I have been thinking about making sprouts for my goats. I know there is better nutrition to take the grains and sprout them. Has anyone ever tried it with their goats? It would be a good supplement in winter when the green stuff is gone. I would feed them the sprouts as "extra's", not a part of their daily grain ration. Oats & wheat are the two I'm thinking of. I know that wheatgrass is sold in health food stores for people. But is it ok for goats?

-- Debra Perkins (dperkins@ziggycom.net), October 08, 2002

Answers

Not exactly the same thing.....but I know of a few endurance riders that feed sprouted oats to their horses. They have 7 buckets...I believe the first one is solid to soak the oats the first day, then the others have holes in the bottom and are rinsed. As you use the 7th bucket, you move all the others down, dumping the solid bucket into the empty "holey" bucket.

I also seem to recall a chicken feeding experiment where they fed all the chickens on sprouted grains. They said they had better growth and egg laying than the commercial fed ones!

I can't imagine that it would be any different for goats! In fact, now that you jiggled my mind, I just might try doing this for mine too. We are under snow 6 months out of the year, so that would be a great treat for them. Hmm, I can get red wheat and whole oats, I guess either one would work?

Tracy

-- Tracy (zebella@allvantage.com), October 10, 2002.

As long as they don't mold they should be a real treat! The part about the leaky buckets is interesting, I have entertained the idea of sprouts for chickens and ducks for years but it seemed like it would be too much of a hassle to keep up with. The artcicle I read about sprouts and chickens said it was a way to keep them laying during the winter without lights.

Other winter treats- pumpkins, squash, big zuchinni, windfall apples and pears. Make sure and cut this stuff up as they can choke if you don't especially with the apples, and then feed it in the hay feeder. We can get these things for free if we pick them up, especially apples. Those huge pumpkins last a long time, a week even with a lot of goats and they love the seeds!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), October 11, 2002.