In this case the "nutrient" in mind is fodder in general. Barley, wheat, doesn't matter what you sprout. Just know that by sprouting it you change it's "bio-availability" and make it easier to digest for your livestock and that fact was a big part of the switch for us. The way I picture this concept in my mind, though a bit gross, is to think of corn and do some comparing...
All fodder starts as a seed...let's use wheat fodder because that is what I grow...Now, wheat berries and kernels of corn are both seeds and are both edible. I've never chewed on "wheat on the cob" because it doesn't exist. But I HAVE eaten corn on the cob. Guess what...if it goes in it has to come back out and kernels of corn often return as those same kernels don't they? Yuck, yes, but the blatant honest truth isn't it? I imagine if I were to go boil some wheat and choke it down I'd get wheat back on down the line too...I don't know for sure...but I'm guessing this is what would happen.
Clearly, whole seeds are not the most bio-available form of what they contain if they return as seeds still right? Okay...so we grind them up and make flour out of them. Whole wheat bread AND corn bread both go in as bread and come back out as...well...you can't tell it was ever bread! But you would think that since it is more bio-available in that form it's the best one for us right? And thusly, if whole seeds are hard to digest, then we should grind them up and make them into pellets for our livestock just as we make breads out of these ground seeds for ourselves right? WRONG!!!!
See, here's the thing....when any seed sprouts, it turns into a plant. Livestock, in general, are plant eaters. Horses, goats, cattle...they eat grass and green things not breads and muffins (they shouldn't at least). Their bodies are meant to chew, grind, and in the case of ruminants they ruminate that green stuff into nutrients their body can use. Sure, they can survive and thrive on pelleted feed (which is like the livestock version of humans bread I guess). But it isn't what they are meant to be eating. Even ground up, it's harder for their bodies to get at the proteins and vitamins in there...now, turn it into greenery which they ARE designed for and you get a different result. It is easy for them to break down into the vital bits and pieces they need to thrive and grow and produce.
Heck, if you think about, breads in high amounts aren't really all that great for humans either. If I eat a diet heavy in bread I gain unhealthy pounds of chub-a-dub-iness that's for sure...so when I finally grasped the fact that sprouting wheat into grass made the stuff in it my critters needed to be healthy available to them it made even more sense to switch to fodder. Then I realized I myself needed to eat more veggies and less bagels, but that's another story isn't it? Basically, by growing fodder I am providing a diet with fresh veggies for my livestock instead of dingdongs and pretzels...hmmm....which way of eating is healthier? The veggies I believe...
Needless to say once I had pondered this, I knew I wanted to give fodder a go. I wasn't sure if it would fit in with our farm, and I was having a heck of a time finding the so highly revered barley seeds everyone speaks of using in their fodder systems...so the next step was locating something to sprout and seeing if I could handle it...plants tend to get forgotten around here. They just don't cry for help when they need a drink of water like the pig does when he tips his bucket over ya know? But I was armed with some basic knowledge and ready to give it a try...once I found that dang barley!
Ahhh....fodder...the saga continues....tomorrow....:)
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