# Revisiting Fooder Growing and Sprouting Grains for Livestock



## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Apparently, this idea has really caught on because my livestock catalogs, such as Farmteck, are now stocking fully automated systems you can buy. Youtube also has a huge variety of videos showing various homemade designs both for growing fodder and for sprouting grains. Some of them are so simple I hit myself in the head for not thinking of it. I've grown some fodder and everybody likes it and I can see that it would possibly save a lot of money, and/or time driving back and forth to the feed store. 

Right now I'm trying to figure out about much fodder we might need in a day, and how much grain it would take to grow that amount of fodder, approx. 

Has anyone here figured that out already? Like, say you had 50 pounds of wheat or barley, about how many pounds of fodder would that grow in 7 to 9 days? Has anyone been feeding it regularly to any livestock, not just goats?

Yesterday after watching a youtube video on sprouting grains for chickens, I was kind of dumbstruck at the simplicity and money-saving possibility of this. The video showed folks that had cut small slits in a 2 gallon bucket, added various grains and seeds, put that bucket down inside a 5 gallon bucket with water to soak, then every day or twice a day depending on the temp. outside they would pull up the buckets, rinse the seeds with the hose and leave them draining after the first day as they started sprouting. Sprouts are fed somewhere between day 3-5. Doing a simple test here at home, I found that a simple grain, such as wheat, will double in size overnight. True, it's water weight, but it's also starting to increase in all nutrients, including proteins, calcium, etc. Once the tails start growing on both ends, then a simple grain of wheat now weighs quite a bit more, and potentially will provide quite a bit more food value. 

Once the grain is several days old, with a piece of grass growing from it, it is soft enough to squish easily...making me think that even older horses, goats, etc. with bad teeth could chew it easily and possibly digest it better. 

Does anyone have a good source for grains they would like to share? 
How about plastic trays that work well? (One thing I found out was that the trays don't need to be perforated except at one end. They are set at a slight slant, and all the water runs down to that end and out of the tray.)

Has anyone been using this with pigs? How are they growing? 

In times like this when every trip to the feedstore gets more expensive, it just makes sense to stretch feed dollars as far as possible. And doing organic might be feasible with this approach too.


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## Ozark Lady (Mar 21, 2010)

I have been "playing at/with fodder growing".
I had a 50# bag of wheat berries on hand. So it was a logical starting point.
I started really small about 4 ounces per day, to learn to grow it, and figure out my own DIY system.
I did well, the first few days, then I let a few trays get too dry, then followed that with a few trays kept too moist, both were not good. Too dry obviously dried up instead of continuing to grow. Too wet led to mold popping this was from keeping in a too air tight container.
I have the mold ones, picked over and growing without a cover at the moment to see if it will stop. It was only a few seeds that showed mold.
Mostly they did okay, but even under a light, it is taking 7-8 days to get a couple of inches of wheat grass up and green.

I am just using the clear food carry out containers, that have like a display dome on them, pastries come in these. And a few small trays inside one gallon baggies. Very cheap attempt.

I have gotten three trays ready to try on the goats... they don't like it. No amount of rinsing has helped this.
I usually gain one animal per feeding, at least tasting it, most of them sniff and look for their food.
But, even the ones tasting it, are not eager to eat more of it. Perhaps it is a patience thing?
Maybe it is individual animals? These had no mold, no offensive odors, nice root mat.
After, the overnight soak, I put them into the trays and 4 ounces filled about 2-3 of these food containers.
I have only offered one tray per day, divided by 11 goats... that is about 1 ounce of grain, presprouting... for 11 goats, very tiny amount. I end up having to feed 50% to the chickens and geese who do like it.
I am wondering if wheat was not a good grain to try first.

So, prior to moving into fodder systems big time, it is a good idea to practice with small inexpensive things, and find out what your animals will eat. I wanted a slow transition, but this is too slow!

Wouldn't it be terrible if I had bought an expensive system and found that only my chickens and geese, which are free-range, would eat it?

I am not giving up nor giving in. But right now the fodder is a treat, but I give it first, before the grain, when they are hungry, and it still is not being well received. It is going to take a while and some experimenting to convince my goats that it really is food. Even baby goats a month old and just starting to sample food will not go after it very well, and don't really care for it, would rather have an old, dry, brown leaf.

I think it will work in time, I am not meaning to sound negative, I am positive that I want to go this route, and I am positive that I can figure out some of the bugs in sprouting and growing it. But, it is going slow to get the goats to accept it.

Perhaps my goats just aren't hungry enough? I see on many You tube videos of the goats eating it well, they are in a confined feeding system, and not on pasture. My pasture is not grass, it is weeds, small trees and lots of rocks and hillsides. Maybe I need to sprout small trees or weeds for my goats to see it as food? They are fed hay inside the barn, but not until after the sprouts are offered and refused.

Please consider this post to say: Your mileage and experience may vary. I would like to hear how other folk's goats responded to this change in feeding. And I would like to hear if they are on feedlot or open pasture.

Once we can get them eating this fodder, then we can start to figure out the 1% of body weight required to meet the minimum standard.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

We started with BOSS as that's what we had on hand. We've got 1000 lbs of barley on order that should be here any day now. We got the seed from a local seed distributor. 

It took about 10 days for the BOSS to get to 6" in height as our temps were not ideal for growing. We are growing them in trays using an automatic watering system. Temp has only been about 60F most days and 55F at night. We are using heaters in the tack room. 2 lbs of BOSS = 13 lbs of fodder per tray.

I have one adult doe out of 5 eating it. The horses love it and pigs are starting to eat it. We have not converted the pigs over to complete fodder only. Yearlings are trying it and the chickens love it. We are getting beef calves in the spring; pasture fodder and hay will be their only food sources.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Maybe you could try offering it to the goats as a group...the competition may get them interested. I think goats are hard to feed "wet" food to, because that is how they would naturally avoid eating a lot of parasite eggs. That's just my theory anyway.


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## Ozark Lady (Mar 21, 2010)

The only goats actually eating any of it are the ones on the milking stand, once they have eaten their grains, then they get bored enough to go ahead and eat it.
The fodder is left in all the feed dishes in the barn, and when all the goats are turned loose and raiding each others feed dishes, they see the fodder, sniff and just leave it there.
So, competition is not helping, boredom is doing better at getting mine to try it.
But the same ones that ate it in the milking stand will barely touch it in the group... kind of a peer pressure thing. But it was the herd queen that ate it first and is best about eating it.

I think I will try to get some barley this week. And perhaps you are right, I need to make it dryer before offering it to them.
I like my salads a bit damp from the washing and rinsing, and have likely fed it to my preference. The dryness might well be a factor here. Because they will eat the wheat berries fine, until I get them damp.

At least our animals will eat the grains un-sprouted, if we can't convince them to go on fodder.

I would even like to grow at least a bed of wheat, barley, rye etc. all the way to grain set, in order to produce my own organic grain and cut costs even more at the feed store.

I need to sprout the BOSS and start them growing to produce my own seeds there too.
Question to me is: I feed BOSS for the copper content. If I grow them on copper deficient soil, will they have copper to offer?

So, getting this to work, getting the goats to eat it... working out how much to feed, what rate to sprout it to keep them in fodder, to me then the next logical step is how much to grow to get the grains to sprout to feed the animals... whew!
A steep learning curve, to be learned bit by bit.

I am very concerned with the GMO's in the feed that I can purchase, so the more feed I can grow without pesticides, GMO's and other things, the better off will be my animals and my health. And the less $$ spent at the feed store or on meds is more $$ to spend in increasing the pasture size and upgrading things. 

1 in 5 is eating it for you. 2/11 are eating it for me... roughly 20% for each of us.
I hope that feeding it dryer will up that %.

I hope to buy a calf or two to raise this year also. So perhaps it will work better with them.


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## Tracer (Mar 7, 2013)

Alright I guess I don't understand is this fodder to replace grain or hay or both?? If your just replacing grain i don't think that your really even breaking even because of the time it's going to take to take care of this system. Now if your cutting your hay usage it'll save you some money. It's a great idea especially for the small farms and I would be really intrested in more info


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Ben, it doesn't completely replace hay. They still need those long fibers and any data I've seen, the Ca/Phos ratio is still off, just like grain, so alfalfa is still a must.

It takes VERY LITTLE time. I get that comment on a lot. Wash seeds, soak seeds, rinse seeds, put in trays. Done. 10 minutes, tops.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Wow, so much new info, and I'm sure that we'll learn even more in the coming months. I don't see my feed bill going down anytime soon.  I don't really think I can replace dry grains with fodder for goats. True, they are nutrient dense, but I do not think it will provide the calories I'm needing for the goats at this stage. I'm growing sprouted grains for that...three to five days, to at least supplement if not replace. 

My goats do like the fodder but I have not fed them large amounts of it yet, just handfuls in their empty grain troughs. The pigs seem to like it a lot and I'm hoping to save money on their feed by feeding fodder instead of grain. Fodder, kitchen and garden scraps, and a wooded pasture. Right now they are in a small lot consuming 200 pounds of feed per week for two pigs...not cost effective at all. But, I plan to use them for forest reclaimation so don't want to butcher just yet....and we have a gilt I want to breed soon. I'm also interested in using it for broiler chickens. I've tried some on the horses and they will eat it. I think they'd rather not have the root system, but any waste can go to the pigs. 

I've gone from thinking that this is way too labor intensive to seeing that it's really quite simple and a greenhouse that could house my fodder and our vegetables would pay for itself sooner than I thought. 

For the goat pasture I overseeded winter rye last fall and even our small pasture has had grass all winter long in the places where it is not too rocky. The pasture needs improving even more but it's coming along and we saved on hay. One 4 by 4 round bale of good to excellent hay is lasting my herd of 10 girls an entire month free-feeding in a makeshift covered hay feeder. That's fully half the amount of hay they consumed last winter....much of which was lost to wastage, but they had zero pasture grass then too.


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## Ozark Lady (Mar 21, 2010)

Hey, drier did help with the two that have eaten the fodder. But, wet or dry had no effect at all on the 9 hold outs. Okay, 5 of those hold outs would rather have a bottle or mama's milk. But still the others spit it out no matter how tricky I am.
I am saddened that they are not going for it better. I had high hopes of cutting down my grain bill.
On the bright side, and this may well be my wishful thinking, but it did seem that the ones on the milking stand that did eat it, gave 3-4 ounces more milk the next day. And the mother of the triplets is coming back into condition faster now that she is getting just about an ounce per day.
Perhaps, I see what I am looking for? And the increases have nothing at all to do with the fodder.
I wonder if the height of the wheat grass offered has any effect? I am offering just as the tips turn a really dark green. Should I wait for it to get 3-4" in height?
I wonder if I need to change the grain offered first, get them off of sweet feed and onto whole grains entirely, before this system stands a chance?
What if we try growing it and cutting off just the grassy part? Is it the root mass that is putting them off?
For me, rinsing the grains off and starting more takes no longer than filling the bottles for the baby goats. I do find the root masses a bit difficult to separate, and have to use scissors to do it initially.

My vote is: Let's keep playing with this, I wonder if a mix of various grains and not a single grain would help? And when someone hits on an idea that works, please tell us what grains you were feeding and went from there to fodder. Do I need to put molasses on them? 
Are my goats junk food junkies resisting their spinach?

They do eagerly wait at the fence when I am weeding the garden for the plants that I pull there, maybe it is the size and was the wetness.

They are not even eating the fodder once it has dried and is hay-like, but are still eagerly eating their hay and regular grains and pellets.

It sounded too good to be true. Until my goats put on the brakes and refuse it. Since I have no other livestock to try it with.
The lovebirds threw it all over their cage, even in their bathtub, they had fun with it, but what a mess. The outside poultry did receive it well.
Hopefully, when I get my rabbits home they will like it.
But, my major feed bill is my goats, and they are saying... "no way".

Then again, one ounce per day making a 4 ounce per day increase in milk, with two milking at the moment that is 8 ounces per day of milk increase.
Hmmm? Might still be helping. With so many on bottles, I can use the increase for sure.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

We were breaking it up and feeding it to them (goats). We've had better luck feeding whole clumps. They are starting to fight over it, even if it's for just a little while.


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## Ozark Lady (Mar 21, 2010)

Cool! I wish my goats would just try it seriously.
What is the secret? Are your goats confined? What grain are/were they on prior to offering the fodder?


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## lovinlifeathome (Mar 4, 2008)

I'm growing barley fodder and my goats LOVE it! Barley seems to be the preferred grain both taste and
from a nutritional standpoint. However, barley needs a growing temp of 60 - 66 degrees ideally, so I will most likely go to wheat in the summer. I currently have only 9 Nigerians so it wouldn't pay for me to have a dedicated fodder room/building, but for those with more animals it could be cost effective.

I started with recirculating the water but that does not work well as the water quickly becomes dirty and has to be changed quite often. It is easier and quicker for me to manually water. A key is making sure the trays drain very well or you could have a mold problem. I actually moved my shelving into the spare bathroom tub and watering is easy... 

Someone mentioned growing fodder in a greenhouse which actually would be too hot (and probably too humid).
Also, fodder does not need much light - I leave the bathroom light on (compact flor.) but only because there is no window in the room. If there were a window no light would be needed; fodder only grows for a few days until fed.

Hope this is helpful...


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## punchiepal (Aug 4, 2010)

I have been feeding barley fodder to mine daily since maybe mid-December. We really don't have any problems with anyone not eating it. The greens are longer, 4-6". The milkers get it broken into chunks they can eat, otherwise they fling it around on the stand trying to break it up. They also get a some alfalfa pellets and a 2/1 oat/boss mixture @ about 1/4c per goat per milking. So not much. I haven't purchased a bag of goat chow yet this milking season. Pre-birth we gradually upped the fodder and added some alfalfa pellets. The 4 not in milk get it hand fed. Yearlings get chunks thrown in a feed trough and it's a free-for-all.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Maybe the secret is having Nigerians. I know that they are not very picky at all, especially compared to the alpines!


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## MilkMan (Feb 3, 2010)

I'm growing barley fodder and my goats absolutely love it and are doing well. I break it up into mouth sized clumps so they don't fight over it. As soon as I walk into their pen with a tray of fodder, they try to jump on me and eat it out of the pan while I'm still hold it. I toss the clumps into their feeder (which is always full of hay) and the battle is on. They will even eat it off the ground if it falls. I think that's saying something, as I have never seen them eat anything else off the ground. I started giving it to them once per day, and now I am giving it to them before I milk in the am and pm. I did find that they liked it better after the 7-8 day mark. The sprouts are about 8" tall when I feed it. 

My young kids have taken to it as well. I have 1 buckling 6 weeks old and 2 that are two weeks old, and all three will eat as much as I give them. I separate it into individual pieces for them. I'm still slowly increasing how much I give them at one time.

I think my chickens like it more than the goats. Thirty hens will consume a 10lb mat in less than 15 minutes, and they eat every last grain, stem, and root. The yolks of my eggs have gotten really, really orange (almost red) since I've started giving them fodder. I do give them a small amount of feed daily, but it's less than half of what I was giving them.

I started out with a homemade unit, but recently purchased a Crop King System that will produce 105 lbs per day. The homemade system worked, but we really had to aware of mold. I think mold is an issue due the fact that the water comes down on the top of the fodder, where as the CK system has the water running on the bottom of the seed, so it;s less likely to encourage mold growth.


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## bifrostfarms (Dec 19, 2012)

Found this thread when searching the forum for sprouting threads and it's told me a lot in regards to what I need to be aware of when I start. 

In regards to the goats who don't like it, I read something on another site that might help. Since they're probably spoiled from the sweet grain mix, one sprouter decided to try adding just a bit of molasses to the fodder and it turned them all around. You could eventually cut that back or totally out, I imagine.

Meg, Bifrost Farms
Boyceville, WI


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