Pellets vs Mash Feed in Ghana: Which Is Better

What the birds leave in the trough

Walk past a mash trough at feeding time and you will see what the birds leave behind: the fine powder that drifts to the floor, the husks they picked out, and the bits of maize they did not fancy. Pick up a handful of litter under the feeders and you will find a surprising amount of feed that was paid for and never eaten.

That is the wastage question in its plainest form. Pelleting is one of the main ways the industry cuts that loss. A bird takes a pellet whole or breaks it, and it cannot sort one pellet from another the way it sorts loose meal. The trade-off is that pelleting costs money and heat, and both show up in the price.

This article works through the difference, the sum that decides it on a Ghanaian farm, and the cases where mash is simply the better tool.

How a pellet is made, in plain terms

The mill grinds the ingredients to a set fineness and mixes them. The mash then passes through a steam conditioner, where heat and moisture soften the starch and protein so the meal binds together. The hot, damp mash is forced through a die full of small holes, a rotating knife cuts it to length, and a cooler dries it so it holds its shape in the bag.

Two things happen in that process that matter on the farm. Steam and pressure gelatinise the starch, which tends to help young birds digest it. Heat also destroys some heat-sensitive vitamins and enzymes, so the conditioning temperature and the premix both matter. A good mill plans for that loss. A careless one hopes the birds will not notice.

Pellet quality is measured as durability, which is how well the pellet holds together when it is handled and shaken. A pellet that crumbles to fines in the bag is just a mash with extra cost on the invoice.

What pelleting does to the bird's intake

Birds fed pellets usually eat faster, and they eat more of what is in the bowl, because they spend less time sorting. Mash lets a bird pick out the fine material or the maize it prefers, which leaves the rest of the ration uneven. A pellet locks each bite to the same mix, so the bird gets the formula you paid for.

The gains are largest in broilers, where a bird on a steady ration grows along a predictable line. Layers are a different case. Hens often need coarse calcium they can choose for themselves, which is one reason many layer houses keep a separate pot of shell or limestone beside the mash.

Pellets also take up less space in the store per kilo and reduce dust in the house. Dust is hard on the birds' airways and on the people who clean the house, and it is one of the few changes a farmer can see the same week the switch is made.

The wastage sum: when the pellet premium pays

Here is the arithmetic that settles most of the question. Suppose mash costs GH₵8.00 per kilo at the mill, and the birds waste 8 per cent of what you put in the trough. Pellets cost more to make, but the birds waste only 2 per cent. The cost of feed the bird actually eats is the price divided by the share you keep. For mash, that is 8.00 ÷ 0.92, which is GH₵8.70 per kilo.

In this example the break-even premium is about 52 pesewas per kilo. A premium above that loses money on wastage alone, and a premium below it wins. The figures are illustrative, so run the same sum with your own mill prices and your own measured wastage.

Two more things push the answer. Pellets often convert feed to weight better, which adds to their case if your birds are growing fast. Labour is the other factor: a house where the birds leave less feed on the floor takes less time to sweep and clean. Against that, a cheap local mash and a flock that already eats its trough clean both favour mash. Our piece on reducing feed wastage in Ghana lists the habits that cut waste whichever form you buy.

Where mash still wins

Mash is the right choice more often than the sales talk suggests. If you mix your own feed from maize, soya, bran and premix, pelleting is a separate job you cannot do in a backyard. A mill that presses your mix is a second stop, a second cost and a second chance for the quality to change. Mash keeps the recipe in your hands.

Mash also suits a farm that is still learning its feed. When you change a ration, you want to see the change in the trough and in the birds, not behind a press. Loose meal shows you the ingredients, so you can spot a bad lot by its smell and colour before it reaches the birds.

The trade-off is storage. Mash has far more surface area for moulds to start on. A mash store in the rains needs tighter control than a pellet store, with bags kept off the floor, away from the walls and closed between uses.

Crumbles for chicks: the middle step

Crumbles are pellets broken down to small granules. A day-old chick cannot manage a full pellet, so the mill makes crumbles for the first weeks. Use crumbles in the brooder, then move to mash or whole pellets as the birds grow. Many farms skip the step and feed mash from day one, which works, but a chick on crumbles eats more evenly and wastes less in the first two weeks.

Put the crumbles in a shallow tray, not a deep trough, so the chicks reach the feed without climbing. Refill little and often. A crumble that sits in a warm brooder for a day picks up moisture and starts to sour, so the tray should be small enough to empty in a few hours.

For the full brooder routine, read our guide on setting up a brooder ring for young chicks, and the note on chick starter feed in Ghana covers what the first ration should contain.

Heat, storage and what the press takes out

Pelleting uses heat and moisture, and both cost something. The vitamins most at risk are the ones added through the premix, which is why a good supplier chooses a premix built to survive pelleting. Some enzymes lose activity at high temperature, so an enzyme added before pressing may not reach the bird at full strength.

Storage works the other way round. Pellets are denser and have less exposed surface, so they hold up better to humidity than mash in an ordinary store. That advantage only holds if the pellets were cool and dry when they were bagged. A warm, damp pellet sweats inside the bag and goes mouldy from the middle outwards, where you cannot see it.

Ask the mill two questions: what conditioning temperature does it run, and when was this batch pressed? A mill that cannot answer either one has not thought carefully about the feed it sells.

Buying pellets from a Ghanaian mill: what to ask

Some small mills press pellets, and some sell only mash. Visit before you commit. Look at the floor, look at the bags, and tip a sack to see how much fine dust falls out of the bottom.

• Ask for the pressing date on the bag, not only the date printed for expiry.
• Pick up a handful and look for fines, the powder left after the pellets crumble.
• Check the bag for damp patches, sweat marks and a sour or musty smell.
• Ask about the conditioning temperature and the premix supplier.
• Weigh one bag yourself on a scale you trust.

A 50 kg bag that comes in at 47 kg is a short weight you can take up with the mill. A short weight that keeps happening is a price rise under another name, so keep a note of it for each delivery.

Layers: mash, pellets or a split

Layers are a case where the answer is rarely one or the other. Many farms feed layer mash in the trough, a separate pot of coarse calcium such as oyster shell or limestone grit, and clean water all the time. Hens take the calcium they need when they need it, and a fully pelleted diet takes that choice away. If you move a layer house to pellets, keep the calcium on offer.

Our layer feeding guide covers the timing of the switch to a laying ration, and the note on grit and shell for poultry in Ghana explains how much calcium a hen needs and how to offer it.

Some farms run a split: pellets in the morning for the energy, and mash with a calcium pot in the afternoon. It works, but it doubles the handling, so only try it if you can keep the feed records clean.

Which feed form we would pick, and when

We sell chicks, not feed. We do see what happens to birds in the first weeks, though, and the feed form matters less than the consistency. A broiler chick off a good hatch takes to a starter diet quickly, whether it is crumble, mash or a pellet crushed for the first days. The difference shows up around the third week, when feed bills start to matter and the farmer looks more carefully at the trough.

Our rule is simple. Switch the form of the feed only when you can measure the wastage before and after. A switch made on a feeling tends to be reversed within a month, and the farmer ends up with two bags of feed and no clear answer.

If you are starting a flock and want the chicks to suit your feed plan, begin with our broiler day-old chicks or layer day-old chicks pages, then place your order through the order form. For questions before you order, WhatsApp +233 24 915 1503 and tell us which feed you plan to use. Our common questions page covers ordering, collection and delivery.

A checklist before you switch feed form

1. Weigh the feed you give each day for one week in the current form, and record it.
2. Weigh the feed swept up from under the feeders at the end of that week.
3. Work out your current wastage as swept-up weight divided by feed given.
4. Get a written price for the pellets and the mash, both per kilo, from the same mill.
5. Run the break-even sum with your own numbers before you pay anything.
6. Trial the new form on one house for two weeks, keeping the birds, water and other feed the same.
7. Keep calcium on offer in layer houses, and check the weights and egg records at the end of the trial.

Questions farmers ask