Fodder Question 2: Alfalfa seeds with a white coating, what's that?

[gtaus]

Uploaded some new pictures into my fodder-album:
Rye Fodder, 3 days old
Rye Fodder 2 weeks old
Rye fodder, roots
Oats after 3 days
And after two weeks
BOSS after 3 days
Alfalfa after 9 days

You got a very nice root mat on the rye fodder after 2 weeks. However, the grass is not very high compared to what I get with barley - barley is about 10 inches tall on day 9. Have you ever weighed the before/after difference in any of your experiments? I know that I convert about 1 pound of barley seeds into 5 pounds of barley fodder in ~8 days.

I like how you post your results with grains that don't work so well for fodder, such as the alfalfa. And we have both agreed that oat fodder is not very promising. Too bad you don't have access to barley seed. I would love to see how that would work for you. In the meantime, hope to see more results from BOSS fodder.

 

[gtaus]

That [barley as $0.145/lb] is dirt cheap! - I need to call that micro-brewery tomorrow!

Not only is barley the cheapest fodder grain I have available locally, but it is also the best growing grain for fodder of what I can get. BTW, after I bought my recent 50 pound bag of barley for $7.25, I noticed that I could have bought a 100 pound bag of barley for $11.25, or $0.1125/lb.

 

[EggWalrus]

I've been getting feed wheat for about $5 / 50lbs. But they just upped the price last month. Now it's $6~.
I usually put a big coffee can of seeds into a 5 gal bucket about 2-3 times per week. Soak overnight, then dump it into one of 3 bucket with holes in bottom to rinse and drain daily. A week later, you have about 4 gals of sprouts depending on the temperature.
And those birds gobble it down!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

You got a very nice root mat on the rye fodder after 2 weeks. However, the grass is not very high compared to what I get with barley - barley is about 10 inches tall on day 9. Have you ever weighed the before/after difference in any of your experiments? I know that I convert about 1 pound of barley seeds into 5 pounds of barley fodder in ~8 days.

I like how you post your results with grains that don't work so well for fodder, such as the alfalfa. And we have both agreed that oat fodder is not very promising. Too bad you don't have access to barley seed. I would love to see how that would work for you. In the meantime, hope to see more results from BOSS fodder.

I love how the Rye turned out, but the Duckies don't like the taste very much. They go crazy for Oats… I give it another try with the Oats, short soak, just two hours in a sprouting glass in the guestroom:

Just checked the BOSS, it is developing slowly. My wife says Sunflowers and Alfalfa need higher temperatures, so i might pull those two bins and relocate them into the guestrooms for some days. Higher temperatures always pose the risk of mold, in the Sunflower seeds there is a lot of foreign material that i couldn't wash out because the Kernels themselves float too.
I think we all should post honest pictures of things that went wrong, to prevent others from repeating our mistakes. Same thing with history: If we don't remember our history, we will make the same mistakes over and over again. - We do it anyways, even with our history classes…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Not only is barley the cheapest fodder grain I have available locally, but it is also the best growing grain for fodder of what I can get. BTW, after I bought my recent 50 pound bag of barley for $7.25, I noticed that I could have bought a 100 pound bag of barley for $11.25, or $0.1125/lb.

I called my food mill today and they started laughing and asked how many tons of wheat i'd like to buy…
I haven't weighed before and after, but ~400 grams of dry wheat/rye feed my duckies for 2 days. A 50lbs bag (22Kg) would make 55 bins, enough for 110 days.
Maybe i should just feed them more greens and safe on pellets. There's enough room in my garage for a second fodder tower…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I've been getting feed wheat for about $5 / 50lbs. But they just upped the price last month. Now it's $6~.
I usually put a big coffee can of seeds into a 5 gal bucket about 2-3 times per week. Soak overnight, then dump it into one of 3 bucket with holes in bottom to rinse and drain daily. A week later, you have about 4 gals of sprouts depending on the temperature.
And those birds gobble it down!

When my Duckies see the fresh green in their bowl they literally jump me! They have eaten all green around the house and are craving for some.

 

[gtaus]

Higher temperatures always pose the risk of mold

I think that might be true. Have you tried a capful of bleach in your soaking bin to start with? Supposedly, the bleach will kill the mold and/or prevent it from growing.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Found this recipe for Oat sprouts:
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/sprouting/how-to-sprout-oat-groats/
It says » Soak up to 6 hours.« - Maybe we have soaked the Oats for too long?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I think that might be true. Have you tried a capful of bleach in your soaking bin to start with? Supposedly, the bleach will kill the mold and/or prevent it from growing.

I am somewhat hesitant when it comes to chemicals and my Duckies! During summer we had an infestation of Gnats here and i was tempted to try Permethrin, but went back to those good old glue-strips… So far i had only one mold-incident and that was a bin with oats for four days in the warm guestroom.

 

[EggWalrus]

I am somewhat hesitant when it comes to chemicals and my Duckies! During summer we had an infestation of Gnats here and i was tempted to try Permethrin, but went back to those good old glue-strips… So far i had only one mold-incident and that was a bin with oats for four days in the warm guestroom.

You only need to add 1-2 spoons of bleach per gal to sterilize the soak water. You can drink it yourself and it won't harm you. It's a common technique for drinking water sterilization. If you're still worried, let it sit overnight before dumping seeds in to soak, all the bleach will have evaporated.