Animal Feed

Starter, grower, finisher and layer rations:

poultry feed comes as a sequence, and the stage on the tag matters most. Chicks start on starter feed, move to grower, and broilers finish on finisher. Layer feed is a separate ration made for hens already in lay, not for pullets still growing. Keep chickens for eggs and for meat at the same time and you need two kinds of sack. Pigs run on grower and finisher, with separate feeds for a sow carrying or nursing a litter. Cattle concentrate splits into rations for growing animals and the dairy ration that goes to milking cows, and horses have feeds of their own.

Pellets, crumbles or mash, and the guaranteed analysis on the tag:

most rations come either pelleted or as a loose mash. Mash is cheaper to make, but hens and pigs root through it for the bits they like and scatter the rest, so more of the sack ends up on the floor. Pellets waste less, and chicks usually start on crumbles, pellets broken small. Whatever the form, read the tag caught in the seam: species and stage, the guaranteed analysis with its minimum protein and maximum moisture and fibre, the lot and the manufacture date. Farmers who mix their own buy ground maize, soymeal and molasses separately; maize on its own is energy, not a complete ration.

The quintal and what a sack of concentrate costs:

feed is sold by the quintal, the 100-pound sack, and its price follows the grain it is milled from. Cattle concentrate sits a little over $20 a quintal, and poultry and pig rations cost a few dollars more, mostly $24 to $27. There is no real used market for feed, only surplus: sealed sacks left when a sty is emptied or a batch goes out early. They fetch close to the new price while the date is far off and less as it nears, because whoever takes them has weeks, not months, to use them up. An opened sack is worth far less, since nobody can say what has got into it.

Factory seams, dates and feed sold by the pound:

start at the top of the sack. A factory seam is machine-stitched straight across with the tag caught in it. A sack that has been cut and re-sewn by hand, tied with string or folded over has been opened, whatever the seller says, and a branded sack restitched by hand may not hold what its tag describes. Go by the manufacture date on the tag, not a date written on the sack in marker. Lift each one: a sack that feels hard or lumpy has taken in damp, and a short sack shows on a scale. Open one and smell it. A musty or sour smell is a bad sign. Webbing, weevils or moths in the folds mean it has sat too long, and gnawed corners or droppings on the stack mean rats have been at it. Ask how it was kept: on pallets, under a roof and off the wall, not on bare concrete against an outside wall. Feed scooped loose by the pound suits a backyard keeper with a few hens, but it comes with no tag at all, so ask to see the sack it came out of.

Leftover sacks from a finished batch or an empty sty:

photograph the tag on one sack close enough to read the stage and the manufacture date, plus one of the whole stack and what it stands on. Say how many sacks there are, whether every one is still sealed, which rations and in which form, and when they were bought. If you will split the lot, say so: a family in Antón with a few layers wants a couple of sacks, not a pallet. Give the district and say whether a pickup can reach the store-room. Whoever drives over from Ocú to collect will pull a sack from the bottom of the pile and read its date before loading the rest.