Growing Fodder

[jthornton]

I simply poke some holes in the plastic lid covers that come in top of cakes and such. You know, aside from the drawers I ruined.

Free is awesome.

I don't eat cake so these old nail tubbies will have to do...

JT

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Howdy. We used to have a farm between Fredericktown and Ironton.
We still go to Big Springs often and other sites in the area.
I can't find barley locally either. I get mine from our feed co-op.
This is the company we buy from. http://www.admcmn.com/
Perhaps you can start a co-op in your area.
Minimum order is 500 lbs. but that includes everything in the order.
I went to my local feed store and they had barley. I got it home and discovered it had fungicides and insecticides in it. I took it back. They had gotten it for someone that wanted it to make beer. I guess they took it back too when they discovered it was for planting.
I can't believe the person that ordered it for the feed store bought seed barley rather than feed barley. Lets put poison in our beer - yeah! The feed store does other nefarious things too.
They keep everything no matter how old it is.
3 years ago, I went there for chicken vitamins and electrolytes. The packets had expired 2 years earlier. I informed them. They said OK.
Those packets are still on the shelf.
I went for start&grow once and it was 8 months old. Not a lot of hatchers or people buying chicks year round around here. Usually their layer is much fresher. I have to go to Illinois to get fresh feed and a variety.

 

[jthornton]

I get mine from our feed co-op.
This is the company we buy from. http://www.admcmn.com/
Perhaps you can start a co-op in your area.
Minimum order is 500 lbs. but that includes everything in the order.
I went to my local feed store and they had barley. I got it home and discovered it had fungicides and insecticides in it. I took it back. They had gotten it for someone that wanted it to make beer. I guess they took it back too when they discovered it was for planting.
I can't believe the person that ordered it for the feed store bought seed barley rather than feed barley. Lets put poison in our beer - yeah! The feed store does other nefarious things too.
They keep everything no matter how old it is.
3 years ago, I went there for chicken vitamins and electrolytes. The packets had expired 2 years earlier. I informed them. They said OK.
Those packets are still on the shelf.
I went for start&grow once and it was 8 months old. Not a lot of hatchers or people buying chicks year round around here. Usually their layer is much fresher. I have to go to Illinois to get fresh feed and a variety.

Actually for beer making neither seed barley or feed barley is the correct one, for beer you use malted barley.

Is the co-op just a group of people that place an order?

JT

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes. Someone has to have an account and place the order. It is now delivered to my house. The person with the account used to buy hundreds of pounds of dog/cat/parrot/poultry food. Now there are just a few of us but we do muster enough for the minimum order about once a month.

 

[jthornton]

Well I must have done something right I have a bunch of sprouting wheat seeds this morning.

JT

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It was a long learning curve for me. The two things that turned the corner for me was a much 3 or 4 days.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I can't find barley locally

Neither of my two LFS carry or stock it. But a little conversation with the owners and they will order anything they have access to without any more than their standard mark up. Which was still cheaper then if ordered and had delivered to my home. Because they just added it onto their standard shipment.

What I am having an impossible time finding is peas for sprouting.

 

[jthornton]

I soaked the wheat overnight Friday night and took them out sometime Saturday afternoon so no exact soak time... I'll do better next time. Anyhow I guess this is Day 2 after the soak and this is what I have this evening.

Looks good to me...
JT

 

[jthornton]

This is the tray this morning.

 

[jthornton]

Noticed something pretty significant tonight, the lower end of the tray is growing much faster than the top, note the trays are tilted by the lid. I water them for a few seconds then move them to the grow light. Makes me think they need a bit longer soak time with the water. The drain holes are along the lower edge. I'm going to hold them up a bit on the drain end then tilt them back down tonight.

JT