What to buy for fodder?

[brb5]

hi all i was wondering what is the best grains to buy to sprout for fodder for chickens?

I know most people say whole wheat and barley did any one experiment with other things besides these and how did your chickens like it?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Yes, you can sprout or fodder virtually anything that will grow. Chickens have yet to turn their nose up at anything. Side by side I saw a report of someone's chickens who preferred the winter wheat over barley BUT still ate both. My birds have so much lush pasture available year round that they will eat the seed off the fodder and leave the green part.. which is a total waste of my effort. However information I have says there isn't much benefit going to fodder over sprouting... as water weight DOESN'T count, but dry matter is what does... (was gonna put a link here, but it appears to not currently be working).


People tend to go with what there is available nutritional information on or what they can easily find.

Many here have sprouted Boss, corn, scratch, chia, flax, lentils, peas, oats and so on.

Some things are harder to sprout than others, maybe more temperature or light dependent. Oats for example are more likely to grow mold than barley. Barley is said to be the easiest to sprout with the least amount of mold type issues.

My friend likes to get her sprouting stuff at grocery outlet. I purchase my barley at the feed store in a 50# bags. Be sure if you do that that it is FEED grade not seed grade... which may have some sort of fertilizer or other type stuff on it.

Good luck and happy sprouting! I do it for fun more than anything else.

 

[cbean423]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

My friend likes to get her sprouting stuff at grocery outlet. I purchase my barley at the feed store in a 50# bags. Be sure if you do that that it is FEED grade not seed grade... which may have some sort of fertilizer or other type stuff on it.

EggSighted4Life: Thanks for your comment above. I have called my local feed stores and asked if the wheat, barley, etc that they sell would sprout or if what they sell is heat treated and i always get the answer that probably not since it is feed for horses. It seems like your comment above would mean that i could use this since it is feed. Correct? What feed store do you use and how much is it per 50lb back.