Our Fodder System

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When people are taking tours of our farm we typically start out in the garage because that's where the quail and chicken chicks are and people seem like those for some reason ;). People always ask what is this huge shelving system that has 7 shelves with just enough height on each shelve to have a 6" tall under bed tote AND why does it look like grass is growing in them?!? My response is because that IS grass growing in them. But whaaa???!?
As the video below explains, barley seed is soaked for 12-24 hours then placed in the trays and then watered for one minute every 12 hours. After seven days it is ready for harvest and turns into a carpet of grass that can be chopped up and fed to our animals. The picture below was taken of our fodder.
Growing barley in a fodder system like this is quite remarkable for several reasons:
1. Uses extremely less water than the amount of water to grow in the soil and 100% of the water is collected and reused in other parts of the garden.
2. This system has very minimal labor compared to the labor intense of growing fields of grass or carrying large bales of hay.
3. Fodder is approximately 80% digestible compared to about 30%-40% with grain.
4. Fodder increases protein amounts to about 20%
5. The weight of the seed is increased 6x, so one pound of grain turns into 6 pounds of feed for the animals.
6. It can be fed to all our animals usually around 75% of their diet.
If you have cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, rabbits, or quail then I highly encourage you to look into fodder. Systems can be built to feed just your single rabbit Penelope** or chicken on your counter or in a shipping container to feed dozens of cattle and horses. There are DIY systems like ours as well as commercial units that you would have to take a loan out on. There are a lot more videos online as well as great books out there on fodder. Good luck. Please leave any comments or questions below.
Mayfield Family Farm
North Dallas Area - Denton, TX
WEBSITE: mayfieldfamily.farm
FACEBOOK: / mayfieldfamilyfarm

Опубликовано:

29 июн 2016

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Комментарии : 27

@Vintage_findz Год назад

Those goats are bad ass. Nice color scheme

@fireballmalone1 7 лет назад

I'm planning a fodder system build next weekend and this is by far the best video I've found. I love the way designed the drainage out of the trays into the pvc drain pipes using a fitting to connect them. Seems very efficient with a lot less cleanup. Using a timer is great idea too. Just got my chickens yesterday after a long coop build. Thanks or the video and ideas. ATB

@MayfieldfamilyFarm 6 лет назад

+fireballmalone1 thank you so much. We are very pleased with the design overall. The only thing I am working on reengineering is the gray electrical conduit drain pipes. They are not lasting long enough and break and then they pop threads. So I am working through a couple concepts on that.

@Brisbanesdaddy 3 года назад

What else do you feed your Nubians? I have Nubians and a Saanen and want to grow and feed them fodder. I have been told that they might still need hay and sweet feed. Thanks! Great video!!

@CarbonConscious 8 лет назад

Good stuff thanks for sharing! Two questions, are you not using any lights and what about mold?

@MayfieldfamilyFarm 7 лет назад

Great question. Currently we can grow about 7-8 months out of the year because of mold. We keep ours in our garage so once the temps get between 85-90 degrees mold begins. At that point we shut down the operation for the summer. At the same time, we can compensate due to the grasses growing in our meadows to keep our animals fed plus allowing our goats to free-range at that time. Lights are not needed. In God's design, a seed has enough life and nutrients to last about a week before it needs lighting. Since we are feeding on day 7 there is no need for lighting. Our is near a window but in a dark garage nonetheless and does just fine.

@TruckTaxiMoveIt 5 лет назад

Good video I like the fact that your system appears to use water efficiently. Please note that it is highly probable that the waste water coming from your system no longer has any nutrients in it and lacks oxygen. It may also have copious amounts of bacterial growth so I would recommend you discard it.

@ahmadzaimhilmi 6 лет назад

Do you regularly measure how much weigh gain that your goats get by eating the grass versus other type of fodder?

@ricardocontreras5011 5 лет назад

I have always been interested in the system like this do you feed your goats only father I have milk goats and I want to know it do you only supplement or do you complete me maintain your goats on this kind of stuff good video thank you

@WayneRigley 5 лет назад

Are your trays on a tilt ?

@noahsiegfried8489 2 года назад

Does the trays need any light?

@TheSchmidt62 4 года назад

Is lighting required? What do you use?

@HomesteadOC 6 лет назад

Can you go into more detail on your drain fitting. What did you use exactly? How does all the water drain out of the trays? Did you drill holes in it? Any silicone or caulking to make it water tight? Why did you need the valves at every level? Are those used to tune it and get the same spray pattern for all the trays? Look like a good system, thanks for sharing.

@TruckTaxiMoveIt 5 лет назад

A few of your answers are in the video

@luongbuivan877 5 лет назад

👍

@vita2200 Год назад

What size works for the quail?

@kcsouth819 7 лет назад

As far as chickens or rabbits go, do you feed them strictly fodder or is the fodder in addition to their feed? I've been looking into trying it, but I haven't found how much and if it's used as a feed replacement.

@MayfieldfamilyFarm 7 лет назад

I definitely would rather leave the dietary and nutritional requirements to the nutritional experts. However, I can tell you that rabbits will need a long fiber in their diet to stay healthy. So they can receive hay as a treat in part of their diet. Chickens could rely on this for most of their diet as well, I would suggest adding other 'treats' to their diet... they'd appreciate it too. Fodder can replace a major part of their entire diet though!

@sabrinah6968 5 лет назад

I've been growing fodder for about 6 years now. I've been cutting up the fodder into small bite sized pieces for the goats because the root mats are so thick that they'll grab ahold of it and shake the whole biscuit until they can get a chewable piece - but it makes the fodder fly everywhere and the majority of it gets wasted. How are you getting such thin root mats that they are able to easily pull off a bite? Is it all wheat? We do a 4/1/1/1/0.5 ratio of barley, peas, oats, boss and flax.

@TruckTaxiMoveIt 5 лет назад

Spread it thin in your grow pan

@abhisheknale1869 4 года назад

Grass is grown only on water or you had added some extra nutrients essential for wheat grass 🌾

@arturogastelum8084 7 лет назад

Can this be grown outside? (Phoenix, Arizona). What light requirements does it have? Can you mix grains and sunflower seeds? How much does this replace your other feed for chickens and goats?

@MayfieldfamilyFarm 7 лет назад

This can be about 75% or more of the diets for our goats and rabbits, they also need long fiber in their diet. For the pigs and chickens, espcially since they both are free-range, can be fed this entirely. Their diet also consists of any food scraps we have. For Phoenix, Arizona, (born and raised their for 34 years) the heat is your nemesis. After about 90 degrees you will start getting mold issues. So yes you can grow it outside but it will be seasonal. It does not have light requirements really. The seeds has about 7 days worth of stored energy in the seed before photosynthesis is required to create sugars. Since we are feeding at day 7 there is no need for light. I would encourage you to experiment with mixing. You can find charts online to see the difference in days for sprouting. Some seeds require more and less soak times as well as more or less grow times.

@bighammer587 7 лет назад

Nice! Looks like a very good idea! I need to learn this... Did you build from a kit? Or from scratch? Sorry if I missed it in the video... Any actual plans available?

@MayfieldfamilyFarm 7 лет назад

No kit, just from scratch. It will take some time, but I amy put together some parts list and a cut sheet in the near future. I have also been thinking about turning it into an eBook like the one I have on Amazon for raising quail.