My husband just came home from the neighbors with 40 bushels of wheat out of a broken down combine that he helped tow in. Someone told us not to feed whole wheat to chickens as it would kill them. Can it be fed safely to hog? We own a hammermill if we grind it can it be fed to chickens and hogs?

-- sallyp (sally@cvalley.net), August 21, 2000

Answers

I feed whole wheat to my chickens (part of my y2k supply) and it hasn't hurt them a bit. I did grind it for them when they were small, though. What they scatter and don't eat has the added ability to sprout. What that means is extra greens for the chickens! Or you can go ahead and sprout them yourself and that will be very healthy for them. Sprouts add extra vitamins and that sort of thing. The one thing you want to be sure to do is make enough for everyone! Mine fight over greens and 'goodies' so the amount I was sprouting wasn't enough! Good luck with your wheat! annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), August 21, 2000.

Soak it today, feed it tomorrow. Hogs will love it. Let it ferment and they will love you! James

-- James (triquest@about.com), August 21, 2000.

My flock is only a dozen bantams, so keep that in mind when listening to my advice!

From what I understand, the trouble with whole grains is when the chickens are in pens/cages without access to grit. If they have grit, of course it would be fine--chickens would have gone extinct long ago if they needed their feed ground.

I've heard wonderful things about the benefits of sprouting grains first though. It improves both the nutrient content and the digestibility. I haven't tried sprouting grain for mine yet, but most are free-ranging and all have greens everyday, so they do get nutrients left out of seed-based feeds.

40 bushels of wheat is quite a windfall, make the most of it.

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), August 22, 2000.

The scratch feed that I sometimes buy for my chickens contains wheat and cracked corn. I have even given my chickens just wheat and they love it. They do however need grit. I have been doing this for years and it has never hurt any of my chickens. Wheat will keep for a long time. Try grinding some up and making flour for bread, delicious!

-- bwilliams (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), August 23, 2000.

We once bought a goat from some people who also raised wheat, and they fed wheat to their goats without any problems. Since you have a hammermill, grinding should make it suitable feed for just about anything -- if I had it, though, I would sprout it. It is really good for the animals to have green succulent feed in the winter when everything else is dry.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), August 23, 2000.

We mix a few handfuls of wheat in with the feed for the sheep. It helps add selenium which they need while pregnant. Be careful about grinding up for flour that which has exited the combine unless you know how long it was in there; rodents and insects may have contaminated it. Our chickens also like it; we didn't grind it up.

-- Peggy Taylor (bptaylor@ccrtc.com), August 25, 2000.

Feed wheat berries to livestock? Have you ever tried bulgar? It will cost you $4/lb in the healthfood store and all you have to do to make it at home for 4-5 cents/lb is to wash it, soak it, boil it, dry it and coarse-crack it in a mill. We use a bunch of it (y2k stock) to make tobuli (sp?). Try it, you'll like it!

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), August 27, 2000.