Well...I choose fodder for a few reasons. First and foremost it is more natural to what my livestock would eat if they had their own choice in things. Sometimes, they do get a choice - we are on 10 acres after all - but at night they are stuck in their pens close to the house for safety and some days they are stuck there as well. When it rains the back of the property turns to a bog I prefer them not to play in...plus they won't leave their shelter anyways in the rain, so they stay there. Also, the front is not yet fenced for the horses and NONE of it is properly fenced for goats (besides their pen areas)...so I try to get out there an hour or 2 a day and let them "free range" if you will - that's another blog post though...let's just say that no matter what after a few years of crummy drought conditions anyways I am always prepared to feed my animals plus dairy goats need to eat more than just browse if you want the best, highest yields on your milk...
Anyways, horses, goats, cattle - none of these things go out on the hunt for corn or soybeans in their pastures. Sure, if they find it they will eat it - heck, they'll eat your garden if they get the chance! But naturally the bulk of their diet is fresh GREEN stuff! Grasses, weeds, shrubs...Pelleted feeds make a decent supplement to this (particularly if you are in a drought and there is nothing green left!), but it's not natural at all. Especially for the goats...goats can get acidosis, or bloat, from things like a corn heavy diet. This article explains it a little better... Let's be really honest here - go check a bag of pelleted goat or horse feed - a good portion of it is corn or soy. It's certainly not fresh green stuff at all! So, if by chance an accident occurs and you over feed (like the day I fed and then my husband fed thinking I hadn't yet...that was a doozy) or if you just are over feeding and not realizing it...you are setting yourself up for failure in a way...We actually took the corn out of the goats diets a few years back now and have not had a case of "bloat" or acidosis since then, but it was not uncommon to run up against it from time to time before when we fed traditional goat feeds...
Then, there are our horses...over feeding pelleted feeds can lead to colic. Too much bagged type feed and not enough roughage and you set yourself up for it - ask our friend who lost her beloved mare after making that mistake...plus it's much harder on their teeth and such to eat those pellets than it is to grind up some grass. Sure, horses teeth are meant to grind and pulverize - GRASS - which is actually fairly soft, stringy but soft, compared to pelleted stuff - not hard like the pellets in bags are. Since switching to fodder our middle aged gelding (17 years old - not ancient, but getting up there) has had a much easier time staying the right weight. (And yes, he has been properly wormed, had his teeth floated, etc...but you can tell his body processes fodder better).
That's the other thing - fodder is much more bio-available to the animals to digest...we'll save that talk for tomorrow though...
Then there are all the horror stories and recalls and what not in regards to processed feeds...This article hits very close to home and then there was my own mysteriously dropping poultry...these are just 2 examples of why you have to be careful what you feed your animals.
You also have the whole "non-GMO/organic" vs not side of the debate...it's still pretty easy to find and source organic type barley and wheat to sprout compared to finding organic feed (at least where I live). Also, even though it may be more expensive to go the non-GMO route, it still is a money saver to sprout it into fodder...
Oh yes - one 50lb bag of seed turns into 250lbs of feed! You still feed by weight, just as you should with pelleted type feeds, and you actually feed pretty closely to the same amounts. You just get far more bang for your buck with fodder! So, it's a money saver that's for sure...They also seem to go through less hay when you feed fodder. YES, EVERYTHING still needs hay! Those long, dry, fiber filled grassy bits help their digestion just as humans need the right amount of fiber in their diets. But we are using less of it that's for sure! Here, during the winter, we were going through close to 2 square bales a day pre-fodder - now that I have made the switch, we are down to about one square bale a day and that will certainly be less as it greens up out there with spring coming on...but knowing next winter I will need less hay to get through is NICE!
PRE-fodder, I was bringing home 8 to 10 50lb bags of feed every 2 weeks - even after I thinned the herd! Now, I bring home maybe 5. My goats still get their alfalfa pellets for the calcium (we are a dairy herd after all and calcium out in the form of milk = needing calcium in to make more) and I need the pelleted stuff for the pig some days so I can soak it with whey and milk for him...otherwise he tips the bucket and spills it...messy thing! I've basically cut my feed bill easily in half even including the hay!
So, without going all scientific on you just yet, that was my initial take on why we were going to switch. It was more natural to what they would eat, FAR less processed and meddled with by humans, a way to cut back on the feed bill when I ran the numbers in theory (though now I know for sure), and a power packed form of feed that was easy to digest! The next thing I had to do was look at it more in depth - it seemed like a good idea...but I had to do some more research..
If you go to the following blogs and websites, you will see some of the info I found and can read through it for yourself - these people have put TONS of time and effort into this and have some great material!
Paca Pride Guest Ranch has an awesome blog and videos!
Half Pint Homestead has tons of info and sells kits geared towards smaller producers (like us :) )
The facebook Fodder Group is full of people with tons of knowledge ready to answer any questions you may have!
Here and here are 2 more sites more geared towards the larger producers with their set ups...
Also...remember fodder works for pretty much everything, not just horses and goats....take a look and watch for more to come from me...you'll be amazed when you read through it all...
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