Growing fodder for chickens

[ScottnLydia]

Hey all. I just discovered this thread, just in the nick of time!

I'm in a little different situation. I have chickens and turkeys too, and I would like to feed them fodder. My big problem is that I raise hair sheep, and hay in my area has gotten rediculously expensive. It's currently going for $15 a bale, and I feed about a bale a day. Being on fixed income, that is MAJOR expense, and the expectation is that the prices will only get higher! I've sold some, will probably sell more, and butcher some. But I have to find a way to feed them that I can afford!

My questions are, how much should figure on feeding per animal? My ewes weigh about 125 to150, while my ram weighs in at 200. Secondly, do they need anything else, like hay, for motility or nutrition?

Everybody elses great posts have answered all my questions about poultry, but if anyone knows about ruminants, I could sure use the advice. Thanks.

~S

 

[Kassaundra]

I could NOT do that. It is way too early for those temps. Sept October we can start to wear sweaters. Nov and Dec, more often.... Jan Feb... maybe a good heavy coat some days. Cold snaps don't last long here. I like my seasons, I just don't like them to last TOO long....

I am reading all about this. Every night I learn something. Hubby will NOT let me even think about starting a new project till we get done remodeling and moved.

SO that will not be till after the first of the year

He said I have to start small WHAT???? I have 300 chickens.....

He want to see how much time it really takes.

I have some questions, I saw about soaking the seeds in bleach or something for a little while to kill most of the mold, do any of you do that? What about peroxide?

I also saw were someone soaked their seeds for 3 days and had a better growth rate.... Opinions????

I am thinking the 3 day soaking thing would be easy. Then turn them out on trays for 3-5 days more. I have some ideas running in my head and my do some really small testing to see how it works. Just to play and get things organized.

I just came across this thread today too, and have no practical experience w growing fodder, I do however ferment grain, and grow sprouts through the winter for the chickens. Anyway about the 3 day soak, I would be afraid the grains would start to ferment in that time.

Soaking in peroxide to kill the mold, I don't know if it would work, but doing it for the amount of grain to feed 300 chickens seems very cost prohibitive, where would you even find that much peroxide. Bleach solution for cleaning in the medical field is 10parts water to 1 part bleach, I don't know if that concentration would work for this purpose or not, but do not see that it would harm anything, by the time the fodder is fed out it is 6-7 days old all the chlorine would have long dissipated.

 

[smoothmule]

I wonder if Oxine could be added to prohibit bacterial/fungal growth then?

Does anyone use a hydroponic solution (sort of a natural fertilizer) to the water? It adds minerals and vitamins so it would seem reasonable that there would be trace amounts of minerals taken up by the plants and that would make it more healthy/balanced. Like the difference in fertilizing the hay pasture for hay with more nutritional value

 

[greenhorn]

I wonder if Oxine could be added to prohibit bacterial/fungal growth then?

Does anyone use a hydroponic solution (sort of a natural fertilizer) to the water? It adds minerals and vitamins so it would seem reasonable that there would be trace amounts of minerals taken up by the plants and that would make it more healthy/balanced. Like the difference in fertilizing the hay pasture for hay with more nutritional value

Seed is full of energy and usually don't use many nutrients from the soil during it's first week of growth. To me adding a hydroponic nutrient solution would defeating the purpose of raising my own food.

The 7 day old plant has twice the protein as the grain and lots more nutrients can be absorbed in the digestive process, more than double. It's far better than feeding raw grain.

It would an unnecessary added expense.

 

[pawtraitart]

I've used both peroxide and bleach to clean seeds during warmer weather when mold is more of an issue. Both will work, but bleach is cheaper. Oxine would probably work as well, but since the bleach solution rinse is only for 5 minutes, the cost is a bit much. I don't need to use bleach when the weather is colder and I do rinse my seed very well before soaking.

I raise hair sheep too! They love the fodder. I give them a taste when I'm passing out the mats among my poultry pens, but haven't switched them over to fodder feed yet as my system is too small right now. I've done some research, though. Fodder has a high water content so you still need to feed some hay for gut activity. The hay and/or straw can be of lesser quality which will cut your costs, though. I found a site talking about a trial with alpacas. See if that helps any, and if you find any links regarding nutrition and feeding guidelines, please post them on this thread. I think everyone is interested in cutting costs given the extreme price increases in feed. http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012...eed-in-8-days-barley-fodder-sprouting-trials/

Adding nutrients to the water doesn't seem to be worth it according to some articles I've read. The nutrients tend to dilute and break down in the water rather than being absorbed enough by the growth to make it worth the extra cost. It seems to be better to provide the extra vitamins by using a variety of seeds, putting vitamins/minerals in treats, etc.

 

[melwynnd]

Soaking seeds for more that 24 hours causes the starch in the grain to overswell and kill many of the embryo plants. I soak mine for 1/2 hour, drain the water and let them sit in a contaiter on top of my fridge for 24 hours before they go into the tray.

If the grains are not rinsed regularly, they will ferment. Mine get rinsed for 15 min every two hours. I tried going 15 min every three hours and got more fermentation. Since I grow my Fodder in the living room where the temperature is constant, I really don't want it to smell like a brewery.

I did get a few fruit flies when it was warmer, but found when I got the rinsing down, they weren't as prevelant.

I think trying to add stuff to the water to boost nutrition is making something that should be simple more complicated. If you're worried about your animals getting enough minerals, provide them a block or loose mineral. There's no way of knowing really how much mineral stays in the Fodder and how much just sloshes around in the water. Animals are quite good at regulating their mineral intake if they have them. As far as nutritional information, what I've found is few and far between. I found one analysis of Barley Fodder on the Fodder Solutions site and I've seen some for wheatgrass on juicing sites. However the wheatgrass analysis isn't going to be really accurate as it doesn't include the fermented grain bodies and the root mass. Still, common sense tells us that something living and green is more nutritious than anything dried.

Sherry

 

[Oakieridge]

Went to town yesterday and in my rush to find rubber water bowls (that it seems everyone was sold out of the size I wanted) I didn't look at feed much. I did see whole oats for horses but not sure if that is what I want. I will try the feed store monday at lunch if I have time. I need to get feed for fermenting anyhow since hubby only picked up layer pellets last week. The girls act like I am trying to poison them with layer pellets since there isn't any fermented grains in with them. I do have a huge bag of radish seeds here I was going to plant a plot out in one of the yards and didn't get it done. Wonder if I can sprout those for them the same way? I think I will give it a try anyhow. The big bag only cost $3.50 so it isn't like I am loosing anything by trying it.

 

[DMRippy]

Sorry I was not clear about the peroxide.... I would use that to spray in the trays as preventative. Oxine was what I was going to use, not bleach. Maybe even spraying it would help too. Oxine turns to salt and since I use it in my water for the chickens I would not worry about the chickens eating it.

Ok so 24 hours is good for soaking then.

I have not seen the need to add things to the fodder, just not cost effective from what I can see.

Keep the info coming.

 

[Daloorashens]

wow this thread is getting busy!!! and very educational.... thanks all for the input...

 

[mzstre]

Thank you all for such wonderful information! I'm thinking about trying this on a small scale in my greenhouse over the winter. I live in Louisiana so the temps are already pretty mild and I keep my greenhouse heated to around 55 or 60 when I start my spring plants. I wonder if a heat mat for starting seedlings be used instead of the heating the entire building? My heat mats have a temp regulator. Has anyone tried this? There is very little expense to run the heat mats.

I'm trying to figure out how I could continue to do this during the summer because it is so hot here and I don't have anywhere indoors to put a system. Maybe I'll just try fermenting over the summer and try to grow fodder over the winter.