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Buying from feed store

18K views 67 replies 42 participants last post by  IceFire 
#1 ·
Good Morning to All,
This is my first post and first of all let me say how blessed we are to have such an informative site! I have been looking for a site such as this for a long time and am so glad I found it this morning.
Here's my first (of many questions). Can I purchase wheat, beans, etc at the local feed store and it will still be healthy to consume? Also, what other seeds (food) will be okay to buy there as well?
Thank you and have an awesome day,
Joe
 
#2 ·
Good question, JoeKan.

I don't know about the wheat, but beans should be fine. Did you ask the store personnel? About the feed store, they often sell animal antibiotics which are usable on humans in a pinch. Amoxicillin is very common (usually pink, refrigerated, and injectable) and the fish antibiotics are in pill form, so you can simply do the calcs for human weight if you don't have a prescription.

They also sell shots for your pets (which saves a fortune in vet bills when you have as many dogs as we do) if you don't mind pinching the back of your pets neck and giving them a little love prick, and they even sell DMSO which is labeled "industrial use only" but has a purity of over 99% so we have used it for years for aches and pains and administering meds transdermally (through the skin)

Incidentally, DMSO is the drug of choice for heart attacks, strokes and spinal cord injuries (if given soon enough) Again, I'm just mentioning it because most people are unaware of it's marvelous properties for all sorts of ailments. (especially arthritis)

I'm not trying to hijack your thread, just thought you'd want to know about these other products that are readily available in an emergency situation.

About the wheat......you could just try it, if it looks like Quaker Oats.

One thing you should watch out for is, most feed corn and soy is genetically modified varieties these days. You don't want GMO unless you can't find anything else to eat, regardless of what "they" say about it. Buy heirloom (not "organic") seed over the internet (to insure freshness) and after your first crop, you should have enough seed saved to last any number of years.

Hope that helps. :)
 
#4 ·
Here's my first (of many questions). Can I purchase wheat, beans, etc at the local feed store and it will still be healthy to consume? Also, what other seeds (food) will be okay to buy there as well?
Thank you and have an awesome day,
Joe
We buy a large percentage of our consumables through our local feed store. But the folks who run it also cater to people, and have stuff on their shelves.
Most feed dealers have the ability to special order organic and non-organic products for human consumption. We even get the bulk of our spices through our feed store.

I'd try that before eating animal-grade products. Too many additives.
 
#6 ·
I called the producer of the wheat that is stocked in my local feed store when I was researching.

There basic reply to me was that "Wheat is Wheat" unless it is used for seeding.

The difference between whole foods hard red winter wheat and the feed store 50lb bags? The cleaning of the field dust and chaff. Re-cleaned wheat typically only has the stones and initial dust removed. You have to remove the rest yourself to get that health food store look.

Just ask the feed store people. They get more people than you think buying it for themselves to eat!
 
#7 ·
JoeKan, be careful to keep the seed you buy for planting separate from the bulk FEED (oats, wheat, etc.) you are buying. Most SEED has been treated to help in germantion (sp) which is harmful to consume as food. It is Seed and needs to be planted and harvested and consumed.
 
#8 ·
From what I understand, wheat from the "food" sources are processed "threshed" one moe time than feed strore wheat. That means there is a little, very little, chaff in the wheat. But it's the same stuff. :thumb:

There is a youtube series on packaging wheat that talks about it. I'm at work and youtube is blocked, I'll try to post the link later.
 
#9 ·
Thanks everyone. I called our local feed store and he said they do have wheat (red) and soy beans for human consumption.
What would you use soy beans for anyway? Also, do you think he's telling me the truth about human consumption?
Thanks again,
Joe
 
#11 ·
What would you use soy beans for anyway?
Soy beans can be used for a variety of things, but I would recommend growing your own, if possible. Here's why.

Wiki exerpt:

Genetic modification
Soybeans are one of the "biotech food" crops that have been genetically modified, and genetically modified soybeans are being used in an increasing number of products. In 1995 Monsanto introduced Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans that have been genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup through substitution of the Agrobacterium sp. (strain CP4) gene EPSP (5-enolpyruvyl shikimic acid-3-phosphate) synthase. The substituted version is not sensitive to glyphosate.

In 1997, about 8% of all soybeans cultivated for the commercial market in the United States were genetically modified. In 2006, the figure was 89%. As with other "Roundup Ready" crops, concern is expressed over damage to biodiversity. However, the RR gene has been bred into so many different soybean cultivars that the genetic modification itself has not resulted in any decline of genetic diversity, as demonstrated by a 2003 study on genetic diversity.

The widespread use of such types of GM soybeans in the Americas has caused problems with exports to some regions. GM crops require extensive certification before they can be legally imported into the European Union, where there is considerable supplier and consumer reluctance to use GM products for consumer or animal use. Difficulties with coexistence and subsequent traces of cross-contamination of non-GM stocks have caused shipments to be rejected and have put a premium on non-GM soy.
 
#12 ·
Careful with the soy beans as

The United States (85%) and Argentina (98%) produce almost exclusively GM soybeans. In these countries, GM soybeans are approved without restrictions and are treated just like conventional soybeans. Producers and government officials in the US and Argentina do not see a reason to keep GM and conventionally bred cultivars separate – whether during harvest, shipment, storage or processing. Soybean imports from these countries generally contain a high amount of GM content.

http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/crops/19.genetically_modified_soybean.html
 
#16 ·
I used to eat it out of the grainery on our farm as a kid all the time and never had a problem. We just bought 800 lbs of Barley at $6.60 per 80 lbs($66.00 total) and wheat is priced about the same. We feed it to the goats and horses but if I had to we could also eat it. Mark
 
#17 ·
Be sure the feeds are tested for aflatoxin levels. They allow a higher level in animal feed and sometimes feed rejected for human consumption is sold through feed stores. Aflatoxin is extremely nasty stuff. I wish we had a feed store nearby, I'd be buying my grain there too if it met safe levels.
 
#18 ·
Aflatoxin are produced by fungi and are commonly found in:
maize;
sorghum;
pearl millet;
rice;
wheat;
peanut;
soybean;
sunflower;
cotton;
chile peppers;
black pepper;
coriander;
turmeric;
ginger;
almond;
pistachio;
walnut;
coconut;
brazil nut.

It can also be found in the milk of animals which are fed contaminated feed.

Virtually all sources of commercial peanut butter in the United States contain it.
 
#22 ·
You have gotten a lot of good caveats for feed store grain but I´ll add my 2 cents. Sometimes feed wheat has a low protein level, wich is usually why it ends up as animal food.

The good thing is that feed store employees can give you an answer on the content.

Protein content is crucial when making bread but of course you´d like high protein for any use.
 
#27 ·
JoeKan,

I've been buying our wheat and corn from our local feed store for a while. I believe it to be perfectly safe with the one caveat that you need to specify that you want feed wheat or corn. You don't want seed grains as they most certainly may have inoculants, pesticides, etc. You'll know by the label. If your feed store can get you different varieties of wheat ask for hard red or hard white for bread making. For corn you just ask for field or dent corn (or just whole feed corn). Our feed store didn't know what variety of wheat they had but since most wheat raised anywhere whithin a couple of hundred miles of us is hard winter red I'm certain that's what we got. It makes great bread - easier than store bought flour.

Can't speak to beans in feed stores as I've never seen them offered. They're actually pretty cheap at you're local supermarket anyway. Not as cheap as wheat but good food at $.50 - $.70 per lb.

Don't get scared off by those who'd disparage so called 'animal food'. It's the same stuff. Especially if they tell you it's triple cleaned, you can't go wrong. I firmly believe that if big brother even remotely thought that people would be eating "not fit for human consumption type animal feed" there'd be warning labels on all feed sacks. My 2 cents.

gk
 
#28 ·
I think treated wheat for planting is dyed a different color, at least in most states if not all.
The other wheat for feed is the same as human grade, it just has more junk (stones, etc) in it and has to be cleaned before eating. Like someone said above, simply ask for cleaned wheat. Same with other grains. It's more work cleaning it but much cheaper.
 
#32 ·
The Wikipedia article was just to make a point. I took my info from my niece some time ago that studied agriculture for three years, majoring in cattle and farm animals.

Now we´ve both spoken our minds and the writer of the OP can do what he pleases with it.

By the way, who doesn´t grow food and bake bread? I thought every prepper did that...
 
#34 ·
OK, you know what? This is teh interwebz and I´m certainly not going to derail the thread more than it sadly already has been.

We both said what we wanted, let the OP research it. Or take either opinion on face value.
 
#35 ·
I have learned far more from traveling in other cultures and from doing things myself.

We began prepping years ago, we collected old books on how to manager a household, home nursing, livestock management, and herbs. Some of it we can look through now and see is total BS. Modern science often disproves many of the ideas from the 1700s and 1800s. But most of it is still good ideas, like forgotten technology.

Our culture has forgotten so many things.

Most of what we have forgotten, IMHO has been due to the propaganda of modern marketing methods.

There was a HBO series on ROME. We watched it on DVD from netflix. We really enjoyed it. We lived in Naples Italy for 3 years and we often drove into Rome and toured historical sites. Watching the HBO series was great for us, it brought to life for us many of the things that we saw in person when we lived there.

Boiled porridge [meaning barley or oats in a pot of water] was the common diet of the soldier class with an occasional spit-roasted field mouse on the side.

It really built-up my respect for these forgotten grains.

Armies marched on barley diets. Kingdoms were beaten and empires were formed. Not on MREs but on barley.

Now I have a small homestead and I am mixing livestock feed. I have lots of corn, barley, oats, and sunflower. Goats, sheep, chickens, ducks; they can all live and prosper on a diet which is a mixture of these grains [plus what they can forage in the summer].

So with all of this grain, we have been playing with what we can do with it.

A person here today living in the US can be healthy and prospering on a diet that costs less than $1 / day.

We have been trying to adapt our household diet to conform more and more to what items we can grow in our garden; and what local farms produce.

We like sourdough bread. I make sourdough bread, and we have been incorporating barley and oats into our sourdough breads. It is not a soft gummy bread. It has a seriously hard crust, and a tangy flavour. It is not at all like wonder bread.

This is where we got into using bean-flour in our breads too.
 
#36 ·
Not sure about what goes into 'Wonder Bread' but from just a little bit of reading the facts about the different wheat varieties is that your hard winter wheats (red or white) are the best for bread making as they have the highest protein content. The other wheats with lower protein levels are used for other products such as patries, etc. maybe Wonder Bread?
Here's a link that gives a good overview of the most common varieties:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0146.html

gk
 
#37 ·
One other thing to keep in mind when buying from a feed store, if you are planning on growing your own crop from grain or corn or whatever, make sure it is seed quality. If it is dried buy the farmer or elevator it may make the seed unable to germinate.

And if buying seeds keep in mind hybrid seeds will produce a great crop the first year but their seeds will produce weak crops. This is the seed companies way of keeping you coming back for more.
just my 2 cents
 
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