wet litter then releases ammonia. Ammonia burns the eyes and airways, and the birds eat less and grow slower. A shed that feels cosy to you can be hard on the flock. The aim is not a hot shed. The aim is clean, dry, steady air. What is minimum ventilation in plain words? Minimum ventilation means bringing in just enough fresh air to push out extra moisture and ammonia in...

For buffalo winter feeding in Punjab, plan for a green fodder gap in December and January. Keep silage or hay in store, feed concentrate by milk yield (about 1 kg for every 2 to 2.5 litres), and keep clean water in front of the animal all day. Write each buffalo's milk down every day. Plan the December and January fodder gap before it starts. When does the gap hit buffalo winter feeding on a Punjab farm? A paper on feed resources in Punjab , published in Livestock Research for Rural Development, says green fodders are short "during cold seasons (December-January)" and in the hot months of June and July. The same paper says the fodder supply is one third less than the actual need. It was published in 2005, so read that figure as a long pattern, not as this year's count. For your own farm the message is simple. The gap is not a surprise. It comes every year, so the plan has to be ready before it starts. What should winter fodder for buffalo look like month by month...

Switching pullets to layer feed should follow body weight and the first eggs, not the calendar alone. Layer feed carries 3 to 4 percent calcium, which young birds do not need. Keep pullets on grower feed until they are close to lay, then change over in steps across about 10 days. Weigh before you change feed, not after. Why is switching pullets to layer feed early a risk? The University of Georgia Extension poultry team is direct about this. A layer diet should contain 3 to 4 percent calcium and should only be fed to birds that are laying. They add that feeding it to a young, developing pullet can result in bone problems, and they treat pullets of about 1 to 18 weeks as birds that need a pullet feed. The reason is simple. A growing pullet is building bone and body frame. A laying hen is building egg shells every day. The two jobs need different amounts of calcium, and the wrong feed at the wrong age costs you either bone strength or shell quality. When is the right time to switch...

Aflatoxin in poultry feed grows when feed gets damp, not when it simply gets old. The FAO feed safety example sets the average moisture limit for maize at 14%, no single bag above 15%, and pellets at 13% or less before bagging. Keep bags dry, off the floor and in moisture barrier packing, and finish pelleted feed within 3 months. Smell and look at a handful of feed before you open the whole bag. What is aflatoxin in poultry feed and why does it matter? Aflatoxin is a toxin made by moulds that grow on grains such as maize and on oilseeds. The FAO example HACCP plan for a feed mill states that the team identified aflatoxin as the major mycotoxin hazard and sets a critical limit of 50 micrograms per kilogram of aflatoxin B1 for incoming maize. You cannot see a toxin. A bag can look fine and still carry it, so a farmer needs a routine, not a guess. The routine below uses the same control point a feed mill uses: moisture. Which moisture numbers should a farmer know? The same FAO docu...

Cattle feeds for milking animals follow one common working rule: about 1 kg of concentrate for every 2 to 2.5 litres of milk, on top of good green fodder. Cows sit near 2.5 litres per kg and buffalo nearer 2. Raise the amount slowly over one to two weeks and split it into two or three meals. Weigh the concentrate by each animal's milk yield, and keep green fodder as the base. How much cattle feeds should a milking cow or buffalo get? Think of concentrate as a top-up, not the main meal. South Dakota State University's extension service puts it plainly: the first requirement is to give the milking herd all the top quality forage it will eat . The animal's base is green fodder and dry roughage. Concentrate, often called wanda in Punjab, fills the energy and protein gap that fodder cannot cover once the milk yield goes up. Use the yield of that animal, not the herd average, to set the amount. Daily milk Cow (about 2.5 L per kg) Buffalo (about 2 L per kg) 8 litres 3.2 kg 4 k...

Calf starter is a dry, high-protein grain mix that teaches a young calf to eat solid feed. Offer a small, fresh handful with clean water in the first weeks, then wean only when the calf eats steady amounts. Penn State Extension advises at least 2 pounds (about 0.9 kg) a day for 3 days in a row. What is calf starter and why does a calf need it? A newborn calf lives on milk or milk replacer. The rumen, the large first stomach, is small and not yet working. Dry starter feed is what builds it. When a calf chews starter, the rumen grows and its lining develops, so the calf can later digest hay and grass. A calf that never learns to eat starter before weaning often stalls. It loses weight in the weeks after milk is removed. This is the most costly mistake on small dairy and buffalo farms, and it is easy to avoid. When should you start offering calf starter? Start in the first weeks of life, not at weaning day. Put a small handful in a clean, dry bucket and replace it every day. Calves w...