Chapter 8: Feeding Sprouts to your Livestock

So which animals can eat sprouts as fodder? The answer is all of them. According to our research, Alpacas, Cows, Goats, Horses, Llamas, Pigs, Poultry, Rabbits, Sheep, etc. can all eat sprouts as fodder. So the next question is, How much sprouted fodder do I need to feed my animals?

How Much to Feed

The recommended amount of sprouts to be fed each day varies quite a bit between the different commercial sprouting systems, so how do we take the information they provide and extrapolate a starting point for our livestock at home? The answer, which may frustrate some of you, is trial and error. Recommendations vary between feeding your livestock between 2 and 3% of their body weight in sprouts. If we follow this logic, an 8 pound rabbit would need between 2.56 and 3.84 ounces a day in sprouts. I have found this to be totally inefficient in term of both amount and nutrition. Now, most commercial sprouting systems recommend feeding roughage (hay) in addition to sprouts and to also provide some sort of concentrate supplement. Since our goal is to stop using also commercially produced feed altogether, we are continuing to develop a feeding schedule. One formula for maximizing protein and energy consumption of livestock is sprouting 70 percent barley, 20 percent soybean and 10 percent corn. For this particular formula if you wanted to sprout 2 cups you would need 1 cups barley, cup soybeans and cup corn. If you want to sprout two pounds of sprouts you would need to mix 1 lb. 7 oz. barley, 7 oz. soybeans and 2 oz. corn. (Korevaar) A biscuit is the term commercial fodder systems use to describe the mat of grain growth that is produced in the fodder system. Commercial biscuits generally weigh between 17 and 22 pounds. Our trays produce biscuits that weight between 11-15 pounds. The system you set up and the amount of grain you add to your grow trays will determine the size of the sprout biscuit you produce. It is a general rule of thumb among farmers feeding livestock fresh, sprouted fodder that the animals should be fed between 2-3% of their body weight in sprouts and 1% of their body weight in hay.

Here is how we broke it down for our animals: Livestock Nigerian Dwarf goats Goat kids Laying Chickens Chicks Quail Quail chicks # x weight 4 x 70 lbs. 4 x 30 lbs. 20 x 5 lbs. 30 x 1 lb. 40 x lb. 100 x oz. Total weight 280 lbs. 120 lbs. 100 lbs. 30 lbs. 30 lbs. 1 lbs. 461 lbs. Weight x 2-3% 280 lbs. x 2-3% = 5.6-8.4 lbs. 100 lbs. x 2-3% = 2.4-3.6 lbs. fodder 100 lbs. x 2-3% = 2-3 lbs. fodder 30 lbs. x 2-3% = 0.6-0.9 lbs. fodder 30 lbs. x 2-3% = 0.6-0.9 lbs. fodder 1 lb. x 2-3% = 0.03-0.05 lbs. fodder 14.8-16.9 lbs. fodder a day

As you can see from the table above, I have purposely left our meat rabbits out. Rabbits are the only animals that I have dealt with in which the 2-3% body weight rule does not seem to apply. Initially we followed that rule and fed each of our 8-9 lb. rabbits 2.6-4.3 ounces of fresh sprouted fodder along with cup pellets. It was not enough and our rabbit lost weight. Rather than up the pellet ration, we decided to up the sprouted feed. So now, we feed our each of our rabbits 6 to 7 ounces of sprouted fodder, which comes out to about 5-7% of their body weight. Graeme and Shirley Harris of Highthorpe Rabbits in Northern Tasmania follow a similar feeding pattern, by currently feeding their breeder rabbits approximately 7 oz. of sprouts each day along with pellets and good quality hay (Korevaar). The figures for our rabbits are: # of animals x amount fed Adult rabbits 9 x 7 oz. Amount of fodder need per day 3.9 lbs. 3.5 lbs. 7.5 lbs. 14.9 lbs.

Growing rabbits 7 x 8 oz. Kits Total 15 x 8 oz. 31 rabbits

If we take the 14.8-16.9 lbs. of fodder needed per day and add the rabbit needs of 14.9 lbs., we get a total of 29.7-31.8 pounds of fodder that we need to produce every day to feed our livestock. Our current system produces three trays of 11-15 pounds each day of sprouted fodder. So we are meeting our needs plus a little excess, which we use when we have more rabbit kits, chicks or goat kids.