Following the thread by Blinkers & New Piglets and the last few postings about feed costs thought I would start a new thread on this interesting topic as feed costs account for the biggest outlay in animal husbandry we find, so here goes!!
Ooh, are you guys buying your food from Gamme Vert?? it sounds ever so expensive!!!
I pay on average 10 euros for 50 kilos of 'farine' which is ground orge, avoine, ble, and a little maize. I go to two places (one is an intensive pig farm which grows its own cereal crops and makes its own organic feed or to an animal food supplier and I always negotiate as I bulk buy and try to get as good a price as possible) to buy and they are both very much the same in price. I also buy sacks of various grain to mix in with feed for other animals and poultry, this varies from around €3-50 a sack up to €6-00 depending on what I have.
Have you thought of buying a small mill (look in the small ads in farming papers or the petite annonces in super markets) and buying your grain then milling it yourself?? this is a very very ecomomic way of producing your food and you can add whatever amounts of each grain to suit circumstances. The only downside is having somewhere to store several tons of grain!!!
Other 'cost cutters', have you got a good bar/restaurant in your villages?? as something we do is to put a plastic dustbin in our local bar/restaurant and the chef puts all of the old vegetable peelings in it (no other food waste) and we collect every two days, this is great as it also cuts down the grain usage and gives our piggies a varied diet. We also buy sacks of 'pain d'our' from the local boulanger at about €5-00 a large sack this is also good to break up for a mix in the piggies feed and for the chooks, donkeys, goats and sheep. Lastly have a word with the manager of your local LeClerc, Super U or Champion store and see if they will give or sell out of date veg. You would be surprised how accomodating they can be.
Just a few things we do that may help you and sorry if you already do some of the things mentioned as I don't want to be teaching granny to suck eggs, a little surprised at the amount you guys are paying for food, pity you are not closer as I would gladly get food for you all from the people who I buy from.