Hi all,
I read through some of the comments and posts from those considering fodder for their poultry. I'll chime in as someone who has both poultry (22 in our coop and a summer run of a chicken tractor for meat birds and brooding egg-layers for city coops) as well as alpacas, and we have been operating our production fodder system for a couple of weeks after trials all this year on a smaller scale.
I was lead to this thread from another who called out an article on my blog via a link, so let me add the links to the articles that I've currently written:
http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012...eed-in-8-days-barley-fodder-sprouting-trials/
http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012...ed-new-flood-and-drain-tray-system-installed/
http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/barley-fodder-from-trials-to-production/
If you are located in Western Washington, I offer a fodder primer if you visit our farm. There is a fee for this consulting. If you want to see a working fodder room and learn the nuances and technical details, I recommend scheduling a visit. (
www.PacaPride.com) Meanwhile, here are some notes from my experience...
Chickens vs. ruminants regarding fodder:
- For our alpacas we target a goal of 18% protein content which happens around the 7-9 day mark of sprouting. This requires grow trays and a flood and drain approach. For chickens, such a system is a bit of overkill; at the 7-9 day grow point, the chickens generally avoid eating the long sprouts and instead target the smaller, ungerminated or slightly germinated grains left in the mat.
- For chickens, instead of a grow tray operation, one could simply use a bucket operation. Two buckets,one with drain holes sitting inside the other, soaking grain seed for 24 hours, then drained for 24hours, then briefly wet again (just a dunk and drain), and let sprout for the next 24-36 hours. The result is a bucket full of sprouted grains that look like a "day 2-3" fodder mat: This is perfect for chickens and results in very little waste.
Soak Times: Information on this varies widely. Interestingly enough, I have found that researching under the "fodder" category, soak times are generally shorter (less than 6 hours), but researching under the category of "sprouts for humans", soak times are generally longer (24 hours or at least overnight). I am having the most success with a pre-wash and rinse of the seed, straining off chaff and cleaning the "field run" barley I use, then leaving it to soak in a mild (1tbsp to 1gal ratio) bleach solution for a 24 hour period. This has given me the highest germination rate as well as shortening the deviation among the seeds germinating (ie they all grow at the same time with no stragglers or late germinators). It sanitizes the seed hulls without impacting the seed and kills mold spores and yeast that may be on the hull. It also results in my procedures being limited to a once-a-day visit to the fodder room. Yes, there are other sanitizers out there, I personally find that household bleach still lands at the top of the list for a variety of reasons.
Grow Environment: I am consistently seeing bunches of people trying to include their fodder operation in a greenhouse setting. IMHO, this will cause you more problems than it is worth. A dedicated fodder room, temperature controlled, cleanliness controlled, is best. A grow room temp for barley fodder is 60F degrees. If your room is at 70F or above, you can bet molds will appear at some point. Ideally, barley is a cold-weather crop, it germinates when temps are as low as 45 degrees. Keep your grow room temps low.
Water: Use fresh water vs. recycling via a reservoir. The runoff from barley fodder is starchy and creates the ideal environment for yeasts to take hold and start fermenting. If fermenting begins in one tray, recycling will cause the other trays to do the same as well, regardless of how far along the grow cycle they are. In fact, I have found in my trials that this causes a more mature tray to get slimey roots and begin to have an off-smell of fermenting. A fresh tray of a barley fodder mat should smell like cucumbers picked from the garden.
AIR: Keep in mind that AIR is just as important as WATER! My watering cycles, once the pre-soaked seed is spread in the trays are 4x a day, for 4 minutes long, just enough to cover freshly seed trays with water and just enough for trays further along in the gorw cycle to get enough water. The trays drain automatically with the more mature trays taking the longest to drain completely. Once watered and drained, a fodder mat that has established a root mat stays wet for quite a long time, mature trays need less water than freshly seeded trays do. The roots need air as much as they need water. If you are harvest mats that don't smell fresh like cucumbers, or show grey slimey roots (not vibrant white), then you are watering too much and the sporuts aren't getting the air they need.
Lighting: No fancy lights needed, a few CFL's or some LED rope lights will green up the sprouts just fine. Do set them on a timer to simulate a day and night cycle. Mine is set at 16 hours on 8 hours off. No watering occurs during the night cycle.
