DIY Fodder PT. 2

Okey dokey.  This next video will take you through the first part of the fodder making process and show you some of our techniques.

So why barely?  Well that's what all the big, expensive, large scale, commercial companies use.  I figured if that is what they say works best, that's where we'll start.  Not to mention, sprouted barley is supposed to be a human super food too.  There is not a lot of information out there readily available concerning the actual nutritional benefit of sprouted barely.  What you will find is the fodder system manufacturers "research" which is probably part true and part hype.  You will also find some very limited research from big ag.  Here are two links to those trials.

http://www.sproutnet.com/Nutrition/Research/feeding_value_of_hydroponically.pdf

http://www.sproutnet.com/Nutrition/Research/nutrient_content.pdf

Now, you can read through these lengthy and quite boring research papers.  Go for it.  Here is my take on the above papers.  Feeding pigs and or chickens barley sprouted for 7 days causes them to grow slower than their counterparts when fed a commercial diet or unsprouted barley.  In pigs, this growth difference accounted for about 5lb average less over 4 months.  SO, from a commercial perspective sprouted barley is not ideal.  HOWEVER, I am not growing pigs and chickens as fast as I can and as cheap as I can (although cheaper would be preferable).  5 lbs does not make a hill of beans difference to me.  I want my animals to be hearty AND healthy.  They also say that the chickens wouldn't touch it.  Obviously their chickens never had the taste for grass.  My chickens FIGHT over it along with the turkeys and guineas.  The turkeys usually win.  Take a look at the nutrient graphs.  If that doesn't convince you, I'm not sure what will.  Although the overall calories decrease, the vitamins and minerals double and triple in 7 days of sprouting.   Now, you go read and make up your own mind.

We decided to sprout barely for the winter and when pasture is unavailable. I don't want my animals eating just one kind of anything because that would not be what they did in the wild.  Sprouted barely is a perfect supplement.  We order from Azure Standard.  Their animal barley feed is organic gleanings.  It sprouts wonderfully and is available year round from what I can tell.

As you see in the video, we are soaking our seeds 24 hours in the black tubs.  they were purchased at Dollar Tree for $1.  We drilled small holes with a power drill on the bottom and the sides.  Be sure you drill slowly or the tub will crack.  Buy extra tubs....trust me. 

In our system, 1 1/2 lb of barley is the best amount for each drawer. More than that and there is not enough air circulation and you will start growing mold and fungus.  Less than that and you don't get a good mat.  The mat is really not that important but it's so gratifying when you get it!   In the video, I'm soaking two drawers (or 3lb) of barley per tub.  The seeds need to be dark while soaking and for the first couple of days, so the black tubs are perfect.

I know there are still a lot of questions.  I'm trying to get to them, but it's hard to get a quiet moment to video and blog with all the animals and homeschooling my kiddos.  I really want to share this information.  I wish I had this during the drought last year.

Yeah!....and Oh My!

The Easter Egg chickens started laying!  But I'm slighly disturbed by the blue egg in the upper right.

LGD Surprise!

Now it's time to play every homesteaders favorite game. LGD SURPRISE! It's the game where homesteaders reveal what their thieving guardians brought home last night. The most outlandish surprise wins!


Ummm....we don't have cows......

The base to a potted plant?????

They brought this home as a Christmas gift.  I guess they figured if I had more buckets I could feed them faster!!!

And the winner is..............

HOW embarrassing!!!!  My husband and son wear 9s...these are 13s.  Funniest thing is, they brought them home one at a time about a week apart.  Don't want to run into this large, angry, shoeless farmer!!!!



New and Improved Fodder System

We've been tinkering with our fodder system for several months now and I want to share with you the latest greatest contraption.  Over the next week or so, I hope to address each component so those of you wanting to try it can see the details.  Here is the overview.

Narragansett Turkey Chorus

Caedon was playing with Jon's guitar tuner and the Turkeys LOVED it. We managed to catch the last verse

Clinck here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2qrhxTc07Y

DIY Fodder System

With the drought and winter coming on, I was trying to figure out how to get my animals fresh greens. Greenhouse? Dumpster diving? Take out a loan for feed?

I came across this interesting youtube video .

From there I began my research on sprouting, not just for livestock but also humans. Research shows a dramatic increase in vitamins and digestibility. It sounded like something I would like to try but I couldn't find anything done on a small scale. I wasn't about to spend 1000's on a system to "try out" for my pigs, chickens, and eventual cows.

So we bought a bag of barley seed, the most common seed used in fodder systems. I poked some holes in hard plastic zip lock sandwich containers and made my first batch of sprouts. It was pretty easy. The animals weren't thrilled. I figured it was probably like eating a Mcdouble everyday and then someone putting a salad out.

Now we needed to try it for an extended amount of time and see what results we got. The problem was we needed a low cost system. This is what we came up with.(click the youtube link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwdvHH_vspg

We have plans to move it to our utility room and hook up a mister systems on a timer to the cold water for the washing machine. It will drain to the washing machine drain. We also plan at some point on recapturing the water to water the garden.

This is a work in progress but so far our chickens are LOVING it and the pigs are liking it too. One drawer feeds the pigs for a whole day with supplementing a little pig feed and chicken eggs. Our nursing sow also gets some corn to keep her weight on. It has already cut our feed cost substantially in just the few weeks we have been using it. It takes about 10 extra minutes each morning to clean and reload the drawers.

I will do more videos later on the specifics of how we built the system and the seed amounts etc.

We Got Milk! (pig milk)

Lois is due tomorrow. In my extensive reading (not experience), when you can express milk easily from a sow, it is 12-24 hours before she will farrow (give birth). I've been checking Lois at every feeding, plus other times during the day. At the evening feeding I expressed milk from her teat!!! Yeah!!! Piggies are on the way!!! I noticed today that she drank A LOT of water. That was my first indication something was different. I usually have to fill up her water 2 or 3 times, but today it was no less than 5. I guess she needed it for the milk!! Hopefully tomorrow I will have video of some cute.....er....soon to be yummy.....babies!!!