Grow Your Own Animal Feed (Luke, I Am Not Your Fodder)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- We're back in action and talking all about a homemade, DIY fodder system to replace and/or add extra nutrition to your livestock feed. Eddy shows you how to take whole barley grain and sprout your own nutritious animal feed in as little as 7 days.
Welcome to Our Maine Homestead! We moved onto 200 + acres of raw land in northern Maine in September of 2018. We’re building our off-grid homestead, literally, from the ground up with our own four hands.
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Instead of using bleach I use about the same amount of vinegar. Does the same thing and I don't have to worry if I put to much in. Yes I know that bleach off gases but I just like the vinegar, It also adds minerals to the fodder.... through the vinegar.
White or acv?
ACV organic with the mother.@@elisalyles1466
@@elisalyles1466 I use Organic ACV with the "Mother"
Hello, what is the vinager to water ratio for soaking liquid? Thank you for sharing❤
The best one I've seen to date. I've just assembled a 5 tier wire rack and I'm just waiting on my trays to arrive from Amazoin to get my fodder system up and running. Can't waiti for the chickens to start digging in. Thanks for the briulliant explanation.
Thank you Great information /Joe from South Africa
This is a gamechanger, very well explained, I am new to homesteading and thinking about chickens and rabbits, and was thinking about feeding them, so if I can put this in place before I start then I can hit the ground running. I already do microgreens for myself, I find sunflower shoots are very fast and seeds very cheap at least where I live.
If/ when you do rabbits just transition slowly. They die easily from GI upset by new food.
@Patient Growth hi, going great, not yet I have been clearing areas of very dense jungle and have very good growth in the beds but will probably be chickens in spring, we have had rain for 6 weeks here its really like a rainforest.
@Patient Growth I could do that I have a lot of dense forest behind my house, it is my land so no problem there, good idea
Thank you for the percentage body weight exercise. They was a lot more doable than I thought.
I sold over ten dozen eggs I produced each week at the farmers market twice a week.
But I raised other things than barley, a few years ago in Western Canada barley prices spiked and became very expensive so I also experimented with other things like corn and cowpeas. Both could deal with extreme day time temperatures if were grown on a watering or misting schedule. Because at the time I lived in a high desert valley at night’s temperature could dip pop corn seed sprouts can deal with lower night time temperatures.
I think one area where sprouting green folder to feed livestock would be in a shade house air move and air curation it is very important to reduce mold and fungus. The nice thing about sprouting corn it gives a grower a longer harvest from four inches to four feet.
I wanted to buy a new never used cheap clement mixer to soak seeds in and to pour soaked seeds from and possibly reduce some of the extra labor.
I had chickens,goats,sheep both dairy and meat,cows beef and dairy Jersey’s.
I had a garden area that I produced vegetables and fruit (melons) for the farmers 12 months a year so I always had so extra fresh green items from my garden area that could be used for livestock feed. For example fava beans plants and their seed pods. I was always weekly planting some thing. I did all of this before the Covid Pandemic.
At that time period I knew if I wanted to expand my livestock operation I needed to expand my green fodder production and I was looking in to ways,techniques and technologies I did think of the possibilities of producing a ton of green fodder a week to feed as a top dressing on hay or other feed. In my location and set up at the time I was limited in the area that I was located in, in order to have my daily green fodder to feed each day I would need to plant two to four hundred pounds of seed each day to have constant green fodder to feed and I had to produce a little extra in case of mold or fungus out breaks.
Green Fodder production systems have to be designed and developed in their geological location to deal with their climate and other local environmental issues.
My over all goal was to produce 100% organic affordable green fodder that was cost effective and sustainable. With no high over head or expensive hidden costs. I wanted to do it at that time period 365 days a year. I was designing a 10 x20,10x30,12x20, or 13x30 shade house that was 100% powered by solar energy (for fans,and necessary lights and to pump water to recycle it over the seed bed as watering and/or misting.
Awesome video and great info...thanks so much! Wanting to give my chickens real food. They love all my clippings and weeds I give them but this sounds better for them or in addition to.
I noticed the feed bag right away! I'm one town over from Aroostook Milling just got some barely today and came across this video.
i have watched quite a few of these videos and this is by far a no nonsense one very understandable leaving you feeling like you can go and do this Thankyou
This is awesome. I have goats and ducks and they will just love this. The cats too. Thank you so much. I live in Florida but my heart is in Maine, my all time favorite state.
"luke. I am not your Fodder" How could I NOT watch lol
I completely agree!! ❤ lol
an alternative to this might be to put a wire mesh grate over the top so the chickens can pick the tops but the plant keeps growing so producing more , love the channel and video
@Patient Growth sorry i didnt clarify my self very well , i should have said you plant the seedlings in soil and then put the mesh above
@@familyplans3788I think that would work, but most people grow fodder in winter when it's too cold for grass to grow outside.
@familyplans3788 oh ok, I see what your saying, so the animals don't destroy the soil? Would you start the seeds then move them to where the animals are? I can see this idea if you didn't have the space for rotational grazing. But I don't think it would work too well. Would love to see if it worked though.
@@fredthegreg yes i have seen it done and yes its not perfect but it has its place
Thank you ,very good exlained
I just started some for the first time. I was thinking of just supplementary at first. Great video Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your ideas, I always view all your videos and I notice that very nice ideas you shared.
This is so great. Just heard about fodder today and you explained everything good. Thank you.
Thanks for the 411 man great info!
Oh my gosh I lost it when I read your title !
Thanks appreciate your video.
Absolutely brilliant thank you!
Hey there Neighbor! I'm glad to see more YTers up this way.
We're near Newport and moving onto the homestead this June. Gonna start with some meat birds and go from there.
SUBBED!
First time I watched your channel! But the start of the video, reminds me of Jim Varney that played Ernest (Hey Vern it's Ernest)!
Very helpful, thanks.
I am wanting to use all organic feed for my chickens and geese. Do you have any suggestions where I can purchase organic seed for fodder? Loved your video!
love the video. short but full of information and to the point.
one thing I do not understand why none of the fodder growers do not recycle water. it seems everyone just flushes it down.
It seems like a waste to me and negates the benefit of the "circle of Life" idea.
very informative no doubt about it.
good luck and best wishes.
The water gets nasty. You could use it to water a tree or something like that
I don’t know. I’m planning to grow fodder using an aquaponics system.
When I was growing green fodder seven days a week because I lived in the desert a 150 miles from Death Valley,CA I used my water multiple times. And it’s last use was used on my large in ground Organic Market Production Garden It was a 365 day in ground garden. I was producing things to sell twice a week at the local farmers market.
@@randallsly5796 nice! Love to hear these sorts of comments.
Best video on the topic that I've seen. Thanks.
It's been three years since this video first came out, do you have any modifications or new advice that you'd share now?
Wow I did know about this I have homestead but the farmers around me grow corn I will try this with corn as my animals love Corn I have rabbits chickens ducks turkeys goats and a horse
Love the name of your video !😊
That was all Eddy! LOL Never a dull moment!
Yes, haha
Love this. Thanks very much for the knowledge.
What an awesome way to feed your animals! I'm from Colombia, and I'm looking for to try this at my farm. I may have a question, how about light? How much of it the fodder needs?
It is a very efficient feed source. You only need indirect light for the sprouts. They grow very well in a somewhat sunny room. Just not totally in the dark. Good luck!
Great video!
Great info, have you ever thought of developing a permanent sward tray with soil and maybe a mesh over the top to hold the turf in, so that you can rotate the grow trays and allow it to regrow, maybe adding a diluted slurry to feed the system watering from the bottom. I’m just thinking of seed costs and maybe a quicker turn around. I am going to have a bash at developing my own system along those lines.
Sounds like a great idea. Would love to hear how it works out.
What a great idea. Can you give an update on your system?
@@dougroberts3643 sadly I had a rat problem that was interfering with the neighbours and had to stop keeping chickens, so I ended up not getting very far with it.
Love it
Thanks for sharing
Thank u so much!
Thanks for mentioning a bit of bleach. I’ve recently started seeing vids on sprouts and I think some are creating bacteria that can be deadly. I’ve known a small co that grew sprouts for human consumption and she had to use bleach water for rinsing to meet code.
I would think a thinner layer of grain would be better. I’ll have to try a few flats.
This is a great way to feed. However for my 4 goats and 8 chicks and my schedule I think be best to add as part of their diet occasionally.
Agreed!
Thank. You😊😊
Good info to know! Thank you!
Great video. Thank you for sharing
Please advise. I am trying this on a small level. Metal disposable tray for baking but it got so far and then started to grow mold. I am trying again using a bit of bleach in the water and mold is starting again, but sooner. I have only watered once now since the initial soak after adding many more holes to the tray and sanitizing it. The water I used to spray them did not have bleach…. Where M I going wrong here ?
Thank you sir! Very informative, maybe one of the best videos I've seen! One question, how much % do you save by ONLY feeding chicken with sprouts vs only wholegrain?
Yes I will like to know too. It has to make economical sense for it to be promoted?
So the savings is in dollars, but fodder is more time consuming so no savings there. Since the sprouts are more nutritious and offer a lot more volume we are able to make the grain go much further. It's hard to say the exact savings because our flock size is constantly changing. A quick guess would be that we spend 20% of what we used to.
We wanted to buy a cheap brand new cement mix to soak and mix are seeds in order to increase the size of are production and to reduce hours of labor.
great vid, answers all my questions, except, roughly how thick is the base of seed when you start, I'm figuring around an inch? thx
About an inch!
Thank you for this information!
i just love seeing the animals eating it.
Looks like fun and do not even need soil.just h2o
What an AWESOME idea. I truly wish more people would grow feed rather than buy
And it's so easy too!
Just bought a 50 lb bag yesterday to start growing our own fodder for our backyard chickens!
Beautiful family
Thank you
Great movie, thanks.
Question - what is the diet for sheep, how much hay, fodder, vegetables (pumpkin, carrots ...)?
Maybe soy or corn flour in the diet...
The general rule of thumb is grass and forage. Stay away from copper in any grains or feeds. Otherwise you cna feed some kitchen or garden scraps like pumpkin, etc!
Nice DIY FODDER..
Thanks!
Indeed
What about when/if there's no more feed mills, or if it gets too expensive to buy? Can you let some go to seed? Would it be enough?
I would imagine you could let it go to seed, no problem! We haven't done that before so I would suggest trying it and see what you get from it!
The biscuit had quite a bit of mold. Mold is most always the challenge O3 ozone treatment is the answer.
I'm not sure where you see mold... we did not have a mold problem at all. Are you referring to the white root system in the bed of the fodder?
Very educational
2-3% Body weight for animals feed requirement is in reference to dry weight feeds, hay and grains. This is a very high water feed, it would take a lot more than 4 lbs of fresh barley grass to feed a 130lb sheep. 4 lbs of GOOD hay yes, not 4 lbs wet grass.
False, True.
I have a question. I have seen goo gobs of videos on fodder. I have a friend that used to feed it to cattle, horses, chickens, goats, turkeys ... you get the idea. She has since moved away so she is not available to answer my question. I notice a pretty thick seed mat when people cut the fodder for feeding. Now, wouldn't a thinner level of seeds in the bottom of the tray (maybe two seeds deep) produce the same amount of fodder but with a thinner seed mat thereby making the seeds go further? I want to do this with meat rabbits. Thank you.
You did mention how much you harvest per tray but no square space of it, unfortunately...
Tnx for the vid!
Hey. How do I find the nearest grain elevator. I was driving through Atlanta Ohio and found one. But that is about 100 miles from my home. I want about 400 pounds, (either barley or wheat) to feed chickens, cows, and me.
Grain elevators are often listed on Google Maps, just search for 'grain elevator near me'!
Would the whole process like work with grass seeds cause I’m wondering if I could do it but grow some grass???
It definitely will, Barley in my area is prefered due to its turn around time, but I guess any fast growing grass, lawn, or what ever is on the cheap site with a fast growth would definitely have my attention. Good luck 👍
Thank you!!!
Can chickens only eat fodder? Do they need other supplements? I am thinking about starting some laying chickens, and I already grow all my own seeds for my garden, could easily do this for the chickens. Seems like a more organic/healthy way of feeding
I would definitely provide other sources of nutrition as well. They need a good protein source, carbs, grit, etc in addition to nutritionally dense fodder.
Do u need to add bleach to the water that's used for watering on a daily basis or only in the initial 24hr seed soak?
Only in the initial 24 hour soak.
Hello. Thank you for great video. Is it possible to dry this fodder and use it in the future as hay?
We've never done it before but you should give it a shot and tell us how it goes!
Hello, dear friend, what materials do you use to grow fodder? please guide me
Seed, garden trays, water!
newbie chicken owner. great vidio will be trying
what is it that you poured a little from the white liter plastic packaging ...
He mentioned before pouring he would add a capful of bleach
Thanks for answering that for us Samantha!
How much bleach do you add per litre of soaking water. I added 1ml per liter but still had Mold and fewer sprouts.
You only need a small amount. You dont have to be too precise. A capful or about a teaspoon should do it.
Soak for 30 mins with bleach
I'm just curious what you do when you want to go on vacation? Who feeds the animals and grows the fodder?
We have friends or family stay at our homestead and keep up with chores when we are away on vacation.
Do you have to continually purchase barley seeds to sprout these and feed the sheep? Can't you plant some of these barley seeds and harvest and gather the seeds from mature barley plants so you have a continuous supply or barley?
We've grown our own barley before so it is possible to regenerate your own seed!
Where can I get barley seed I'm in the kingdom of Eswatini
Great video! I am going to try this with my chickens. Do you only give them the fodder or do you also give them layer feed or anything else?
We offer small amounts of layer feed to the layers as well as feeding back some of there egg shells (crushed), kitchen and garden scraps, and they have a compost pile that they love. We also grow some corn to crack as a scratch grain and all of our chickens are kept on dirt.
I understand the need to keep mold etc from growing, but bleach??
@@gramybrooks1 I’m going to use peroxide. It helps the seeds as well.
I am getting chickens and researching the fodder system. Is it correct to assume you feed the chickens only the fodder, egg shells and grit? No auto feeding? For an 8 lb chicken, about a 3" square maybe?
We also feed layer mash and cracked corn in addition to fresh fodder, supplements, and kitchen scraps!
Would there be any benefit to adding fertilizer, vitamins, or minerals to the fodder as it is growing?
The sprouting process makes it very nutritionally dense so I don't think there would be a need to add anything.
great video thanks. where do you get a large bag of barley and what type do you use?
Hi, Interested in growing feeds for my live stock.wha I want to know is that, does this need to be under the shade?
Solomon
We get ours from a local feed store. It is feed grade Barley.
The seed has everything it needs to sprout without direct sunlight. As long as it's not dark it should work. Might be an interesting experiment.
@@OurMaineHomestead thanks!
great idea, thank you. Could you also say what grains you feed? not barley alone I assume
No he did do barley only. He said so
@@catherinegrace2366 is that enough nutrition wise?
Can you pls tell how much bleach in each tray needed to stop mold?
You only need a small amount. You dont have to be too precise. A capful or about a teaspoon should do it.
It sounds like you are still buying bags of barley to sprout, and minerals to supplement. How does that make your homestead more self sufficient that buying bags of feed? External inputs are still required.
External inputs will always be required because there's no such thing as being 100% self sufficient. This is to help our homestead cut the cost of feeding our animals nutritionally dense food when the grass isn't growing.
So do you have to Buy everytime you wanna plant? Can't you reharvesrt and stop buying Seeds?
I think it is possible!
those sheep sure make it look tasty!
can this be a stand alone diet for chickens? what's the protein % ? thx great vid
We wouldn't use it as a stand alone diet for the birds. We use it to help cut cost of bird feed.
It was a lot of hard work
Hi - this was really helpful, thank you. The only thing is....I'm lousy at math. I have 25 chickens and a rooster. How much per day would I feed them???
Assuming the average backyard chicken weighs about 5.5 lbs and they typically eat 2-3% of their body weight in fodder, roughly 26 chickens would eat a little over 4 lbs a day.
Good information but I loved your joke
How does it compare to feeding the grain?
How much nutrition it adds per day from the grain to becoming a fodder?
There is definitely more nutrition in sprouted grains and obviously more bulk. Also, sprouting makes the vitamins and minerals more available and the fodder is more easily digested than the grain itself.
@@OurMaineHomestead Where do you get the nutrition from? Sunlight and water? Also, how many calories are added each day the fodder grows? Has someone did a study by feeding the same amount of grain to one group and fodder to the other and see the weight/muscle gain?
Hi Ken, The grain is simply a seed. Think of how much more nutrition you can get from a growing plant versus a dormant seed. There is a lot of information available online, derived from studies, about the nutritional benefits. There are some wide ranges of results and I haven't done my own tests so I don't want to give exact numbers that may or may not be exact. All I can say is that it is working great on our homestead.
@@OurMaineHomestead ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=11721
Do you think above study is correct?
Hi … about nutrition from sprouted verses seeds…. I do not know about barley however I can imagine it is very comparable to wheat grass. One ounce of juiced Sprouted wheat grass is 70 percent chlorophyll and contains every vitamin science has discovered to date and 92 of the 102 minerals. wheatgrass juiced is almost a complete food. Also think of sprouts at the market… they are not grown into a full plant. Everything they need to do this is contained in the seed, so when it sprouts it is a powerhouse of compacted nutrition! I had a business growing wheatgrass and 60 different blends of sprouts and micro greens. Each type of seed, when sprouted, offers its own combination of Vitamins and minerals! These sprouts are powerhouses of nutrition, be it broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts! Onion sprouts! Etc,,, ! Research will help you understand the nutritional value of sprouting . It is AMAZING!
Is that all you give your chickens is fodder and egg shells? No pellets or corn or anything else? And are those egg laying chickens or are they meat birds? Seems like 8 lbs per bird is a bit much for egg layers.
These chickens are dual purpose. We enjoy the eggs and meat they produce. We feed a combination of layer mash, cracked corn, and fodder/free range with egg shell supplements and kitchen scraps year round.
@@OurMaineHomestead why not just let the sheep and birds go out and get their own grass?
We do during the seasons where foraging is an option. 6 or 7 months out of the year, the ground is covered in snow!
is this all you feed to your hens apart from crushed egg shells?
No. This is in addition to corn and crumbled food we give them. While feeding fodder, we are able to cut back on the others a bit.
Awesome
Where do you purchase the seed barley? My local seed store just closed, I can get a 45 lb from Azure for around $18 but not until next delivery. Any suggestions.
We buy feed grade barley which has always been cheaper than seed grade. At that price from Azure you should still be saving a lot for the nutrition you're providing.
Would green bean seed work in that
You can sprout them like that but I don't know about the nutritional value.
What brand do you use?
Just whatever we can get from the local feed store.
Could this be fed once or twice a week instead of feeding ground feed ?
We feed it in addition to normal feed protocols.
Can i plant that in the ground
Sure!
How would u feed ur chicken if u couldn't buy grain?
Free ranging is our go-to if times get tough!
What is the temperature to grow fodder in
We grew our indoors where the temps hang around 70-75°F!
@@OurMaineHomestead thanks
Anyone knows where to buy the barley seeds (most cost effective) in the city ?
Hope you were able to get an answer for this question!
❤
Do you like the taste of chlorine in your food? Me neither !! Use vinegar instead
Rinse the grain in warm water with vinegar. Dump that water out. Cover the grain with warm water let soak 20 min.- half hour. Dump that water and progress as usual. This method cut 1 whole day off my fodder growth
Where would i buy barley to make fodder?
Check at your local feed store or Co-Op.
can we use food grade peroxide instead of bleach?
We've heard of people doing that before but haven't tried it ourselves.