Last year, after my foot surgery, we put growing wheat fodder on the back burner along with many other things. (When Mom is down….) It was a bit too hard to keep up with it.
However, with a yard full of KuneKune pasture pigs, we needed to start growing something for them again during the winter time. Fodder is PERFECT! It is 100% greens and soil free that is perfect for animal feed.
Fodder is a GREAT way to feed animals in the winter time, especially when there are no greens growing in your yard. I soak my seeds for 24 hours in water to help jump-start their growing.
To start, we soak 4 cups of recleaned wheat seed in water for 24+ hours. That’s my Day 1 for every tray. If you notice mold forming in day 3+ you can add a capful of apple cider vinegar to the soaking water.
You do not have to stick with just Wheat. You can use barley, oats(although I haven’t had a great outcome in the past with oats), winter peas, black oil sunflower seeds. Whole corn takes too many days to sprout, so I avoid this seed.
In the past, we have used solid trays and drilled holes into the ends for the water to drain. I am trying this new mesh bottom trays this time to see how they work.
Fodder can feed my kunes and also my chickens, ducks, goats and rabbits. It is a win/win feed and the output is up to 6x the feed grown in 9 days as the weight of the seeds.
You need 1 soaking bucket (I used an old plastic bin that was missing its lid and you need 8 trays/buckets/bins. Heck, you can use old rain gutters if you have enough angle that the water doesn’t sit and mold the seeds.
You will also need a shelf or some way to stack these. I have a PVC pipe shelf that Griffen made for me years ago.
Here is a link to the trays that I am trying out.
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