Short answer: to check feed quality before you buy, look at the bag and its tag, then open one bag and check the smell, colour, feel, pellets and dust, and look for lumps, mould and insects. At Vital Feeds (Private) Limited, our mill team uses the same simple order at the gate before any lab test starts: look, smell, feel.
Feed is the biggest cost on a poultry, dairy or fish farm. A bad bag does not only waste money. It can slow a whole flock or drop the milk for days. The good news is that most problems give a warning you can catch with your own senses. The checks below take about two minutes and need no equipment.
Can you judge feed quality by looking at it?
Partly. Looking, smelling and feeling tell you if feed is fresh, dry and clean. They cannot tell you how much protein or energy is inside. Poultry Hub Australia, a university-hosted poultry education site, explains that a physical check of weight, colour, smell and contamination gives only preliminary information on quality, and that chemical analysis is needed to know the real nutrient content.
So think of it as two layers. Your senses are the first filter at the shop or farm gate. The mill’s lab is the second filter, and it should have done its work before the bag was ever filled.
How to check poultry feed quality on delivery
The same seven checks work for every feed. For poultry feed, look hardest at dust and broken pellets, because birds pick out the whole pieces and leave the fines in the feeder. Do the checks when the bags arrive, before they go into the store.
What are the 7 checks before you buy feed?
| Check | Good sign | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bag and tag | Clean, dry, sealed bag with a clear batch code | Torn, re-stitched, stained or wet bag; no batch code |
| 2. Smell | Fresh, clean, grain-like | Musty, sour, sharp, or like old oil |
| 3. Colour | Even colour through the bag | Dark or pale patches; green, grey or black spots |
| 4. Feel | Dry, cool and free-flowing | Damp, sticky, lumpy or warm inside the bag |
| 5. Pellets and dust | Firm pellets of even size, little dust | Many broken pellets and a lot of dust (fines) |
| 6. Foreign matter | Nothing but feed | Insects, webbing, stones, string or droppings |
| 7. Weight | Bags match the printed weight | Bags that are clearly light on the scale |
1. Start with the bag and the tag
The bag tells a story before you open it. Water stains mean the bag has been wet at some point. Hand re-stitching can mean the bag was opened after it left the mill. Look for the feed type, the net weight and a batch code. A batch code is a number that links the bag to the day and the lot in which it was made. If there is ever a problem, that code is how a mill traces it. Vital Feeds batch-codes its finished feed for this reason; you can read how on our milling process page.
2. Smell it
Take a handful from inside the bag, not from the top, and smell it. Fresh feed smells clean and a little sweet, like grain. A musty smell means damp and mould. A sour smell means the feed has started to ferment. A smell like old cooking oil means the fat has gone rancid, and animals will often eat less of it.
3. Check the colour
Colour should be even from the top of the bag to the bottom. Different brands and feed types have different colours, so do not compare one mill with another. Compare the bag with the last good bag of the same feed. Dark patches, pale patches, or green, grey or black spots are warning signs of heat damage or mould.
4. Feel for damp and heat
Push your hand deep into the bag. Good feed feels dry and cool and runs through your fingers. Lumps that do not break easily, a sticky feel, or a warm patch inside the bag all point to moisture. Moisture is the root of most feed spoilage. An FAO manual on feed quality control warns that any lot above 13 percent moisture is especially prone to insect and mould attack and should be kept apart from other stock. You cannot measure moisture by hand, but lumps and warmth tell you that something is wrong.
5. Look at the pellets and the dust
Pellets should be firm, of even size, and mostly whole. Press one between your fingers. It should resist before it breaks, not crumble into powder. Then look at the bottom of the bag or tip a little into a tray. A lot of dust and broken pieces (millers call these fines) is a problem, because birds pick out the big pieces and leave the dust. That means an uneven diet and feed wasted on the floor, and it shows up in your feed conversion ratio (FCR). For fish, drop a few floating pellets into a glass of water. They should float and hold their shape long enough for fish to eat them.
6. Look for insects and foreign matter
Spread a handful on a clean, light surface. Look for live insects, fine webbing that ties particles together, stones, string, or rodent droppings. The same FAO manual lists the classic signs to inspect for: evidence of wetting, mould growth, dirt and other contaminants, and the presence of insects. Any of these means the feed, or the store it sat in, has not been looked after.
7. Check the weight
If the shop or your farm has a scale, weigh two or three bags now and then. They should match the weight printed on the bag. It is a small habit that protects you on every delivery.
How many bags should you open?
One bag does not speak for a whole truck. For feed and ingredient lots, the FAO manual gives a simple rule: in lots of 1 to 10 bags, sample every bag; in bigger lots, sample 10 percent of the bags. On a farm, a fair working version is to open a few bags from different parts of the load: top, middle and bottom of the stack. Check them before the truck leaves, not a week later.
What can only a lab tell you?
- Nutrients: protein, energy, fibre and minerals cannot be seen or smelled.
- Exact moisture: your hand feels “damp”, but only a test gives the number.
- Mould toxins: mycotoxins such as aflatoxin are invisible, and clean-looking feed can still carry them.
This is why the mill you buy from matters more than any check you can do at the shop. Ask a simple question: does the mill test raw materials before they enter, and can it trace a bag back to its batch? At Vital Feeds, incoming maize and soybean meal are tested before they go into the mill; our quality lab page explains the three points where we control quality.
What are the common mistakes when buying feed?
- Judging by price per bag only. The real measure is the result in the animal, not the rate on the bill.
- Judging by colour between brands. Colour changes with ingredients. Compare a feed with itself, not with another mill.
- Checking only the top of the bag. Damp and lumps hide in the middle and at the bottom.
- Buying too much at once. Even perfect feed loses quality in a hot, damp store. Follow our rules for storing feed on the farm.
- Throwing away the bag. Keep one empty bag or a photo of the batch code until the feed is finished.
What should you do with a bad bag?
Do not feed it, and do not mix it into good feed to “use it up”. Close the bag, keep it dry, and take clear photos of the feed and the batch code. Contact your dealer or the mill on the same day. A serious mill will want to know, because one bad bag can point to a problem in transport or storage that affects other farmers too.
Written by Waqas Rafiq, CEO, Vital Feeds (Private) Limited.
Want feed that arrives the way it was made? See our broiler feed, dairy vanda for milking animals and cattle and dairy feed, or message the mill on WhatsApp (UAN 0311 1555136) with any question about a bag.