# Feeding Goats Barley Grass Fodder



## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 10, 2011)

My husband and I are starting to experiment feeding our goats hydroponically grown barley grass. I've been doing a good bit of reading and I think that this would cut my feed and mineral costs WAY down, and greatly improve overall health.

Has anyone else done this?

Here is a video that somewhat explains what is involved. And we are planning something similar, although at a MUCH smaller scale. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UluPey05VEQ



Barley Grass Diary:

Day 1- March 9 2011: About 7pm start soaking 6 C dry barley in cold water.

Day 2- Around 2 pm drain and rinse grain from first day. No sprouts yet. Do some more research and set 8 C dry barley to soak in cold water. Rinse 1st day sprouts several times throughout the day and leave overnight above fridge for warmth.

Day 3- 1st day sprouts all have white nibs, but obviously are growing much slower then thought. After rinsing set back on top of fridge. Rinse 2nd day grain in warm water. Set on top of fridge. Start 3rd day grains. This time starting two batches to test a new method. Both soaked in warm water, one will be drained and rinsed after around 24 hours as usual, the second will be kept in warm water until sprouts appear.


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## Livinwright Farm (Mar 10, 2011)

Is this something you plan on doing as their only feed? Looks like it is a good way to go... but don't goats require dry food as well?  Just curious.


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 10, 2011)

Yes, I plan to give them hay in the mornings. One place that I read recommended barley straw, but I'd rather give them the hay I have been all along.

For nutrients just starting we will be adding small amounts of worm tea to the water, but as soon as we can we will switch to a liquid kelp supplement.

I read some interesting claims, such as increased fertility, larger litters, easier births, increase of 10% in milk production, increase in length of milk production, and much much more. We'll see how it holds up to those claims. 

I've been doing some reading on the barley grass itself and noticed that is really helps  to alkalize the body, which is very interesting to me as I was talking with a fellow goat owner here in AK who fed her goats a very alkaline diet, based on millet, and her goats were SUPER healthy while on the alkaline diet. The organic millet was so expensive though that she had to eventually stop. I'll have to tell her about the barley grass, especially since she has to have a gluten free grain for her goats since her son is SO sensative to gluten that he cannot even have milk from a goat that had eaten gluten.

I'll try to make this my diary for what I notice. If not I will make  a paper diary of the differences I notice. We just started last night, so I won't actually be feeding them any for another 6-10 days. Depending on how long it takes to germinate and grow to 6 inches in our still cool green house.


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## Livinwright Farm (Mar 10, 2011)

CrownofThornsNDGoats said:
			
		

> Yes, I plan to give them hay in the mornings. One place that I read recommended barley straw, but I'd rather give them the hay I have been all along.
> 
> For nutrients just starting we will be adding small amounts of *worm tea * to the water, but as soon as we can we will switch to a liquid kelp supplement.
> 
> ...


You go fellow proverbs woman! I will be getting all the info and research on it compiled to show to my parents(financial decision makers for the farm)... after calculating what we spend on goat grains, and what it would cost to get a barley germination/growing set up going... hopefully it will work out to be better for us.
*ETA: what is worm tea? 

 

 *


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 11, 2011)

Worm tea is the liquid that seeps to the bottom of our worm bins over time. Basically it's a small amount of water that gathered a lot of nutrients while seeping through 3 layers of worm castings (poo). I wont use that the last 2 or 3 days before giving them the barley grass, but for days 2-3 or so.

Try to find a local farmer that sells barley. We can get ours for $160 per ton or $5 for 50lb bagged. So this is a MUCH cheaper way of feeding or goats, especially since the brome hay I buy is $10 for 50lb. The herbs that I have been feeding my goats have been quite expensive, nearly $1 a day so I am looking forward to find out what I can stop feeding them by giving them the barley grass.

I found this  nutritional analysis of barley grass, and I will use it to figure out what other nutrients I need to provide to my goats. Of course it won't be the same as what mine will be, especially if this grass was grown off of just water and not any additional nutrients, but I won't be able to afford testing for a while.

ETA: I'll try to post pics of the spouting system we eventually build. Right now we're still trying to figure out how much dry barley equals how much grass, how much we'll need etc. Figures I found online said that 10lb dry barley makes 65lb barley grass (at 6 inches high) and they recommend you feed them 3-5% of their body weight a day. So for my Nigies, which the ideal body weight is 75lb, that equals 3.75lb a day if I am remembering the figures correctly. I can't remember the figure on how much dry barley that was per goat, but for my 5 Nigies I am sprouting 3lb (about 8 cups if my scale was accurate) of dry barley every day, which is on the high side of figuring.

If you start even supplementing Livinwright, feel free to post what you notice etc here too. There is hardly any information of others doing it online, except for the big companies, so I'd love to see more information out there for others to read and see how it works.


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 11, 2011)

So I divided the nutrients of the barley grass into three uneducated sections. Uneducated means I have no idea if that is a good amount or not but since it's high I'm guessing it is.  Anything over 1,000g I put under the excellent source of list, anything below 1,000 and above 100 is in the good source section, anything in the decent source of is under 100, above 20, and of course below 20 is poor source.

Excellent Source of:
Manganese
potassium
Zinc
Folic Acid

Good Source of:
Boron
Calcium
Copper
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Vitamin C

Decent Source of:
Fiber
Chromium
Molybdenum
Sodium
Vanadium
Selenium

Poor source of:
Colbalt
Cesium
Iron
Rubidium
Vit E
Thiamine
Vit b2
Vit b3
Vit b6
Beta Carotene


By using Thorvin kelp as an additional supplement I bump up to acceptable levels:

boron
cobalt
iron
iodine
manganese
Vit A
Vit b3
vit C
vit D
vit e

I think I still need to add sources for sulfur, Vit b2, vit b6, and probably still supplement copper and selenium since they seem to need lots of that.

For the calcium and is it phosporus? levels I'm not sure how to figure out the levels they will be getting.

The Barley has 330g of calcium and 430g phosphorus.
Kelp is by percentage, I'm assuming percentage of daily value needed. Calcium is 2.1% and Phosphorus is 0.3%

Perhaps someone who is good at math and knows how to figure out what my levels need to be at can help with the calcium/phosphorus calculation?


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 11, 2011)

I'm also coming across some folks concerned about rumors of bloat. I sure wish I could find the source for those rumors so I could find out what they were doing or not doing. But anyways, I saw on one forum that a study had been done and that a ration of 1 part grass fodder to 2 parts hay did really well in the test animals, which of course the person stating that didn't say anything about what kind of animals etc.


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## Livinwright Farm (Mar 11, 2011)

CrownofThornsNDGoats said:
			
		

> I'm also coming across some folks concerned about rumors of bloat. I sure wish I could find the source for those rumors so I could find out what they were doing or not doing. But anyways, I saw on one forum that a study had been done and that a ration of 1 part grass fodder to 2 parts hay did really well in the test animals, which of course the person stating that didn't say anything about what kind of animals etc.


I'm sure to prevent bloating, you could just offer free choice baking soda... right?


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 11, 2011)

Yes. In place of baking soda I use kombucha vinegar or apple cider vinegar and it works great. A couple times I have HAD to do a complete feed change overnight and I just gave them lots of kombucha vinegar. They never had any trouble. I offered them baking soda and they never touched it.


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## Livinwright Farm (Mar 11, 2011)

CrownofThornsNDGoats said:
			
		

> Yes. In place of baking soda I use kombucha vinegar or *apple cider vinegar* and it works great. A couple times I have HAD to do a complete feed change overnight and I just gave them lots of kombucha vinegar. They never had any trouble. I offered them baking soda and they never touched it.


I saw a posting on here or while reading through some website about increasing fertility & livability rates, that giving apple cider vinegar to pregnant Does increases the odds of them having doelings... not sure if there have been any studies on it or how factual it is. You just made me re-think about it. Maybe *I* will do a study using my girls(I will create a thread either under the "breeds & breeding" or "everything else goats".. not sure which it would fit better in... ??


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 11, 2011)

I remember reading that too...

Someone had posted that the supposed reason why was because the ACV make the body alkaline. But because generally we give them so little ACV that it really isn't making their body that much more alkaline, and so you would have to put some ACV in the vagina before breeding in order to get the desired effect.

With the research that I did saying that the barley grass alkalizes the body, I would say that this would be a much more reliable way of telling if that theory works or not, at least as far as the alkaline. If its just because it's something the ACV does then a test of your own would certainly be useful. I have been giving my goats ACV or kombucha vinegar every day directly in their feed (not their water, I don't think they get enough that way) for... 3 months I believe. So any kids my goats conceived after January may help us know. And of course any kids conceived after a few weeks or so of starting the barley grass....

That would be SO nice to have a majority of does born...


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## Livinwright Farm (Mar 11, 2011)

CrownofThornsNDGoats said:
			
		

> I remember reading that too...
> 
> Someone had posted that the supposed reason why was because the ACV make the body alkaline. But because generally we give them so little ACV that it really isn't making their body that much more alkaline, and so you would have to put some ACV in the vagina before breeding in order to get the desired effect.
> 
> ...


Mmmhhmmm! 

Edited to add: Oouuch... the thought of acv in that area... >cringe<


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## nmred (Mar 20, 2011)

So, it's been 10 days now.  How is this working out?  Any issues with bloating?  How are your goats doing on this diet.  I just ordered a bag of barley to sprout and am wondering if I should let some of it go longer.  Has it been worth the work?


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## AlaskanShepherdess (Mar 20, 2011)

Well I found out that unless you have a system already set up, or lots of time and lots of sunny windows, it can't be done. I just had too little space and not enough time to rinse everything by hand. I am feeding them what I got started and so far no problems at all, but it's also not 6" high grass because until I have a system set up, the method I was doing was majorly slowing the growth down.

So I'll start up once again when we have the system set up. Which may be a while because it's just getting to spring and that means rush rush rush never rest until snow flies again.


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## helga-the-peasant (Sep 27, 2011)

Hi All,
    Sprounting for fodder s a new passion of mine. Been doing it a short time.  I am however very versed in the "worm tea" realm.  We run a commercial worm farm.  I wanted to caution those of you who plan on using "worm tea' in the growing of your sprouts. We  professionals in the vermiculture world are trying to get the word out that the stuff that comes out /drains out of a wormbin is properly called "leachate" and is NOT worm tea. ' Worm tea' is made from pure worm castings, and more accurately called 'worm casting tea". What's the big deal?  
    Imagine you have a refrigerator that leaks through the veggie drawer and puddles at the bottom of the frig...would you use this puddle with all the accumulating slime and bacteria to water your food plants?  Hopefuly not.  This is the same idea with the leachate from a wormbin.  The stuff that comes out will contain some good nutrients, but it also has a petri-dish effect for all the bad bacteria that runs out from the stuff that has not yet been eaten by the worms (slimey peelings, moldy bread products, etc...). You may be able to use this with imputiny, but there is still a host of bacteria you should not be introducing to your gardens.  In third world countries, redworms are used to solve the disease problems associated with open sewers.  The redworms consume the pathogens that cause diseases.  Key here is that it needs to be processed by the gut of the redworms. The resulting castings is what you want to make the worm tea out of.  For those who are not versed on "Redworms  101", worm castings are worm poop.  Worm castings are very clean and have no noticeable odor, and are very high in plant available nutrients.
     Back to sprouting.  The sprouting process is a great way to grow feed.  But caution needs to be used not to introduce bad bacteria into the system.  Using leachate instead of actual worm tea made from pure worm castings, is playing with fire.  You may be introducing bad bacteria in the system, that will bloom.  You then feed that to your ruminants....talk about BLOAT problems (or worse).  Be sure to use the worm castings out of your wormbins to make the tea to add to your sprouting systems, and  do not use the leachate.

   Hopefully this caution is helpful to those of you planning to grow fodder.


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## treeclimber233 (Mar 28, 2013)

I have been growing fodder for my goats for several months now.  My goats do seem to be in better health.  However I am suprised  that people are going to give  the fodder anything other than plain water.  The fodder does not need any extra stuff to sprout and grow.  All the nutrients needed are already in the seed.  That is why you should feed the fodder to the animals on the 6-7th day.  I would be very careful about adding anything extra.


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## denasfarm (Apr 10, 2013)

I started some Wheat grass yesterday (4/9/13). I wanted to do Barley but my feed store was out...next trip I guess...
I currently have it in pans (The bottom half of seed starter pans) in a shed but will probably move the shelves to a shady area outside the garage since the shed gets really HOT, even now at 85* its unbearable if you shut the door (to keep the chickens out). So I have two pans soaked and started and more soaking tonight for tomorrows pans.

What all can I safely sprout and feed to Goats, Cows, chickens and geese?

I did a pan of whole corn for corn sprouts, Thought the goats and cow would like that. and I started a pan with pinto beans for bean sprouts, I figured for the hens and geese but would it harm the goats or cow if they eat it as well?

I read on one of the sites selling systems that you can do sunflower seeds, peas and other grains but I don't want to make my girls sick!.


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## cg83226 (Jul 13, 2014)

sorry to comment on an old post... but my daughter is sensitive to Gluten and I wondered what you learned about barley fodder and gluten (barley the grain of course is glutenous).


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