Seed Sprout Fodder System

A cheap and powerful fodder for most animals

Add a story – add the story of 500 sheep on 5 ha so readers can relate to what is possible

One of the most exciting aspects of intensive agriculture is a new production method for sheep. Barley seeds are spread out on an open floor or trays in a room and irrigated with sprayers or drippers for eight days. The barley sprouts are then fed to sheep. Farmers are keeping 500 to 1200 sheep in small spaces in this way.

Moreover, with the sheep being kept close, lambing and slaughtering yields are much higher than with sheep kept in camps. This production method could well be one of the bigger cash cows for the village, apart from yielding excellent meat for the braai.

The sprouts can also be fed to most other animals including Chicken, wildlife, goats, cows, horses and can even be eaten by people.

A bit about feeding

Food consists mainly of carbohydrates and protein. Both are needed. Carbohydrates give energy and protein is mostly needed to build muscle/meat. Thus the feed/fodder must have a good balance of both, otherwise the animals do not have much energy or they cannot grow meat. If the animals do not get enough of either of these two things, they will loose weight and get thin.

At the farm we try to feed our animals with fodder that has a good balance between proteins and carbohydrates.

The Barley Sprout fodder system we explain here is a cheap fodder source which also has a very good balance between proteins and carbohydrates.

This is what the fodder looks like once fully sprouted after 7 days:

How to Develop a Fodder System to Feed Your Animals Cheaply in 6 Steps

By Jennifer Poindexter from:

How to Develop Fodder Systems to Feed Your Animals Cheaply in 6 Steps

Fodder is when you buy quality grains, soak them, and then allow them to grow for seven days before feeding it to your animals.

As you can tell, it is pretty simple, very inexpensive, and something we do for our animals. Which is why I’m going to share with you how to set-up your own fodder systems, and how you can begin to save on your feed bill with this healthy alternative we call fodder.

Why Grow Fodder?

There are lots of reasons to grow fodder. The first would be for the animal’s nutrition. Fodder seeds are soaked prior to growth. Therefore, they ferment and that is great for the animal’s digestion.

Then they sprout lovely green foliage which is great for nutrients to the animal.

Next, fodder saves you a lot of money. You can turn 50 N$ of seed into about 200 N$ of food. Obviously, you spend less because the food goes further.

The third reasons you might grow fodder would be because of self-sustainability. I’m a homesteader. I like being self-sufficient. Even though I live on less land, I like being able to grow and produce as much of my animals’ feed as I possibly can.

So fodder is a great solution for me because I’m able to grow it and it is also very compact to do so.

Which leads me into my final reason for growing fodder. Not only is growing fodder compact but it is also very fast. You soak seeds for 24 hours and within a week, you have a ton of food ready to feed your animals.

So I ask you this, if fodder can do only one of these things for you (and often it does all of them) why wouldn’t you grow it?

What Can You Use to Grow Fodder?

Now that you realize what an awesome thing fodder is, you might be wondering, what do I use to grow it?

Well, some of the basic options are wheat, barley, and whole oats. I’ve also known people who have sprouted sunflower seeds. Truthfully, you can sprout almost any seeds. You just stop them from growing after day 7, and you must soak them before growing. It is truly very simple.

However, I will say that my preference is wheat seed. For us, it has the best growth rate, and our animals really seem to enjoy it.

Plus, wheat seeds are very inexpensive in my area. I can buy a 50 pound bag for around $7. So you really can’t beat that. Our goats prefer barley, but we have a hard time getting it in our area so it comes with a premium price when we find it, which makes it uneconomical for us.

Also, we tried to sprout sunflower seeds because black oiled sunflower seeds are supposed to be very nutritious. But by the time we paid the higher price for them, and then we didn’t have a lot of luck with sprouting them, we realized they just weren’t for us.

So you’ll need to find the seeds around you at the best price and try your hand at sprouting them. You’ll find what works best for you. It just might take some trial and error until you find the right one.

How to Grow Fodder

My actual fodder system before we moved it outside.

Now that we’ve covered why you would want to grow fodder to begin with, and what you use to grow it, let’s discuss the actual process.

What You’ll Need:

Trays with holes drilled in the bottom
Wood to create a sliding drawer system
An under-the-bed box

Here is a very simple instructional video – it can be as easy as this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1OYag_LUvA

Seeds

Buy Your Seeds

You’ll begin by buying your seeds. We purchase our seeds from a local feed mill. As mentioned above, I get 50 pounds of wheat seeds for around $7.

Then you bring them home, and you are ready to get the party started.

Many different seeds can be used for this system, the most common one though is Barley, due to it’s excellent Protein/Carbohydrate mix.

Set-up a Soaking System

The first thing you’ll need to do is figure out how and where you are going to soak your seeds. You’ll need a container to soak them in.

So for us, we had a bunch of milk jugs that we had been saving for an herb garden project. Since we had too many, we just cut the tops off of them and began by placing two scoops of seeds into each milk jug.

Now, I have a two tower fodder system (which we’ll discuss in a minute) so I knew I needed two milk jugs because you need one jug per tower.

Once I got the seeds scooped into the milk jugs, I covered the seeds completely with water and let them sit. They’ll need to soak for about 24 hours. When you return the next day, you’ll want the seeds to be fat and the water to be virtually gone from the container.

Create Your Fodder System

Now, this is the big step. You are going to need to create a towering system. You’ll need one tray of fodder per day. I actually raise two trays because I feed one tray to my rabbits and one tray to my chickens.

However, depending upon the size of your trays and how many animals you have, you’ll need to estimate how many trays you need per day. How many trays you need, will determine how many towers you need to start. Keep in mind that animals need between 2 and 5% of their body weight in fodder per day to remain healthy.

But it will be less, if you are using fodder as a supplement. For instance, I feed my rabbits fodder, hay, and pellets. So they don’t require as much. That is the same for our chickens and any other animal I feed fodder. They all get a variety of foods.

Then you are going to create a rain chain. We built our towers from scrap wood we had. It is basically a tower with little slats for the trays to slide on like a drawer system would. Our trays are actually oil pans we purchased with holes drilled in the bottoms of them.

The fodder shelves:

The shelves can be made out of wood or plastic pipes. Most systems have 7 rows of shelves stacked on top of each other, and slanted so that the water from the top shelve flows to the second shelve, then to the third, then to the fourth etc. At bottom you put a tank so that the water can drip into your tank, from where you start watering again. This way you use the same water again and again.

Here’s a sketch on how the trays flow into one another. Note you don’t need a pump. Simply use a homemade bucket with holes in the bottom to water your sprouts three times a day, around 8h00, 13h00 and 19h00.

Next, you’ll need a tub at the bottom of the tower to catch all of the water that you are going to pour through the rain chain.

The trays:

Trays can be of plastic trays, stainless steel trays, aluminium trays or homemade trays made out of wooden frames and strong plastic sheeting. The last one is the cheapest option.

Here is a tray made out of timer poles and plastic sheeting. A size of 110 cm x 30cm wide and 5 cm high is popul

Growing the fodder

Then you’ll pour the soaked seeds into the tub. The water will run down through the holes and water the trays beneath it. You’ll work your way down with each new day and when all of the trays are full of soaked seeds, you’ll see that the first tray (7 days later) should be tall enough to feed to your animals.

Now, you have two options when it comes to watering your fodder system. You can either water it by hand twice a day. I usually take a gallon pitcher and dump a gallon on it in the morning when I’m dumping the seeds into the trays and soaking the next days seeds.

Then my husband will water it that evening when he comes home from work. But we did discover that if you fill up the tub under the fodder system, you can put a small fountain pump in the bottom and set a timer on it. This way, the fodder will be automatically watered twice a day.

So during our prime time of year, we use this method because the more water the better it usually grows.

Put the Seeds in the System

After you have your fodder system in place, you’ll need to get in a routine of dumping your soaked seeds into the next empty tray each day.

Then you’ll add one or two more scoops (depending upon how much fodder you’re growing) into each jug and soak them for the next day. You’ll do this every day and then water your entire system (unless it is set up to water automatically) after the seed rotation in the morning.

Plus, you’ll need to water the seeds again later in the day. Keep in mind, you can place your fodder system anywhere that is around 20 degrees Celsius. It does not have to have sunlight to grow so it can be grown in a basement or closet even. The main thing is that the grow system doesn’t get too hot or too cold.

For us, we’ve grown fodder in our bathroom, in our living room, and now we’ve created a small greenhouse so it can grow outside all year long. Then I can add a heat source in the winter or a cooling source if needed in the summer.

But I don’t have to move it all over, nor do I have to have it taking up space in my house either.

Let Them Grow

So after you’ve got your seed rotation down, you’ll just need to let the seeds grow. You should have a tray to feed to your animals at the end of the 7 days.

Then you’ll feed a tray a day. Each tray takes 7 days to reach full size.

This is what the fodder looks like while it is growing:

This is what it looks like close up:

Feed to the Animals and Repeat

After each tray has reached full size, you’ll feed it to the animals. Then repeat the same process again and again. It does take a little effort to keep the process going, but really not much different that scheduling that trip to the feed store every week or so.

Plus, this method is much more frugal (in my opinion), naturally since you are growing it from start to finish, and it is healthier for your animals as well.

So keep it in mind when you are thinking of inexpensive ways to feed your animals.

Also, if you are a visual person, here is a great tutorial on video.

Mold

You need to be careful of mold. If your trays are not clean and you did not use the bleach (Jic) to soak the seeds, then it is possible that mold grows on the roots. Be very careful about this. Always check the roots for mold before feeding it to the animals. Mold is a poison for the animals and they will die if you feed them fodder with mold on it.

Why are my sprouts molding? Simply put, your sprouts are sitting in too much water. If the sprouts are too wet between rinses and there’s no air flow, this creates the perfect conditions for mold to grow.

More info online

Youtube video’s to watch

Here’s a short video giving background on Namibian Barley farming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmH5dIvqv0

Here’s a very simple setup and video – easy to understand

Articles to read online

Meatco: Hydroponics Fodder Production a glimmer of hope for farming

Simple tray build:

Simple instructions:

You don’t need fancy trays, simple roof sheets will do. Much cheaper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJVkhns1rhs

Dealing with Mould – and ways to prevent it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3pUeAwht0k. Or

Barley Should not go below 15 degrees cold.

Here’s another video showing a wooden shelf build with simple plastic trays and detailed info: https://youtu.be/D2eQaKcYYfU

Here are more videos to consider:

Various other seeds can also be used, such as Maize. https://www.aggnamibia.com/sprouted-maize-fodder-how-available-is-seed-in-namibia-for-aeroponic-fodder-production

https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/management-reproduction/growing-weaner-sheep

Check out this list of possible pitfalls of a sprout production system:

http://foddertech.com/the-hidden-costs-of-a-fodder-system/

Sorghum

Sources:

https://www.naturehydro.com/hydroponic-sprouting-fodder-system-barley-seeds.html

Hydroponics Kenya Fodder System