Growing wheatgrass fodder indoors -- sharing my method

[Happy Novogens]

I'm enjoying your experiment/process/analysis. Another possibility to throw out there: my local Blue Seal feed store carries 50lb bags of whole wheat seed for something like $20 (I forget exactly what he said over the phone); they also have (or can get) whole oats. Worth a call to your local feed store to see what they carry - or can order!

Thanks! I checked our local Cal-Ranch & Ace hardware but didn't think to see if it's something they can order (since they don't normally carry). That'll be worth a try!

 

[Happy Novogens]

Update on seed costs/findings.

A local chicken FB member gave me a reference for a feed store in Phoenix. They had whole wheat seed for $26 for 50 lb. bag. Feeding daily the fodder grown from 1/2 cup of seed, it works out to roughly $3.50 total for one month. That's a far cry from the $22+ per month at the higher priced feed!

So at this low price, I'm happy to continue feeding fodder.

I haven't yet finished my latest bag of pellet feed to calculate any resulting reduction in their pellet consumption. I want to see if there is any noticeable difference. Our current heatwave may affect the outcome though. We've had sustained heat above 105 (currently 116) for a week now and it's expected to continue another week.

Another observation I've made is that they tend to be most interested in the sprouted seed parts of the fodder. For now, I'm continuing growing as fodder so I can calculate affect on feed consumption. After that, I will test out feeding them just the sprouts (3 days of sprouting) rather than the 7-days growth of fodder.

 

[Happy Novogens]

FINAL RESULTS OF COST CALCULATIONS FOR FEEDING FODDER

Rough estimates below and going on the questionable assumption that the high heat did not affect the amount of pellet feed consumed. (For 9 chickens)

Feeding fodder daily resulted in...
- additional cost per month (for seed) of +$3.50
- savings on pelleted feed per month of -$5.20
- for a total monthly cost savings of $1.70

So costs did go down, but negligibly. More importantly to me is that the costs did not increase.

Next, I will switch to feeding the same amount of wheat grass but in the form of sprouts rather than fodder. They seem to be most interested in the sprouts/seeds.

Also, I'm going to start fermenting feed to see if that will have an effect on feeding costs. Will post more as this journey continues.

 

[luvthegsp]

For what it’s worth I have found 50# for $36 at https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/search/chicken wheat

 

[Happy Novogens]

For what it’s worth I have found 50# for $36 at https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/search/chicken wheat

Good to know. Apparently Azure used to sell it for around $25 but had a big price jump in July. If my other source runs out, this could be a back up option.