Feeding Fodder
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- Paul Johnson's fodder system and fodder feeding routine. I didn't edit it, so the whole process took 23 minutes, and that is how long the video is. I'm feeding 12 trays per day to 8 horses, so they are getting 1 1/2 trays per horse per day. In the first pasture there are 5 horses, and I put 7 1/2 trays in their feeder. In the second pasture there are 3 old retired horses, and I put 4 1/2 trays in their feeder. There has been a little bit of grass in the pastures, so I haven't been supplementing with any hay for about 2 months. You'll see some hay in the feeders because I put some hay in the feeder when I was gone for the weekend and couldn't feed them fodder, and that was still left over.
I'm feeding a little over 2 pounds of barley seeds in each tray with 1/2 cup of black oil sunflower seeds. I buy the barley at a mill in bulk, and store it in sealed metal barrels until I use it. The barrels hold a little over 300 pounds each.
I'm on an eight day growing cycle now (no pre-soaking) and I just barely had a little mold in today's batch. That's why I put another chlorine tablet in the water, but the amount of mold that is still there does not concern me.
The horses in the first pasture are either young, or performance horses (polocrosse), but since my wife keeps fly sheets on them you can't tell what condition they are in. The one in that pasture without a fly sheet is a yearling.
The horses in the second pasture are old and retired playing horses. All three of them had been noticeably poor looking before I started them on fodder. Now they are maintaining good condition.
I have a Yahoo group for may fodder experiences at tech.groups.yah...
I just started using the washing station in the video. It's just a fiberglass bathtub/shower fixture that I had removed from a rent house. I had to cut it into 3 pieces to get it out of the bathroom. I'm using it outside now as an experiment, and it seems to be working okay, so I hope to move it into my fodder room and wash the trays in the fodder room in the future.
![KAYTRANADA - Witchy (feat. Childish Gambino) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jGK3YVmGZ3Y/mqdefault.jpg)
I started with a commercial system that included the rack, trays, and plumbing parts, and I made my own room and climate control. I modified the system shortly after I got it, changing it from a water-recycling system to a drain-to-waste system. Then I changed it from a NFT (nutrient film technique, running water along the bottom of the trays) to an overhead spray.
I'm using it as 100% of the added diet, but my horses do have access to a small pasture that sometimes has some grass on it. Also, when I leave and can't feed them fodder every day, I put out hay for them to eat while I'm gone.
Thank you very much Paul, you've been of great help.
I'll do some experimentation of my own &, if you don't mind, I'll bother you again.
Ricardo-
Thank you Mr. Johnson for this video. I had been thinking about a fodder systems but had disappointed by some of the stupendous prices for the advertised commercial systems. Your video gives me hope first that I don't have to be a 'rocket' scientist and a millionaire for a setup of Green Fodder. Here I would like to make a humble request if you could make a video of how the spray & drainage system works in your setup with technical details for 'novices' like myself. Thanking you in advance.
I use a window unit air conditioner in a very well sealed and insulated room, and my electric bills aren't noticeable. I'm in central Texas, and it gets pretty hot here, but I don't know what kind of weather you have in Saudi Arabia. However I see RUclips clips about raising fodder somewhere in that part of the world. A lot of the text seems to be in Arabic. I don't know details of how they control their temperatures, but some people are doing it over there.
1 - My trays are 30" x 9" x 3".
2 - I'm planting 20 pounds of dry seeds over 12 trays, 1.67 pounds per tray.
3 - The black things are sunflower seeds. I was told 40:1 barley to black oil sunflower seeds is a good mix for horses.
4 - There is nothing else in my water besides the chlorine tablets in the reservoir. Since the video, I have changed to soaking the seeds in chlorine water, then watering with just regular tap water.
5 - All my water goes to waste, no recycling.
6 - No filter.
Thank you Paul, I appreciate your quick response. you have been a great help and i will start building a system with all the details you have provided..thanks once again..:)
Thank you
I was told that 40:1 barley to black oil sunflower seeds was a perfect balance nutrition-wise for horses. I don't know if it's true or not, but that's why I do it.
I got the 24,000 but unit. It was way over rated for my room size, but it very easily keeps the room right where I have it set, even when it's well over 100 outside. One problem with over sizing the unit is that it doesn't come on as much as a smaller one, and when it is compressing, it also acts as a dehumidifier.
(I ran out of room)
6 - I used to use small pieces of wood to block the seeds from going out the exit. I have also used duct tape, and pieces of plastic dish scrubbers. I don't think I get as many seeds escaping with the overhead system as I did with the NFT system, and I don't try to filter the exit at all. Some of the trays still have duct tape on them that just hasn't come off yet.
I started using some fixed rate sprayers that I got from Farmtek, but the spray was not consistent from one sprayer to the next, so I couldn't adjust the water pressure to make the spray pattern fit the trays. I reordered some adjustable sprayers from Farmtek. They will spray a very wide pattern and can be individually adjusted down so that the spray goes only as far as you want. I haven't had any trouble with clogging up, but I don't recycle the water.
Spraying probably does put more moisture in the air and would raise the humidity, but I think if you keep the temperature down the humidity doesn't matter that much. I use the plastic to catch and capture the spray that goes beyond the trays. I'm also in the process of replacing the plastic with solid clear sheets of corrugated PVC.
Those are black oil sunflower seeds. I'm mixing them with the barley at about 25 to 1 by weight. Sorry I didn't make that clear on the video.
I changed my system from an NFT (running water along the bottom of the trays) to an overhead spray system. I have a reservoir for my water supply, but all my drain water goes to waste. I pump from the reservoir with a normal submersible pump that I got at Home Depot. I don't use any nutrients in the water, but I do have swimming pool chlorine tablets in the reservoir to chlorinate the water I spray with. At the time of the video I was using additional florescent lighting.
I don't know about feeding cows, but I also heard that cows need some extra roughage because of the way their stomachs operate. But as I understand it, the roughage only has to be that, roughage, not good quality hay. I would guess that you could buy poor quality roughage a lot easier than raising your own. As far as the percentage of roughage to fodder for cows, that is also not in my area of experience.
I started out using a 7,000 btut portable air conditioner. It quit working and I upgraded to a 11,000 btu portable. This one still didn't dependably keep the room at the desired temperature. I talked to my A/C guy and he said the portable A/C's don't rate the same as even a window unit. He suggested I get an 18,000 btu window unit. When I went to Home Depot, the only 18,000 btu unit they had also had a heat strip, and it cost more than a 24,000 btu unit they had without a heat strip.....
I'm using a 1/2 horsepower submersible pump. I don't know what pressure it puts out. I have sprayers on 4 different levels, and to get an approximately equal amount of pressure going to the upper levels, I open the valve to those levels more than the valves to the lower levels. I think if you only had 2-6 psi you might not have enough pressure to get the water to the upper levels with enough pressure to spin the sprayers. If you had too much pressure, you could partially close the valve.
I'm sorry to bombard you, but you're a rare source of a very specialized type of knowledge that I seek.
Can you recommend a system? I know that recycling the water would be detrimental due to the build up of starches and fear of mold/mildew, but I also fear just throwing water out into a drain, since water is at a premium here. Is the water reusable or filterable for other uses like irrigation of farm plants or even drinking for the livestock?
I plan to keep camels and sheep. I'm young, I dream.
When I did recycle the water I didn't use any filters and was constantly having the 1/8th inch tubing clogging up. If I was going to try to recycle the water, I would have a really fine screen filter as the water returns to the reservoir, and another filter at the pump intake. I use field barley that has a lot of small particles in it that would probably find their way to the sprayers unless you have some extremely good filters. If you have a really fine filter, you might need a larger pump.
Great video, Sir, and thank you for making and posting! I especially like how you used that red hook and cord to make harvesting easier. I'm wondering in that same light, if you have ever used a cart, dolly, or other wheeled device to move the trays out to the wagon/cart? It would seem to be a time saver to me. Maybe even back the cart in to start, then wheel the empties outdoors on a dolly to wash them, and back. Then again, moving around is good exercise! Thanks again for showing us how you do this!!!
To look for a commercial system if you are in Saudi Arabia, I would check out some of the RUclips videos on raising fodder that are in Arabic, and see what companies are doing business in your area.
I run my waste water out into my pasture which always needs water, and there is continually growing grass around the draining area for the horses to eat. There is nothing about the water that would make it harmful to plants.
Right now I'm doing some performance testing on LED lights. At the time of the video I was on an 8 day growing cycle and was getting a little over 7:1 growth ratio, so from 2 pounds of seeds I was getting a little over 14 pounds of fodder. I don't clean the seed, and I don't soak them. Just before I started the LED light testing I changed to a 7 day cycle, and I've been reducing the amount of seeds in each tray. I'm trying for the maximum growth ratio in a 7 day cycle.
Hi Paul. A number of questions... Is yours an ebb and flow system or a spray ? Do you use a hydroponics pump? Do you use any nutrients in the water? If it is an ebb and flow system, does the water completely cover the root mat and seeds during watering? What do you use for grow lighting? How many lbs. of feed are you getting from 2 lbs of seed? It looks like you don't worry about cleaning your see? That's enough for now. Your feed looks great. A lot better than mine. Thanks Paul.
Hi Paul. I'm in Argentina and we don't use this kind of system down here. If you don't mind I've got a few simple and elemental questions for you:
1 - How big are the trays, all 3 measures please?
2 - Which is the weight of grain you use per tray?
3 - Which is the black supplement you put in the trays?
4 - What do you aggregate to the water, besides Chlorine?
5 - How many times you change the water per cycle?
6 - There's a small filter at the water exit, what is it made of?
Many thanks. Ricardo.
Do the farmtek adjustable sprayers require high pressure to work right? I consider a well pump high pressure (70+ psi). Can I use a sump pump or waterfall submersible pump (12 psi or so)? I know that hydroponic pumps won't do the job at about 2-6 psi.
Just for reference for others who might be reading, the hydroponic shop suggested the Bib Boy water filtration system. It should do the job at 7 gallons per minute and cleanable filters... 95% of sediment.
Thanks again Paul.
I found the "Fodder Solutions" company here. They sell their smallest (portable) unit for about $20k. That's a lot of money, so that's why i thought of building one.
I wanted to know, regarding the irrigation of the sprouts, is spraying better than flooding the roots? I fear mold and mildew would be aided by the spraying.
One last question, why do you use the plastic? To keep te humidity higher than the surrounding environment?
Thanks for the quick answers, Paul. I'm just about convinced to switch over to sprayers rather than ebb and flow. What kind of spray heads do you use, and are clogged spray heads ever a problem for you?
Also, I would like to recycle the water, and am trying to figure out what kind of filtration system I would need (cleaning filters is easier than changing out the water). What do you suggest?
Hi Paul. thanks for uploading this video. it is very informative and I just want to know what type of Air condition you are using for this system. .????.....I am planning to setup a similar system but I am stuck with the Air conditioning...What would you suggest ...I feel great if you respond to me...Thanks in Advance...
I live in Saudi Arabia and it would be so hard to keep temps down to 67, most of the year.
Do y'all know of any practical way for me to be able to sprout barley for fodder way out here?
I'm guessing a wall unit or split A/C would kill my electric bill and the compressor if i tried.
Hey thanks for the quick reply Paul. Here in Saudi Arabia, we suffer from a hyper-arid climate and Summer temperatures peak at about 120F-130F. I was thinking of making a room with a split-unit A/C. Electricity is pretty cheap here, but I was more worried about destroying the unit by constantly running.
I doubt Desert Coolers would make it cold enough.
Did you concoct your own system or use ready plans? I wonder about the water works and what is best?
Does using the sunflower and barley seeds give you a 100% of your horses diet. I read that it can. I live in Southern Colorado and good hay is hard to find and is about $400 a ton. I am looking for a total replacement solution. Thanks for the help.
Paul hi, i´m producing fodder too, but i never see the combination sunflower with the fodder seed, why do you use this tecnique? it´s for a more taste for the horse o have a nutricional reason? thx and salute from venezuela
hi paul please could you tell me what do you put into the tray before the seeds
Oh, this also includes raising 2-4 calves every year...
I plan on raising lowline angus ( 1bull, maybe 2 or 3 cows) and one miniature jersey cow,,, I also plan on raising meat rabbits,,,
my issue is, other than trying to figure out how much acreage I would need for hay ( because I heard you can only use so much fodder with so much hay because of the lining of a cows stomach (roughage).
I dont know how much fodder i would need to make, and how much hay ( small square bales). ( only property available to buy is 10 acres with buildinhgs. )
I am very interested in feeding fodder. Can pretty much figure out most of how to do this except for the trays. Where do you purchase them? I have tried black garden trays and they are very flimsy. Yours look to be very substantial. Thank you🌻
I've changed to a different type of tray than the ones in this video. I changed my whole rack system and decided to go with the 10 x 20 black garden trays that you mentioned. They are too flimsy. I bought the regular ones from Greenhouse Megastore, and they were about $0.88 each. I'm using them and just taping them up when they crack. When I re-supply, that same company makes one that they say is 4 times thicker, and they are a little over $3.00 per tray. The white ones in this video came with my original system from Farmtek, and they are over $30.00 each.
hi, thank you for sharing your experience, do you soak your seeds in vinegar or bleach ?
I keep the room at 67 degrees, and I'm watering for 3 minutes every 4 hours.
hi whats the name of black seeds under wheat?
Sorry, Big Boy water filtration, not Bib Boy.
Do you know how much each tray weighs? Just trying to figure how many pounds the horses are each getting per day. Thanks
I try to give each horse 20 pounds of fodder each day.
20b per horse 2 kg bag of barly yeds 20lb and that's plenty for a 15 .2 hands, try size 2 ft by 15 in .
I don't know when I'll get around to making another video, but you can see some pictures of the sprayers and drain on my Yahoo group. It is called horsefodder. I can't put a link to it, but go to groups.yahoo.com and search for it. You'll probably have to join the group to see the pictures.