fodder for goats

[vegaburm]

Animal mom, can you post pics of our greenhouse enclosure? And what sort of temps is it doing well at? I would think wheat would be ok ever in the winter as long as your water and piping didn't freeze.... It grows during the winter around here.

 

[animalmom]

I would be pleased to post some pictures. Might take me a day... it's a wee bit cold out there right now, nevertheless I peeked into the fodder system this morning (27 degrees outside, brrrr, dang cold for Texas) and the wheat seeds were growing just like they should.

 

[vegaburm]

interesting. if I could make it work outside I might try it, though It might be too hot here in the summer too. I just have no indoor room to deal with it.

 

[Harbisgirl]

I'd like to see your setup too I didn't realize they would still sprout at 27 degrees. It's been in the 20's here where I live (Northern California) and I would have thought that would be too cold. I do have a pretty large greenhouse where I could set it up but its the heat in the summer that I'm most worried about. It gets into the upper 90's in the summer (might break 100 a few times) but that greenhouse is in the sun and is sweltering. I wonder if putting it in my root cellar would screw up the humidity in there too much...

 

[treeclimber233]

I fed a mat of fodder to my goats for the first time last night. Of course they could not decide if they liked it or not. I put their usual amount of hay in the manger and lay the fodder on top of the hay. They immediately gobbled the grass and then started eating the hay. After a bit one goat started tasting the mat (root part) and was sampling it when I left. Need to go see if they ate it today. It doesn't seem to take much work. I need to find some wheat seed around here somewhere.

 

[animalmom]

I am having a difficult time getting pictures to upload; of course me being computer hostile doesn't help my problem at all.

I have some lovely pictures that I can send through my email program to anyone who would like to see them.

The enclosure is only used during cold weather.

So if you would like to email me I'll send pictures your way. I will also continue to swear, I mean work on the computer to see if I can pacify it's beastly nature into submission. Sigh.

 

[animalmom]

Here we go!
Here, finally, is our "greenhouse" surround. It is a three sided structure made from left-overs from doing a cold frame, and heavy duty vinyl shower curtains, and 1 x 1's.

This is the outside. We have it backed up to a metal sided barn.

Inside.

Here is the clear vinyl side, so we can see what going on without removing the surround. The surround itself is light and so we have a heavy board and weights on top to keep it stable during gusty winds.

A view in through the clear side shows the growing wheat.

Here is the fodder system itself.

The surround will be used only during the winter. When the night temps get back into the 40's we'll probably remove the surround and store it for next winter.

Let me know if you have any questions, or suggestions on making it better.
Thanks!

 

[treeclimber233]

I am thinking of making my own rack to grow fodder. On your set-up I see the water line coming up from the water tank. How does the water get out of the pans and down to the lower pans. Just holes in the bottoms of the top pans? In the mats I am growing now I keep coming up with dry spots and the grass just grows very slowly in that spot. My goats love it. However I have noticed that they only eat so much of it and then continue to fill up on the hay. They go absolutely crazy when I first put it in the manger but then start eating around the mat to get the hay. I have noticed the doe that has been so sickly and starved looking seems like she is putting on weight now.

 

[sawfish99]

You can see more details about Melwynnd's system at www.half-pinthomestead.com. I have been in looking in detail at this for our farm and her design is one of many I am considering.

Treeclimber - are you milking any of the goats getting fodder? I am considering this for our dairy herd, but so far, haven't found anyone who has completely replaced grain with fodder for a dairy herd.

 

[treeclimber233]

I am waiting for babies so I can start milking again. I have only been feeding fodder for a short time but I think my goats look better already. They also don't seem to be eating as much.

As for the people commenting that it will take up too much time--It does not take much time at all. If you consider the amount of time working to earn the money to buy hay, then consider the time hauling and moving/stacking the hay then the few minutes it takes daily to care for the fodder is not much at all. I don't even have the automated system yet. I jjust have containers that I put seed in then hand water every day. Once I get it with automatic water then it will only take long enough pull a mat out and refill the tray with seed (don't forget to wash tray between mat and reseed) and off to the barn I go. I can certainly use the money I usually spend on hay for other things (mainly right now a rack and automatic water pump. LOL)