Mash refers to a nutritionally complete poultry in a ground form.For commercial poultry farming, feed serves as the largest cost of the operation. In industrial agriculture, machinery is used to automate the feeding process, reducing the cost and increasing the scale of farming. The use of poultry feed can also be supplemented with food found through foraging. For privately raised chickens, or chickens as pets, feed can be delivered through jar, trough or tube feeders. A feeder is the device that supplies the feed to the poultry. Diseases can be avoided with proper maintenance of the feed and feeder. Mycotoxin poisoning, as an example, is "one of the most common and certainly most under-reported causes of toxicoses in poultry". The feed must remain clean and dry contaminated feed can infect poultry. Calcium iodate is used as supplement of iodine. Grit is not needed if commercial feed is used. Grit aids in digestion by grinding food as it passes through the gizzard. Certain diets also require the use of grit, tiny rocks such as pieces of granite, in the feed. Oyster shells are often used as a source of dietary calcium. Egg laying hens require 4 grams per day of calcium of which 2 grams are used in the egg. Lactose-fermentation of feed can aid in supplying vitamins and minerals to poultry. Healthy poultry require a sufficient amount of protein and carbohydrates, along with the necessary vitamins, dietary minerals, and an adequate supply of water. The substitution of less expensive local ingredients introduces additional variations. This results in a wide variety of feed formulations. The quantity of feed, and the nutritional requirements of the feed, depend on the weight and age of the poultry, their rate of growth, their rate of egg production, the weather (cold or wet weather causes higher energy expenditure), and the amount of nutrition the poultry obtain from foraging. Modern feeds for poultry consists largely of grain, protein supplements such as soybean oil meal, mineral supplements, and vitamin supplements. This was often supplemented by grain, household scraps, calcium supplements such as oyster shell, and garden waste.Īs farming became more specialized, many farms kept flocks too large to be fed in this way, and nutritionally complete poultry feed was developed. Poultry feed is food for farm poultry, including chickens, ducks, geese and other domestic birds.īefore the twentieth century, poultry were mostly kept on general farms, and foraged for much of their feed, eating insects, grain spilled by cattle and horses, and plants around the farm.
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