“Compound feed is expensive, and the wheat is ours — so it’s free.” That’s how a lot of people start mixing their own feed. Six months later there are fewer eggs, a pile of premix and meal bags, the grinder has broken, and the savings have vanished. For others, their own mix really does cut the cost of an egg by a quarter. The difference is in how you count.
Your own grain isn’t free
The wheat in your barn could be sold. So its price in the mix is what the elevator or a neighbor would pay for it, not zero. This is the main mistake in the math: “free” grain makes any mix look profitable on paper.
What goes into the cost of your own mix
| Item | What to count |
|---|---|
| Grain | At selling price, even if it’s your own |
| Meal, peas, fish meal | At purchase price including delivery |
| Premix, limestone, salt, monocalcium phosphate | Small share, noticeable cost |
| Grinding and mixing | Electricity, wear on grinder and mixer |
| Labor | Your hours or a worker’s pay |
| Losses and storage | Mice, mold, spills — usually 2–5% |
A worked example
One tonne of layer mix. Prices in currency units per kilogram.
| Ingredient | Share | Price per kg | Per tonne |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat | 62% | 0.20 | 124 |
| Sunflower meal | 18% | 0.28 | 50 |
| Peas | 9% | 0.30 | 27 |
| Limestone, salt, phosphate | 10% | 0.10 | 10 |
| Premix | 1% | 2.00 | 20 |
| Grinding, labor, losses | — | — | 30 |
| Total | 261 (0.26 per kg) |
Say commercial feed costs 0.32 per kg. Your mix looks 19% cheaper. But that isn’t the answer yet.
Compare on cost per egg
If your mix is weaker in amino acids, hens lay less and eat more per egg.
| Commercial feed | Own mix | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per kg | 0.32 | 0.26 |
| Feed per 10 eggs | 1.4 kg | 1.6 kg |
| Feed cost per 10 eggs | 0.45 | 0.42 |
A 19% saving per kilogram is only 7% per ten eggs. If your mix took 1.7 kg per ten eggs, the gain would almost disappear. For broilers, count the same way but per kilogram of gain (on feed conversion).
Feed price per kilogram × feed per 10 eggs = feed cost per ten eggs. Compare only this number, and only on the same flock in the same season.
When mixing your own pays
- you have your own grain or cheap grain nearby, while commercial feed has to come from far away;
- the flock is several hundred birds or more: the grinder and mixer pay for themselves;
- the mix is calculated to norms, not by eye, and every bag is the same;
- you have scales for premix and dry storage space.
When it’s better to buy
- starter feeds for chicks, broilers and turkey poults — hard to make consistently well at home;
- a small flock: 20 hens won’t pay for a grinder or use up a bag of premix before it expires;
- no time: a weekly batch is several hours of work.
A common compromise is commercial starter for young birds and your own mix for the adult flock. How to put one together is in the article on rations from your own grain.
Run the numbers in the app
In EggPulse ingredients go into the feed store with their prices, and the recipe shows the cost per kilogram of the mix. After you switch to your own mix, analytics shows feed per 10 eggs, so the same calculation as in the table above runs on your numbers, not an example.
