Fermented Alfalfa Cubes How To

[Mosey2003]

I just ferment alfalfa pellets in with my fermenting crumble. Do about 25% alfalfa to 75% feed. I've always liked the pellets better than the cubes, even when I had horses.

 

[mobius]

Nice alternative, thank you! Apparently we all agree that alfalfa, especially fermented, is great for our ladies! I just watched mine again this morning go for the alfalfa before the FF!

However you choose to do it, it seems to be amazing greens for chickens!

 

[catinthecoop]

This is great, I buy bags of alfalfa pellets for the horse, he gets them soaked with beet pulp over the winter, now I can try fermenting them for the chickens too.

 

[mobius]

Let us know how it goes, plus any tips you might have about how pellets break down in water...I am sure it could be different from cubes!

 

[catinthecoop]

Pellets break down pretty quick in water, from what I recall the cubes take a while (part of the reason I decided not to use them for the horse, I'm lazy and I would forget to soak them far enough ahead.) Anyway, I started with 4 oz of pellets in the jar.


I added 2 cups of water. I will probably end up needing more...



After 1 hour. They take up a lot of water, I might need to find something bigger....



I will try to take some more pics tonight and over the next few days while it 'brews'
Only other thought I had is, I know people shop at TSC a lot, I buy my pellets there. I buy the Standlee Alfalfa Pellets, have never felt like the Dumor version was as good, seem to smell bad often.

 

[catinthecoop]

And here we get to the point I'm not sure, texture is like a firm sponge, do I need to add more water?

 

[mobius]

firm sponge is all good IMHO just make sure it ferments...and yes it SUPER expands....thanks for the great pics!!

just keep mixing!! once or twice a day...that looks like the jar I use!

 

[catinthecoop]

Thanks, this stuff still smells good enough I'd feed it to the horse, so we have a ways to go. I did add a bit more water for stirring room, but stirring is pretty easy now. Hopefully that's enough, I don't have a bigger clear container handy. If it has to go into a bucket oh well, I think the interesting picture part has probably passed now, but I will be curious to see if the color changes at all. For other's note, I did not add any 'starter' to this, it's alfalfa pellets straight out of the bag and water.

ETA: It's an old pasta jar, they're so darn useful. But I definitely prefer to make my own pasta sauce!

 

[catinthecoop]

Aaaaaand we have fermentation, this is what I came home to today, after about 48 hours...


What you can't see is where it kept bubbling all over the counter. So a tip for newbies, you're going to need a bigger container than you think, MUCH bigger.


I moved it to this and added some more water, started with 2 cups, am up to about 3.5.

 

[mobius]

Counter overflow happened to me too! and look at how that four ounces grew! OMG!

And yippee/props for the ferment! In fact that's how we know right? The bubbles and overflow on the counter...