Growing fodder for chickens

[Cynthia12]

My lentils are starting to sprout! My newest fodder mix trial is 1 lb of wheat, 2 oz. boss, and 1 oz lentils.

Ok, so when do I stop soaking them..I do it once a day..tomorrow will be three days after I set them. They are coming along! I think they look like one more soak?

Or, do you wait for the green to start sprouting up?

 

[pawtraitart]

Ok, so when do I stop soaking them..I do it once a day..tomorrow will be three days after I set them. They are coming along! I think they look like one more soak?

Or, do you wait for the green to start sprouting up?

It depends on how high you want your grass to grow and how well your seeds have germinated. I like my fodder biscuit to finish out at around 6 pounds, so I water 1x a day using the soak/rinse method until the day before I plan on feeding out. By that time, the biscuit is retaining it's own moisture within the root structure and there is dew on the grass. Are your seeds all germinating?

If I was growing with an automatic system, the mats would be watered everyday on their regular schedule. The automatic hydroponic method will result in a taller grass that's good for ruminants. The taller grass isn't necessary for poultry.

 

[bcboy]

Thanks for making this Great thread.

 

[Cynthia12]

It depends on how high you want your grass to grow and how well your seeds have germinated. I like my fodder biscuit to finish out at around 6 pounds, so I water 1x a day using the soak/rinse method until the day before I plan on feeding out. By that time, the biscuit is retaining it's own moisture within the root structure and there is dew on the grass. Are your seeds all germinating?

If I was growing with an automatic system, the mats would be watered everyday on their regular schedule. The automatic hydroponic method will result in a taller grass that's good for ruminants. The taller grass isn't necessary for poultry.

I've been reading that, that actually, it doesn't need to be very high at all. That's ok by me, but I want mine to be tall at first, for the fun of it. Then I am going to start giving it to them when it is not as full and tall. We are supposed to get snow this Friday!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Well we started our fodder Friday night, soaked and then wandering our place yesterday dh found these plastic shelving units someone gave us. He turned them upside down to make our fodder system. He drilled lots of tiny holes in them so that they drain well. Today they were sprouting already!!! We started another shelf of it today and have more soaking. We have enough shelving units for 6 sets. We hope one set will be enough for our birds each day but not sure. But they will still get their pellets so this will just be additional greens for them. I did add some white clover seeds to the first days trays so it is Barley and White Clover, the next days is 1/2 wheat and 1/2 Barley (traded 6 RIR roos for 50#s of wheat lol).

Clever!

 

[greenhorn]

If there is no soil or medium involved, as in what way?
Are you growing then on a flat surface with a paper towel under then or in a bucket of water as you would for sprouting or fermenting?

Chris

We are not using a medium at all to grow this kind of fodder. Seed depth isn't the issue here, thickness is. They spread the seed out on a tray 3/4 of an inch or so, some way less.

Zero medium = no dirt, paper towel, hydro rocks or anything. Just a plain layer of soaked and pre-germinated seed.

You are 100% correct about seed planting depth if a medium is involved, 1-1.5 times the size of the seed.

 

[Chris09]

If you were to read this thread you would understand that we are not using a medium at all to grow this kind of fodder. Seed depth isn't the issue here, thickness is. They spread the seed out on a tray 3/4 of an inch or so, some way less.

Zero medium = no dirt, paper towel, hydro rocks or anything. Just a plain layer of seed.

You are 100% correct about seed planting depth if a medium is involved, 1-1.5 times the size of the seed.

You may want to read what had posted again,
Like I said before how you guys are growing your fodder isn't much different than how I grow microgreens, It is also not much different than the most simplest form of sprouting seeds.

Well you guys know it all or at least think you do I will let you guys get back you sprouting your greens. lol


Chris

 

[pawtraitart]

I've been reading that, that actually, it doesn't need to be very high at all. That's ok by me, but I want mine to be tall at first, for the fun of it. Then I am going to start giving it to them when it is not as full and tall. We are supposed to get snow this Friday!

Yes, for poultry it doesn't need to be as tall as it can get. I'm glad you are having fun! I find it entertaining, too.

Snow on Friday? Couldn't we just have our 60ish weather until spring? LOL

 

[mzstre]

Quote: You may want to read what had posted again,
Like I said before how you guys are growing your fodder isn't much different than how I grow microgreens, It is also not much different than the most simplest form of sprouting seeds.

Well you guys know it all or at least think you do I will let you guys get back you sprouting your greens. lol


Chris

I think I understand what you're saying about the depth of the seeds. Even if you're growing without medium, the total depth of your seeds should not exceed the depth at which the seeds would be planted IF you were using soil. The seeds on the bottom still have to push up through the other seeds just as if the top layers themselves were the medium. Did I state this correctly?

 

[Spangled]

As a moderately experienced small-scale winter sprouter (till sprouts are green and 2-4 inches tall, sprouted in spring water) of wheat for my chickens, I decided to try to prove that it's not worth my time.

A couple of interesting pieces of info were found.

Example one -- from the famous and oft referenced Chavan and Kadam, 1989, Nutritional Improvement of Cereals by Sprouting. These fellows were working in the Dept of Biochemistry at an Agricultural University in Rahuri, India. This is from the abstract of the study. I couldn't find a copy of the actual study unless I was willing to spend something like $43US, and I'm too cheap for that and suspect most of us are.

They do claim that there is limited increase of a few amino acids (building blocks of protein), but that's not necessarily a great amount or enough of an increase to make
it worth my time.

The part that hit me in this abstract was where it stated that the degree or magnitude or level of the improvement in the nutrition of the sprouted cereal grain ... "is not large enough to account for in feeding experiments with higher animals." Help me out; I'm not sure what that means exactly. Doesn't that mean that the improvement in nutrition isn't very large? That "account for in feeding experiments" could be some sort of agricultural lingo that I don't recognize.

Example two -- from Peer and Lesson from the Dept of Animal and Poultry Sciences at the University of Guelph, 1985, also often quoted, Feeding Value of Hydroponically Sprouted Barley for Poultry and Pigs.

An interesting point in this article is that the digestibility of protein and energy was higher for grains sprouted for 4 days that it was for whole grains. However, digestibility of protein and energy was highest if the grain was ground. (Barley). So on the digestibility of protein and energy it probably looks like this:

ground grain > sprouted grain > whole grain (the > is meant to represent "greater than" when measuring digestibility of protein and energy)

I guess if my choice was whole grain vs. sprouted grain and I was looking at digestibility of protein and energy, then sprouting the grain for 4 days is the better choice. But if I can grind the grain, then that would be my best choice. Sorta interesting.

But I'm still going to sprout wheat in the winter for my chickens. Once there is growth of green wheat shoots, then there is chlorophyll and that isn't being measured in either of the above studies. It's a cheap way to feed my chickens some live food in the middle of a dark, cold winter if the grass is all covered by snow. And, again, it's not their main feed; it's a supplement.

Edited typo because barley is not spelled barely.