Cannon, er Cattle (or Chicken) Fodder

We are going to try to raise our own fodder from a self-enclosed system as a way to supplement our normal grass/hay feed without adding a bunch of expense.

This is kind of what one looks like (from the webpage Backyard Chickens). The link is to the full article and has detailed instructions.

The idea is to germinate and sprout grains which turn into mats of high quality feed that is quick to grow and provides a lot of additional nutrition beyond just hay, which is turn should reduce the amount of hay we need to buy. My helpmeet has had her eye on this type of system for a while and although you can buy a fully prepared system they are several thousand dollars which sort of defeats the purpose of saving money! Check out this brief video from BBC's Countryfile show on fodder systems. We are not looking for anything on this scale of course but it is interesting. Plus I like Countryfile, it is interesting to see how they farm in the U.K.




So we will see how it goes and report back!