Wheat is readily available for us since one of our neighbors is an organic wheat farmer. Many different types of grain can be grown for fodder including barley, oats, wheat, or even sunflower seeds. Try to find heavy duty trays, either at your local garden center or online. Take note though, the standard trays that you normally get are pretty flimsy and won’t hold up to several pounds of fodder without cracking on the corners after only a few uses. We built a pretty simple rack using pvc pipe that fits the standard black heavy duty 10″x20″ seedling gardening trays, with 12-16 small holes drilled evenly in the bottom of the trays. We came across several websites and YouTube videos and eventually settled on a hybrid version that we’re still tweaking a bit to suit our growing situation and the animal’s needs. Since we didn’t want to spend a couple thousand dollars on a fodder system, we started searching the hive-mind of the internet for ways to make our own. Unless you have a large budget and a lot of animals, there aren’t many affordable fodder systems available for the small family farm. Quick! Then the animals eat everything, including the sprouts, the seeds and the roots so nothing is wasted! You can even put it in your own smoothies! Building Your Own Fodder System The best part is that the whole process, from sprout to ready-to-feed-fodder only takes a 6-8 days. When the grain is sprouted, and grown hydroponically, nearly all the starch in the grain is converted to sugar and is better utilized by the animal’s rumen. Having fodder growing in the dining room also takes care of my gardener’s need to be growing something year round.įodder is nearly completely digestible, so a whole lot more of your feed budget benefits the animal instead going straight through the ground! So when we needed a way to supplement our animals’ nutritional during the long Wyoming winter, growing our own fodder became the obvious solution, particularly when the hay we purchase may not be the best quality. If you’re needing an economical, highly nutritious way to feed your homestead critters, a small scale fodder system may be just what you’re looking for.įodder is simply any food grown for livestock. I’m so pleased to be Jill’s guest blogger today and to have the opportunity to share our homemade fodder system. I’m thrilled to have my homesteading neighbor, Jana from Celtic Prairie Farm sharing her knowledge with us today! Not only is it simple enough for even the smallest-scale homesteader to accomplish, it’s incredibly cost-effective. I’ve recently become enamored with the concept of growing fodder for animals.