# question about mold on fodder



## treeclimber233 (Dec 2, 2012)

I have tried to sprout some whole oats to use as fodder and there is a funny white-ish fuzzy something in some areas of the oats.  Some oats have sprouted (not very many) and are growing and in other areas there is the fuzzy stuff.  If I try to pick up the fuzzy stuff to remove it from the tray a whole clump of oats comes up.  I am not sure if the white stuff is just very fine roots or mold.  Any ideas?


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## BGB ranch (Dec 23, 2013)

treeclimber233 said:


> I have tried to sprout some whole oats to use as fodder and there is a funny white-ish fuzzy something in some areas of the oats.  Some oats have sprouted (not very many) and are growing and in other areas there is the fuzzy stuff.  If I try to pick up the fuzzy stuff to remove it from the tray a whole clump of oats comes up.  I am not sure if the white stuff is just very fine roots or mold.  Any ideas?


I started my Fodder trial also using the whole oats, First the Oats I have found are very hard to use for growing fodder, But Not impossible. The white fuzz you are seeing is Mold  I just found that one thing that is being done to prevent mold is adding 1/2 teaspoon of bleach per gallon of water in the first soak and then rinsing, another thing to do once the seeds are sprouted is to flood them with a light baking soda water to kill the existing mold, I am not sure if this will work or not but trying it now, so as to possibly not have to throw out all my existing pans. When growing Oats they do not like the amount of water that say the barley or wheat call for, I cut the soaking time down on the oats to 12 hours and then a rinse 12 hours later once they are in the pans I cut the watering time down for them to 2 times a day and they seem to be doing much better. Also the depth of the oats needs to be around 1/2 inch depending on the germination rate. Also the growing time for the Oats is around 10 to 12 days again alot longer than they say for the barley and wheat. I just got some regular seed from a place close to me that is a Oat barley wheat mix and can already see the huge diffrence in the germination rate. but i plan to continue working with the Oats and try to figure out a good growing plan for them as well as they are a excellent source of nutrition  good luck and i will keep an eye out for things you may discover on your as i call it adventure with Fodder.


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## elbesta (Dec 23, 2013)

Fodder is an adventure! First, any fodder that has or has had mold on it don't feed to goats. Feed it to chickens or put it in the compost pile. I have not used oats for fodder but I use a mix of 2 parts barley 1 part red wheat 1 part lentils. Temp is at 65*  nothing hotter than 70*. I soak overnight in bleach water about a teaspoon per gal of water, drain and load trays in the morning. My water is on a timer 1/2 hr 3 times in 24 hrs, right now im using 1020 greenhouse trays with holes. It taking 10 days in this cold weather ( I need to use a fan in the fodder room, cold at floor warmer up higher) so the last 2 days I take the trays off water. 2'' of roots and 6 to 8'' of green. Main things, soak in bleach, keep temp 65* or less, Flood and let trays drain all the way. The goats love the fodder, it took about a week, now they push each other out of the way to get it. Good luck!


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## BGB ranch (Dec 23, 2013)

elbesta said:


> Fodder is an adventure! First, any fodder that has or has had mold on it don't feed to goats. Feed it to chickens or put it in the compost pile. I have not used oats for fodder but I use a mix of 2 parts barley 1 part red wheat 1 part lentils. Temp is at 65*  nothing hotter than 70*. I soak overnight in bleach water about a teaspoon per gal of water, drain and load trays in the morning. My water is on a timer 1/2 hr 3 times in 24 hrs, right now im using 1020 greenhouse trays with holes. It taking 10 days in this cold weather ( I need to use a fan in the fodder room, cold at floor warmer up higher) so the last 2 days I take the trays off water. 2'' of roots and 6 to 8'' of green. Main things, soak in bleach, keep temp 65* or less, Flood and let trays drain all the way. The goats love the fodder, it took about a week, now they push each other out of the way to get it. Good luck!


Thanks for more info on the fodder, I am definitely in the learning process of this and picked probably the hardest of the grains to grow in the begining with the whole Oats, I am now starting with this new blend and hoping for much better results.


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## SillyChicken (Dec 27, 2013)

Moldy fodder isn't good for chickens either... 

If it is consistent all around the sprout and on all the sprouts it may be the fine hairs.. if not, then it may be mold.






I sprouted barley before for my turkeys but I think I'll do it again for the goats too.   Do you reuse the same water for watering?  I noticed that it would smell after a while so I ended up using fresh water and hand watering twice a day.   more work on my part, but they still grew.  I would like to recycle the water but not if it's going to smell.

I also put a clear plastic bag over the rack and a small fan to keep the air moving and temps consistent, no issues with mold.


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