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Niche Poultry Feeding and Management
by Jeff Mattocks at Fertrell

A hands-on guide for understanding and developing your own poultry feed.
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What goes into feed and why?
How important is grit?
What do I do when my birds get sick?

All of these questions are answered in
"Niche Poultry Feeding and Management",  5th edition!

 A few words about Jeff Mattocks, from the back cover of his book: 

"Animal nutritionist Jeff Mattocks began working for the Fertrell Company in 1980 while a junior in high school.  Recognizing that farmers weren't inclined to listen to advice from and 18 year old kid just out of high school, he joined the United States Air Force in 1983.  There he learned structure, discipline, work ethic and other positive attributes.  In the mid 1990's Jeff left the military after a voluntary troop draw down, returned home and took a job in a wire mill.

On his days off, Jeff started visiting some of his old farmer customers, who had become personal friends.  One of them was Jacob R. Glick, one of the first farmers in the area to become organic.  He owned and managed several thousand organic brown egg layers, with egg sales in the eastern U.S. After several visits, Jeff convinced Jake to use Fertrell's poultry mineral premix.  In February 1996, Jake said: "Alright, let's do it. I'll need mineral and rations in a month."

Jeff's learning curve went straight up hill for the next several years.  He relied on an old Fertrell consultant, Jack Robinette, a poultry and swine specialist, for advice.  Jack formulated the current Poultry Nutri-Balancer (PNB), still in use today, and developed several ration recommendations.  In 1999, as he learned more about poultry health issues, management and nutrition, Jeff began developing his own ration formulations using a homemade Excel spreadsheet based on Jack's previous ration formulas.

In the spring of 1997, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in Virginia heard about Poultry Nutri-Balancer from Dale Filbrun in West Alexandria, OH.  Dale told Joel that broiler problems and growth rates were much improved after he started using Nutri-Balancer.  Joel contacted Jeff and asked him for some PNB to do a field trial.  Not having heard of Joel before, Jeff was surprised when he made the delivery to hear of Joel's reputation as the Pastured Poultry Guru.

The trial went very well; Poultry Nutri-Balancer outperformed the control (Joel's existing ration), and a trial with Willard's Water.  A couple more field trials showed that straight PNB still led the pack for productivity.  After the trials, Joel decided to rely on PNB, with added kelp for insurance.  He proceeded to tell everyone he came into contact with of his new found success, which was very providential for Fertrell.  By September 1997, the sales volume of Poultry Nutri-Balancer had grown so significantly that Jeff had to leave his factory job and devote full time attention to poultry nutrition, health and management.  At that time, he returned to Fertrell as a full-time employee.

Since 1997, Jeff has expanded his expertise from layers and broilers to all types of  livestock.  With the help of Jack Robinette and Robert Patton, he has developed rations for everything from lab rats, guinea pigs, and parakeets to alpacas.  Jeff claims it has been a wonderful journey thus far, and he hopes it will continue for a couple more decades."

This 5th edition is a compilation of Jeff’s previous health and nutrition articles, feed rations, case studies, and feeding trials.  The emphasis in the book is on maintaining proper nutrition and health as the basis of a profitable flock. In other words, everything starts with what the birds eat and is affected by the producer’s management decisions.

​This book provides rations for meat production, layers, turkeys, and ducks including some no-soy chicken variations. The book has been expanded from previous editions to include slow growing poultry and provides rations for standard-bred (heritage) turkeys and chickens. This suite of rations contains the expected variations for starter, grower, developer, and meat production. It also provides rations for breeders in a non-laying time of year.

This book is just like having a conversation with Jeff and will save you the time spent in reading unnecessary details! 

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