Fodder

[Gopher]

I'm considering feeding sprouts (fodder) to my cattle, pigs, and chickens. Basically barley grain allowed to sprout for up to 8 days, resulting in a seed/root/grass mat. I know the chickens and pigs love it, and have heard that cattle and horses eat it too. 2 questions: Does anybody have any experience feeding sprout fodder and would it be considered a 'grain' because part of what they are eating in unsprouted seeds (grain). A friend of mine is all grassfed (and I'm considering it) and we are wondering if it is something to feed in times of drought and winter (along with some hay) and still tell our direct market customers that we are 'grassfed'.

[sammyd]

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/livestoc/as647w.htm

according to the rules

The diet shall be derived solely from forage consisting of grass (annual and perennial), forbs (e.g., legumes, Brassica), browse, or cereal grain crops in the vegetative (pre-grain) state.

[genebo]

Grain comes from grass. Grasses make seed (grain) as the final product of their growth.

The composition of the stems and leaves is mainly cellulose, a hard to digest carbohydrate, and is pretty well balanced in Omega 3/Omega 6 fatty acids. The grain is formed from nutrients within the grass. It takes on a higher proportion of Omega 6's and is mainly formed of starches, a much easier to digest form of carbohydrates.

The positive attributes that come from grass fed beef are noteworthy in that they are opposed to the attributes that come from feeding grain.

So what are sprouts? Grass or grain? A short time before they are sprouts, they were grain. Sometime after they are sprouts, they will become grass.

In my opinion, they aren't grass until they develop leaves and begin photosynthesis. Surely the sunlight, air and dirt make grass what it is, and sprouts have not reached that stage. No sunlight, no breezes and no dirt. They seem to be made entirely from the grain from which they sprouted.

There are no government rules at present concerning the use of the term "grass fed". Even a feed-lot operation could call his beef grass-fed if the steers ever ate a mouthful of grass before coming to the feedlot. It's only common sense and common decency which governs us.

Now calling it "organic" is something else. You can get busted for using that term inappropriately.

[Gopher]

I understand the rules for "organic" are very strict. That is not my goal. My goal is to raise grassfed beef for personal convictions, and selling as such. Would feeding fodder qualify as a grain? I'm not sure there is a clear answer. I still want to grow it for my chickens and pigs. Thanks for the input!

[sammyd]

although there is no law, and labeling yourself grass fed entails less than organic, there is still a standard that the USDA uses for grass fed and that standard is quoted above.
The stuff isn't far removed from grain and although I have seen the term fodder used I have a hard time calling it such.

[gone-a-milkin]

Sprouts are very nutritious.
I think the cattle would do well on it and the meat would be delicious.
Mmm, barley.

How do you go about sprouting your grains, in massive amounts (like to feed cattle)?
I know some folks who raise organic poultry and a good percentage of their winter feed is sprouted barley/oats/sunflower(in the summer they MIG their birds).
These people spend a LOT of time lugging buckets in and out of their heated area during the cold months.
Looks like a ton of work to me.

[genebo]

Sammyd and Gone-a-milking are more up-to-date than I am on the grass-fed standard. Once I checked I found out that a federal standard for claiming "grass-fed" was created in 2007, four years ago.

My apologies for not knowing and inadvertantly writing a statement that there were no rules for using the phrase "grass-fed". There wasn't for so many years, and I failed to notice that it had changed.

This is the USDA link for the complete standard:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams....Type=&acct=lss

[gone-a-milkin]

I never said anything about the USDA standard. I do NOT know the 'rules' for claiming grass-fed.

Sprouted grains are different than whole-grain though.
They are a live food with the starches having been converted to sugar already.
Sprouts lack photosynthesis, yes (except the ones on the top of the bucket ).

I really dont know the legal answer to the OP's question.
I personally have no issue with suplimentally feeding grain to livestock anyhow. So I dont have a dog in the hunt.

It does seem like a lot of WORK to sprout all that grain, especially when it is freezing weather.

[Safado]

I know some people tend towards sprouts being MUCH healthier than non sprouted grain for human consumption. I don't have any info either way on that. I did find these guys: http://www.fodder-solutions.com/index.html, who sell a sprouting system for feeding sprouted grain.

It seems to me that it would be very expensive. I think you'd have to be really sold on the idea of it being healthier. It does look like they get it going with some green, like feeding sod.

[genebo]

The fodder-feeding system featured in the link was reported in England with a video. Some felt that the lack of sunshine in Great Britain would make it cost-effective there.

It uses a fair amount of fuel to warm the seed boxes, so it may not be a green solution.

[Gabriel]

I certainly don't know enough about it to make a claim either way, but I urge you to be totally upfront about it with your customers, regardless of what you do.

[Gopher]

great posts and discussion. Thank you!

[agmantoo]

Gopher

Your definition of "fodder" and my understanding of what comprises "fodder" differ considerably.

Fodder to me is the coarse rough leaves and stems of plants such as corn. Fodder is often baled after the corn grain is harvested or it is grazed after the combine has finished harvesting the corn grain. Beans are sprouted and eaten by humans and referred to as bean sprouts. Sprouting grain and feeding it to cattle and referring to that as fodder is confusing to me. Steeping grain and feeding that to hogs is a common practice but all I have ever heard that referred to is "slop".

[Gopher]

I catch your drift, agmantoo. I don't understand the name 'fodder' either. I first heard about it from the 'fodder solutions' link that Safado provided. So that is why I call it fodder. Also, each grass/sprout mat is referred to as a 'biscuit'. Now that one really throws me for a loop.

[genebo]

Agmantoo's definition of fodder is the most commonly used definition. There are some others:

1. coarse food for livestock, composed of entire plants, including leaves, stalks, and grain, of such forages as corn and sorghum.

2. people considered as readily available and of little value: cannon fodder.

3. raw material: fodder for a comedian's routine, fodder for the rumor mill.

Fodder is a synonym for feed.

It has roots in Old English, fodor, meaning feed for cattle. In old German it is futter.

It can also be used as a verb, to feed.

Biscuit is a great word. In England it's a cookie. In a pasture you don't want to step in it. It's the preform of plastic that a phonograph record is pressed from. It's the slug of metal used for testing material properties. It's part of an old-fashioned hair style. When used as an adjective, it's a color or a shape. It's also good fodder, especially with butter and fig preserves.