Tanya Ploss

Bryant RedHawk wrote:When I feed grains I sprout them (malting) instead of fermenting them.
The sprouted grain has far more enzymes and natural sugars in it than fermented and I don't have to worry about alcohol being part of the liquid.
If you have any microbreweries near by, you might be able to get their spent grains which will save you lots of work since those grains are ready to feed.

I have made fodder and would love to add this to my fermenting as well however don't have a good set up or Money for one any chance you would know a easy low cost way to do this on a larger scale. I have 7 mini pigs 29 goat/sheep and around 70 duck/ chicken. They all love fodder on would benefit so we'll from it. Just not really a easy set up that I can afford

Eliot Mason wrote:There is interesting variation here ...  my thoughts are that fermentation times will vary with the feed and temperatures.    We've found that 24 hour fermentation with our particular mix (Flax, Peas, Oats, Barley) seems best - as determined by the hogs!  Some experimentation with times and feeding behavior showed that 24 hours pretty much drove the pigs crazy for the food.  The other issue is probably # of feeds per day ... we're doing 2.5 feeds a day for 5 hogs and a partially filled 5 gallon pail is sufficient.  I'd think for 14 hogs, you could get by with 3 buckets.  Then its a question of moving buckets vs engineering a solution...

Also, we've noticed the hogs do significantly better on this fermented mix than on "feed".

This is all really cool for me to read. I have been fermenting my chickens feed for ears now and just started into goats, sheep, and pigs this last year. I have been fermenting my goats and pig feed and adding it with alfalfa pellets for a while now. I do same with pigs and add it to fresh fruit greens, whey, ect and the pellets what ever I have on hand for them then they eat hay the rest the time. Anyway because I use this for all my animals I typically have one 5 gallon bucket I use and refill daily I never have over fermented grains because I'm constantly depleating it almost gone then add more water to the  starter left in the bucket works great. Now I do use a wheel berrle to take the food to my piggie's and a sled in the winter if needed. I would say if he needs only 5 5gallon buckets they would fit farly easy in a wheelbarrow why not do that I mean I think we all own these I have a bad arm so carrying is hard for me as well but this works well. I do actually have a question for you. I have 7 kunekune/ AGH piggie's I never know if they are getting enough grain and I'm one that isn't into huge grain fillers for any of my animals and their not skinny by any means but what would be the recommended amount of grain for them. Asking cuz you have amounts down to 5 gallon buckets lol I like that. Also my grain is a mix of barley, whole oats, BOSS,red and white wheat berries, green and yellow peas, red and regular lentils, flax, and millet