Fodder is a great way to keep livestock healthy during drought or when supplemental feed is expensive. It’s also a very frugal and natural way to get your animals their daily nutrition.
The basic idea is that you soak grains like barley, wheatgrass, cow peas, or oats. They are then spread in shallow trays with drain holes, and kept moist. This process sprouts the grain into a nice thick mat of seeds, roots, and greens.
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Location
If you have cattle, fodder is a great way to add fresh, nutrient-dense grass to their diet. It can also provide better weight gain, increased rumen digestibility and greater resistance to illness or disease.
The best location to grow fodder is a place that receives plenty of light and air circulation. It should be able to maintain a temperature and humidity level of around 60 to 80%.
You can use a number of different methods to grow fodder for your livestock. Some of the most popular include using hydroponics, flooding and draining or using a series of trays.
Soaking
Sprouting grass for livestock fodder is an easy and inexpensive way to cut animal feed costs. This method is also a great way to help create a more sustainable farm without relying on outside sources of animal feed.
Soaking is the process of immersing a food item in water for a period of time. There are many benefits to soaking, such as reduced phytic acid concentrations and improved absorption of protein, iron, zinc and calcium.
Soaking grass seed for growing fodder is a simple process that can be done overnight and will produce healthy, fresh, sprouted grains within a few days. Several variables will affect the development of the grains including the type of seeds you use, how often you water it and the temperature of the soil.
Sprouting
Grass seeds are very dry when they are first planted, so before they germinate, they must absorb water. This is called “imbibition”.
During the germination process, a seed develops an embryo sac and begins growth. This is a very delicate process, and must be carefully controlled.
After the embryo sac has developed, it stops growing and becomes a single seed. This single seed may grow and fall from the plant, or it may be collected.
When a single seed is harvested, it remains in the ground until it is ready to be eaten or used for fodder. The seeds then begin the germination process, which involves growing into shoots and flowering.
In a home environment, sprouts can be cultivated in various types of containers. Some common ones include jars with a mesh lid, and tiered clear-plastic sprouters that allow multiple seeds to be grown at once. By soaking and rinsing the sprouts at regular intervals, the seeds can be kept fresh for a long time.
Harvesting
While many farmers have long cut hay and silage, there is a growing movement to harvest fodder as well. This is done by cutting grasses and legumes while still moist in order to gather the entire green plant including the grain, which increases the nutrient content of the feed.
Typically, seed-quality barley is used to grow fodder, but other grains like alfalfa, clover and cow peas can be grown as well. The sprouting process increases the fiber content of the crop and breaks it down into smaller consumable pieces, making fodder more palatable to livestock.
Sprouted grain fodder systems are not new to livestock production systems, but the rise in popularity is due to growing demand for organic forage and limited land available for hay production. These systems can be a valuable resource for producers who cannot find quality hay, lack adequate forage storage capacity or who are facing high costs of alternative feeds. However, they are also labor intensive and challenging to produce.
