Multi-species bulk feed

elbesta

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This is a cut and paste comment about fodder that I got from a link on the FB Fodder page. I hopes this helps remember fodder is used along with some hay.

by Kyle Chittock
on January 14, 2014 at 8:58 AM
Kyle with Fodder Solutions here. I can answer most of the questions above and aid in some "correction" to the article.

One question was about water usage. Fodder is far more efficient here. It only takes 2 to 3% of the amount of water required for standard forage production.

Another question was about cost. Fodder is very cheap to sprout. There's no soil, no pesticides, no fertilizers, no tractors or fuel, and no large space of land required. A system that fits into 200 square feet will produce over 200 tons of feed per year. (That's "wet" lbs - more on that below)

Now to the big question and the main problem here - Dry Matter. I'm probably going to stir up some nutritionists and sound a bit crazy here, but dry matter doesn't matter. Our traditional methods of feeding which rely on dry matter do NOT work with fodder.

This whole article assumes that an animal fed fodder will consume the same amount of dry matter as a traditional feed. They do not.

Before you jump in with your arguments, show me a study that includes feeding animals and measuring dry matter before and after fodder. If you cannot do this, you cannot prove, nor disprove my claim. (I however do have studies - look at the nutrition tab on www.foddersolutions.net)

As an example, watch this video. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=9385462 Tracy Underwood saves $200 PER DAY by feeding fodder. Her horses are healthier as well. But the fact of the matter is, that's a savings of $73,000 per year. It's difficult to argue with real results. Just because we don't understand it yet, doesn't mean everyone is making it up! You don't have to believe me, look up Santa Rosa Equestrian Center and ask her yourself.

Another example is a dairymen is Idaho. He replaced dry corn with foddder - lb for lb. Not dry matter lb for lb, but wet fodder, for dry corn. 1lb of seed can grow into 6.5lbs of wet feed. Assuming dry matter loss (which I am in no way arguing with) from sprouting, he may actually only be feeding .15lb of dry matter fodder - for each lb of corn. That's a significant reduction in dry matter for his total ration - yet his milk production is the same, and his milk fats increased from 3.1% to 3.9%. His cost of "wet" fodder was $138 per ton. His corn was $350 per ton.

If you base this solely on dry matter, then you're assuming he'll have to feed more than 60lbs of fodder to replace just 10lbs of grain. - That is a totally unrealistic amount of fodder to feed!

We don't know everything about fodder yet - but universities are testing it and why it works so well. Chico State University currently runs a fodder system with their organic dairy cows. The key thing here is they're feeding animals for their study - and it works.

If you're still not convinced (and I don't expect you to be) then you need to go talk to someone who is using fodder, and ask them 2 things. "How is the health of heard now that you're using fodder? How much has your feed bill changed?" If you need someone to talk to, I know people around almost all of the US using fodder.
 

19disbre

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One other thing you forgot, Fodder is about 80% digestible hay I am not sure but we will say 40 (I think thats close), so if fodder is 2x as expensive per pound it is the same price to deliver nutrients to the animal
 

Show Sebright

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This is a cut and paste comment about fodder that I got from a link on the FB Fodder page. I hopes this helps remember fodder is used along with some hay.

by Kyle Chittock
on January 14, 2014 at 8:58 AM
Kyle with Fodder Solutions here. I can answer most of the questions above and aid in some "correction" to the article.

One question was about water usage. Fodder is far more efficient here. It only takes 2 to 3% of the amount of water required for standard forage production.

Another question was about cost. Fodder is very cheap to sprout. There's no soil, no pesticides, no fertilizers, no tractors or fuel, and no large space of land required. A system that fits into 200 square feet will produce over 200 tons of feed per year. (That's "wet" lbs - more on that below)

Now to the big question and the main problem here - Dry Matter. I'm probably going to stir up some nutritionists and sound a bit crazy here, but dry matter doesn't matter. Our traditional methods of feeding which rely on dry matter do NOT work with fodder.

This whole article assumes that an animal fed fodder will consume the same amount of dry matter as a traditional feed. They do not.

Before you jump in with your arguments, show me a study that includes feeding animals and measuring dry matter before and after fodder. If you cannot do this, you cannot prove, nor disprove my claim. (I however do have studies - look at the nutrition tab on www.foddersolutions.net)

As an example, watch this video. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=9385462 Tracy Underwood saves $200 PER DAY by feeding fodder. Her horses are healthier as well. But the fact of the matter is, that's a savings of $73,000 per year. It's difficult to argue with real results. Just because we don't understand it yet, doesn't mean everyone is making it up! You don't have to believe me, look up Santa Rosa Equestrian Center and ask her yourself.

Another example is a dairymen is Idaho. He replaced dry corn with foddder - lb for lb. Not dry matter lb for lb, but wet fodder, for dry corn. 1lb of seed can grow into 6.5lbs of wet feed. Assuming dry matter loss (which I am in no way arguing with) from sprouting, he may actually only be feeding .15lb of dry matter fodder - for each lb of corn. That's a significant reduction in dry matter for his total ration - yet his milk production is the same, and his milk fats increased from 3.1% to 3.9%. His cost of "wet" fodder was $138 per ton. His corn was $350 per ton.

If you base this solely on dry matter, then you're assuming he'll have to feed more than 60lbs of fodder to replace just 10lbs of grain. - That is a totally unrealistic amount of fodder to feed!

We don't know everything about fodder yet - but universities are testing it and why it works so well. Chico State University currently runs a fodder system with their organic dairy cows. The key thing here is they're feeding animals for their study - and it works.

If you're still not convinced (and I don't expect you to be) then you need to go talk to someone who is using fodder, and ask them 2 things. "How is the health of heard now that you're using fodder? How much has your feed bill changed?" If you need someone to talk to, I know people around almost all of the US using fodder.
How do you get it to grow so well???? Here it grows and 1/2 inch and then molds.
 
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