Sprouting crop seeds for animal feed

Bob H

Has anyone sprouted (from a couple of days to a couple of weeks) corn, wheat, barley, rye...etc with plain water and or aquaponics?

I'm thinking of trying it to feed horses and meat goats.

Big Lake
Minnesota

arbe

There are plenty of hydroponic fodder systems out there. I am sure they could be powered by Aquaponics.

ibmeruu

Any luck feeding the horses?

Bob H

Hi ibmeruu,

I've been sitting on the fence with this one.

One place I read said that misting overhead may promote mold problems. Another guy said to just use plain water and sprout for a couple of days. I do not want to use chemicals. Therefore the issue for me is using chlorine to disinfect the seed to begin with. What to do with all the spent chemicals on a modest hobby scale? Another big issue for me is how to some what automate the whole thing because I'm working full-time.

So far all I can find thats affordable are oats and rye. I can't find barley which is the better stuff to work with.

But your question helped me get off the fence and do something even if it's wrong :wink:

So this weekend I'll throw something together. Stay tuned!

Bob H

arbe

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been looking with a eye on using fish water. I'm going to try using plain water and compare that to fish water. I'm concerned with high bacteria counts in the fish water and keeping the water aerated.

Still looking for any and all info with the goal of using just aquaponics. I guess I have to just try stuff and see what works.

jerryandjuliel

From what I have read if check the dry mater you will not show any gain. In the south west and south we buy and sell on dry matter basis. It may be a good feed, but so is the grain. From what I have read is the only people making money from this is the sellers. On one web site showed a loss of dry mater. Check this before you try it. Thanks Jerry

Bob H

jerryandjuliel :wave1:

Thanks for the heads up! In our area the feed stores and elevators sell by the bushel and the standard weight for a bushel of this or that.

Another argument I read was that it doesn't pay because of the amount of labor required. One's time might be better spent else where.

Can you post any links ? I would like to be more in formed before I get too carried away :think:

Bob H

Well I started sprouting yesterday,some old oats I had on hand. They where a little moldy smelling so I soaked them 3x in a bleach/water solution. I'm just using room temperature and just plain water for now.

I did run across an interesting link that had more links. Sounds like they did not sprout to the green leaf stage but just enough to see small sprouts. What was interesting was using apple cider vinegar instead of bleach. They also saved the water and fed it to their goats. So far it looks like aquaponics doesn't play a role.

Anyway here is the 1st link:

http://wildrootshomestead.blogspot.com/ ... goats.html

I'd still like to see if aquaponics can replace the hydroponics method. Guess it's back to Google again.

Bob H

Pictures of bin run oats and AP water.

Next attempt will be with certified seed oats. Hopefully I'll get better germination. Also I've remodeled my kitchen system. Maybe that will help with the mold problem.

fishNchips909

Hey bob, it's my understanding that plain water works just fine for fodder because the seeds already have everything they need for their beginning stages. I made some "microgreen" channels lined with burlap and a water pump on a timer. Just sprinkle the seeds and cover the channel to make it dark. Doesn't get much easier. I found that my germination rates are much higher with ph balanced water around 5.5

Bob H

Absolutley, all you need is water. The big issue for me was mold. I know a lady that is raising a lot of sprouts for her egg laying chickens. She has been very successful about it. Give me a couple of days and I'll get over there and get some pictures.

fishNchips909

Sounds good. Looking forward to seeing them. is that mold on the roots in the pic you posted?

Matthew

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/hydrofodder.html

Bit of easy reading on the subject...

Bob H

Yep that was mold I think. The roots should always be white I think. Thanks for the article looks interesting!

dasboot

Bob search aquabean sprouts it was something i did a few years back,at its peak i think we were producing about 10 kilos of bean sprouts a day.

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