Winter is always hard on livestock around here, and I am always looking for something to make the stock healthier through the winter. Recently I came up with the idea of growing sprouts in the house to bring out to the herd.
I grow them the regular way you grow sprouts, except I use grain--- corn or oats--- for the seed. Not seed corn or oats, but the kind you feed to the animals. I just had my first 'crop' mature and I fed most to the goats, with a little extra to the six ram lambs that I just removed from the buck yard into a stall in the shed. (Two of their comrade lambs had died, and I caught the dog pulling wool off their backs--- the dog can hop in through the gate into the buck yard, unlike other areas of the farm. So I felt they'd be safe indoors.)
Tomorrow I'm going to set up some regular sprout production. I've got a book on wheatgrass, which people grow in trays in their home. I bought similar trays and am going to start growing 'oatgrass' and 'corngrass' in them. I also have a new sprouter to try out. I need to get some shelving to put my trays on, and then I'm in business.
I'll take some pictures of the setups when I have them in order, and will give updates on the results here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ritchie watering systems
5 comments:
Did you ever set the sprouter up?
Yes, but it was too prone to getting moldy and so I discontinued using it. I've never been good at growing sprouts.
Bummer! But another question. Did you let the grain sprout and turn green before you fed it to them? I am trying to sprout grain for my goats, but they don't seem to like it.
Yeah, I tried to follow the instructions for growing wheat grass and so let it get green (and my goats did like it that way.)
Thanks!
Post a Comment