A whole season has passed me by without a word out there about summer at Haven Ridge. That is because it is busy and when I sit down to type I'm so tired, the motivation isn't there.
We had two crias born this summer, 
Peninah was born June 11th to our own ReignEllan.
Augustus was born August 3rd to April Snow.
Peninah was born June 11th to our own ReignEllan.Augustus was born August 3rd to April Snow.
In the midst of these beautiful babies our summer has been filled with the efforts of gardening and the joys of adding geese to our little ranch as well. Pilgrim geese to be specific. These guys a very docile and social fowl that have quickly made a place in our hearts. They greet us when we come out and alert us if there is something out of the ordinary.
I have not had to mow the grass all summer long!
Pilgrim geese are the only auto sex goose, females being gray and males white. Seen here is Millie, Martha, Sophie and D'Artanian.
This summer has met us with a number of challenges. The top most has been the matter of hay, the availability of it as well as the price. Our usual supplier came up short- in many ways. Other suppliers have orchard grass for a premium price regardless of quality. This led us on a quest of finding quality feed at a price that didn't compromise the nutrition of my animals. Equally frustrating is finding a grower that is dependable. We are not in an environment that supports growing our own nor could we grow the quantity needed year after year. This brings us to the Fodder systems, sprouting barley seeds hydroponically. There are a number of commercially available systems available that literally have a "plug and play" start up. You plug in power and water, put in your seed and in seven days you have a tray of sprouted barley that the animals love, roots, seed, grass and all. They get fresh feed that is higher in nutrients because they are getting the whole plant including he roots. Unfortunately these systems have a high price for start up. It would pay for itself within the first year but I don't have that kind of capital. We did our research and combined information with our neighboring ranch, dealing with the same difficulties, to find the DIY solution.
We bought the grow trays from Amazon. I consider them too flimsy and we are working on a solution to that but for now they are sufficient. We set up in our current greenhouse both for light and for the existing water system. Then we started our trials.
First lesson is that quality, clean barley is ideal. Stuff that is full of chaff is difficult to rinse and encourages mildew.
We started with seed from a local nursery but this wasn't good for our bulk needs and the quality, while pure, wasn't clean. Then I tried the local growers association. They came up with a clean organic seed but in efforts to try and get the cost a little lower we tried a local mill. This was the most disappointing because while the tag said 100% barley there was other seed in the bag. When the mill was questioned they said it was just what was on the conveyor belt and it couldn't be avoided. This really isn't good enough because the growth from this seed was the worst with mold. So back to the growers association we go. It is not worth a few dollars savings if the quality isn't there.
Next was light. It doesn't need much light and it doesn't need a grow light but a light does give more growth in a shorter time. We found an LED flood light, that we put on a light sensor, works well. I saw no appreciable increase in our electric bill and the light comes on at dusk and off at dawn. Perfect.
Heat. Barley is a cold weather crop. This has been the most difficult hurdle to overcome. When the temps go over 80 fermentation happens. Not good and hard to control in a greenhouse that is not temperature controlled. When the weather is in the 70's is when we have the greatest success but as soon as the temps go up growing all but stops and it starts to smell like a brewery. This means that in our current growing space we can only do this process in early spring and fall. Summer is too hot and winter will freeze. What next?
Next will be the ebb and flow system in an insulated, climate controlled area. Nothing fancy, just the make shift storage area that is tacked on to the back of the studio house. We didn't build it there but there it is with insulation and water easily installed. The ebb and flow system is a vacuum that fills the tray to a set level and then sucks the water back out and repeat. This can work right out of a barrel of water that can be used and reused keeping water usage at a minimum. The light will have to run full time but again, with LED tech and no need for grow lights this does not figure in any appreciable costs. It should be mentioned that we are on a well so our first efforts of water were left to drain out on their own. We are still in the process of getting this set up so there will be more later and pictures to boot.
There are a lot of Internet resources that we used to research what we have so far but the one that really helped push me is the blog from Paca Pride http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/from-seed-to-feed-in-8-days-barley-fodder-sprouting-trials/
I really appreciate his willingness to share his own trials and errors and offer support to us as well. They too a doing this themselves without the aide of a prebuilt system.
I realize that this process takes a few extra minutes every day to keep the system going but the math is impressive. If you figure a pound and a half of seed per tray = about 4-5 pounds of feed and a pound of barley runs about .64 cents depending on where you buy.
I also realize that this is not the most self-reliant method. I am still relying on someone else to supply the seed. I do have control over the quality of the seed I buy and I am still feeding fresh grass over dried and I will be able to feed this all winter. I can also add extra seed to the trays for different feed needs. I will be doing one set of trays just for the geese that will be wheat rather than barley, I add flax seed to the barley as well to add extra omega 3. This also gets feed to my layer flock so I benefit from any extra nutrients I supply them as well.
Never feed moldy food to your flock but when my fodder does start to ferment I do feed that to the chickens. Fermentation can actually benefit their digestive system and then I also never feel that a trial was "wasted".
