Feeding Goats Barley Grass Fodder

[AlaskanShepherdess]

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.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

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.

 

[AlaskanShepherdess]

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.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

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.

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?

 

[AlaskanShepherdess]

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.

 

[AlaskanShepherdess]

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?

 

[AlaskanShepherdess]

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.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

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?

 

[AlaskanShepherdess]

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.

 

[Livinwright Farm]

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... ??