I am not sure what the best feed would be, but I am curious. Em and I are thinkiing that we just may start raising animals again. Small scale, a meat kings, some RIR's, a turkey or two and maybe a couple piglets to start. It was enjoyable when we did and have been thinking with the price of meat these days, it might be an option for us to mitigate expenses. Cost is not really the main concern, but raising our own fowl etc., we knew what we were getting and none of the stuff the commercial producers feed and there was less fat on them.
After trying to raise animals and not having everything to feed them. I realized I could not make money. However I really enjoyed it and Knew the quality of the meat I was eating. If money is not an option, you can produce food with far better quality then you can buy in any store.
The problem is feeding the animals. Feed has a cost which is expensive. It is cheaper for large farms doing mass production to feed and raise an animal then a person trying to raise a handfull. I tried pigs, if I cut out commercial feed and used day old baked goods, corn and vegetables. I could not acheive the weight gain to make it worth while. It sure tasted better, but cost twice as much as store bought. I raised steers for a few years. I grow my own hay, so that was cheaper then buying it. But you have to have the equipment and all the costs incurred. Since I did not raise corn or have a means to pick or process it. I had to buy feed. When you start talking a 5 gallon bucket of feed a day per steer it gets expensive. I in turn cut back on the amount of feed that I fed. This in turn meant that I lost weight gain on the steer. I raised chickens for eggs, you either have free range or pen birds. Free range are cheaper to feed, however your egg production is down. You also still need some sort of scratch for them to eat, to keep egg production up. If they are free range they will also stop or slow down egg production in the winter. Right now I have 20 chickens been feeding them for 5 months. I should start getting eggs soon. I will sell the eggs at $2.50 a dozen. I will not make a profit, but will cover costs, so this will make me happy.
I would like to see others input