growing wheat grass

[rebelcowboysnb]

For those that are sprouting grains.... The term is malting. You are turning the grains in to mostly sugar. Weather that's a good thing for chickens I don't know. Anyway, if you do malting wrong it can be poisonous. Soaking should be less than 6 hours at a time an when they are good an saturated they need to be spread out pretty thin to let the air get to them. They then need steered up several times a day.

 

[Lotsapaints]

Mine sprout the water is soaked up they just have a slight sour smell no scum on top I don't add any yeast if they dried out they wouldn't sprout and I've been doing it for almost 6 weeks and my chickens love it and have blossomed eating it along with their regular feed the biggest plus is more and larger eggs....if it turned pink I wouldn't feed it

 

[Organics North]

Quote:
Interesting.. It is partially the same process. But with malting you halt the sprouting process, in sprouting you continue it with a drain and rinse, drain and rinse of the grains after the initial soaking. Either sprouting or malting changes the nutritional profile of the grain dramatically. With sprouting the carbs are not just turned into sugar. The protein level of the grain increases too..
(And we all know how chickens love protein.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt

Be Well

ON

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Interesting.. It is partially the same process. But with malting you halt the sprouting process, in sprouting you continue it with a drain and rinse, drain and rinse of the grains after the initial soaking. Either sprouting or malting changes the nutritional profile of the grain dramatically. With sprouting the carbs are not just turned into sugar. The protein level of the grain increases too..
(And we all know how chickens love protein.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malt

Be Well

ON

Most importantly, when sprouting the enzymes are released, and it's the enzymes that do so much good for the human body.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Malted grains are only sprouted until the root tip is only as long as the grain. Then it's kiln dried. For the darker malts, it's kiln dried at a higher temperature and it's more roasted.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
It would be Malting if you stop the germination by heat.
Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate by soaking in water and are then quickly halted from germinating further by drying/heating with hot air.


Since they are not stopping the germination by heat they are producing Sprouted or Sour Grain depending on the proses they used...

Chris

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

It is malted once the stem is 3/4s the length of the grain. The stopping an roasting is to make it keep in storage an to add flavor in beer. In distilled spirits malts are used fresh, wet an still growing. But its still malt.

Anyway the danger is still the same what ever ya want to call it. Bucket full of wet grains is a bad idea. Under water is one thing but just wet is a cooking pot for bad bacteria.

My understanding is that till the sprout is about the same length of the grain it is almost completely producing enzymes an sugar. After what is called "over malted" when the stem is over the length of the grain is when it starts producing lots of proteins from those sugars. Proses starts good in corn when the stem is 2 inches. Between those points your talking mostly sugar an enzymes, that are different than the unsprouted grains anyway. Thats why distillers use it then. Thats what they want, sugar an enzymes.

Not a plant biologist tho, just what the old times have told me.

 

[beth59]

Where does everyone get their grains to sprout? We have a small flock (less than 20) and I have BOSS that I got at Lowes in the bird feeding section and our local health foods coop has bulk wheat (I think). Do you use regular bagged oats like you get at the feed store?
Any other grains that you like to sprout, and how much do you feed at a time?

Beth

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
Any whole grain source should work but stay away from seed grains. Some of those are coated with a chemical preservative. Bird feed, bulk wheat or chicken scratch should work tho.

 

[Chris09]

Quote:
Beth,
Organic North might be able to give you some other places but I know that some people have sprouted seeds from High Mowing Seeds.
http://www.highmowingseeds.com/
If you can find a dealer or you want to set up a account with them you can also order it from frontier coop
www.frontiercoop.com

Plain old Bin Oat or "Race Horse Oats" from your feed mill have been used for years.

A trick you can do when sprouting grains/ seed for your birds is to use Apple Juice instead of water. The Apple Juice will add Vitamin C and help in the sprouting/ fermentation of the seeds..

Chris