Barley Fodder Grow Trays Now For Sale!

One of our many mantras we live by at Paca Pride Guest Ranch is that our definition of success comes from positioning others to become successful.  On that front we want others to succeed as much as we have with adding Barley micro-greens to your livestock’s diet!

In fact, we’ve heard so much positive feedback about our system from the DIY Fodder Producers we talk to,  that we’ve worked out a deal to start selling Grow Tray Kits to the general public!

While we have single trays available for sale, the most bang for your buck comes from ordering either our 10-pack or our 20-pack where we’ve included a discount. Given that most DIY growers usually choose to have a minimum of 10 tray systems, a bulk rate is something we wanted to be able to offer.

These trays are ideally suited to the various requirements for growing Barley Fodder mats(or other grains too! Wheat is 2nd most popular).

Each tray is capable of producing a 25-30lb mat from a seed rate of 5lbs of grain.  Higher seeds rates will produce heavier mats, but we have found that a seed rate of 5lbs per tray, gives us a manageable 25lb-30lb mat to handle.

The grow tray includes raised bottom sections that allow the water to drain off into the lower channels assuring excellent water drainage and flow.  The channels direct the runoff to the teal drain (left side in photo at top) which is level with the channels, and slightly lower than the raised sections of the tray.

Along with the main teal drain, the tray also includes an overflow drain. This second drain might be questionable by some until seeing it in action on the more mature grow trays with root mats that fill the tray and slow down the flow of water to the main drain.

Both drains have easily removable caps that prevent the actual grain from slipping down the drain. As the root mats grow, the drain caps prevent the roots from completely backing up the water in the tray. At harvest, the drain cap is removed from the root mat, and tapped free of roots, then the tray is washed and readied for the next grow cycle.

Drainage is a crucial function in producing fodder mats. Trays with small drain holes get easily clogged by roots as well as the starchy runoff produced by the growing sprouts. Look for grow trays that feature good drainage to assure consistent production over time.

Good, solid, grow trays are a necessary investment to a well running fodder system. You will want to look for trays that are also durable over the long haul.  Our grow trays are a heavy duty plastic that was meant for commercial growing operations. They are very durable trays and will last quite a long time!

Tray size is also another very important characteristic to look for when designing a DIY system. You’ll want to avoid smaller trays that have limits in the size mats they can produce, because as your production goals go up, this will translate into the handling of many small trays and mean more work and effort in harvesting, cleaning, and re-seeding your trays, spending more time in the fodder room.  Too large a tray translates into fodder mats which can become clumsy and unruly to manage. Our grow trays minimize the daily chore in the fodder room by offering the manageability that comes along with a reduction in the individual trays being used to produced nicely sized, manageable fodder mats.

These grow trays measure: Inside dimensions – 13” Wide x 40” Long x 3” Deep. Outside dimensions –  15″ x 42″

The design of these trays, allow them to sit level, without any tilting required, on a grow shelf of your choosing.  With the drains at one end of the tray, you can create a DIY system that places the drains over the shelf edge and positioned over a gutter system to direct your runoff to the drain.

For the DIY Fodder producer, these grow trays make a great investment! You build the shelves to support the trays, provide water on a timer to each tray using PVC or garden irrigation supplies you can find at your local hardware store, and provide the gutter drainage to direct the runoff to your drain. The addition of some daylight rated fluorescent lights on a timer will help green up any sprouts you grow.

We can ship these trays anywhere within the continental US.

You can send a purchase request to us via email at Info@PacaPride.com for a price quote.

(Be sure to include where the trays will be shipped, for a shipping quote.)

You can also call us to place an order by phone at 360-691-3395.

For all orders we accept Mastercard or VISA via phone.

Barley Fodder Videos! Including our Fodder Room Walkthrough, (and bonus cute stuff too!)

Our earlier trials of the flood and drain trays

The most important part of our “Proof of Concept” Phase!

A nice long look at them several months into the morning fodder feeding ritual.

A look at our Barley Fodder Room Operation… daily tasks take about 20 minutes.

And a few bonus cute videos for your enjoyment!

Paca Pride Alpacas Grazing…Up Close! REALLY Close!

Rounding up the herd from a snowy January walk

The Extended Cut! A Paca Pride alpaca romp with the dogs in the winter snow!

Dirt! Of Sand, Ag Lime, and Diatomaceous Earth (and adding dirt to fodder mats!)

Alpacas are native to the Altiplano region of South America.  That’s a high desert region with sparse vegetation. In fact they are most adapted to such conditions.  So, when we were planning our homestead permaculture to incorporate them as our livestock, such an awareness actually figured in strategically. Our herd is never left out on a field or pasture area to sleep there; pastures are where they go to “work” or “dine”.  Instead, its around the barn that we make their bedroom spaces. After a couple years experimenting, we’ve come to find that a layer of washed, screen sand is in fact the best option for their bedroom loafing shed areas.  Every couple of years, we’ve been bringing in a dumptruck load of sand and building up a raised dais area for them to loaf.  Their hay feeders and their sources of water are all located nearby.  As it turns out, this dry lot approach really has a lot of practical benefits.

For one, as the UV rays of the sun hit the sand, bacteria is killed. For another, Alpacas are communal dung pilers, preferring a select few spots to poop. The sand provides a great drainage for the urine to work its way down and allow the poop to be easily scooped up.  A bit of sand actually benefits our compost, making it truly a sandy loam that’s great for the garden.   Good drainage mean no muddy areas even on the rainiest of PacNorWest days.  The sandy surface, along with our gravel service alley out to the pastures, also contributes to keeping our toenail trimming tasks to a minimum, usually at shearing time, once a year.

We like to keep the elements of a permaculture down to its simplest components. That means using our resources wisely and not turning to toxic or environmentally hazardous materials to solve our problems.  Currently, our chicken coop lives within the alpaca dry lot. We have 22+ egg layers living in a raised coop, with a floor made of fencing material that allows all their poop to drop down into catch trays. Having the coop within the dry lot, means we’ve got an “Alpaca Moat” of protection from all 4-legged predators and we no longer close our coop at night. Our free ranging chickens roam everywhere on the homestead and return to roost at night. Having catch trays allows us to avoid constant maintenance of cleaning a coop with a floor. Instead the chicken poop falls through and starts to compost.  We empty these trays about every 2-3 months into our alpaca poop compost bins. Here’s where our next magical mineral comes into play: Ag Lime!  Also known as Garden Lime, this is a ground up form of limestone that you can touch (as opposed to builder’s lime or hydrated lime, which would burn your skin).  Every once in a while we’ll take several scoopfuls of it and toss it into the chicken coop where it coats roosting poles and surfaces as well as fall onto the composting chicken poop in the catch trays.  The lime is very effective at neutralizing the smells and acting as a sanitizer.  It also impacts the amount of flies laying their eggs in the composting poop.   We can also make a solution of Ag Lime and water and spray it onto surfaces or paint it like a white-wash. Ag Lime is quite effective at sanitizing the surfaces this way.  But, we don’t stop our use of it at the chicken coop.  The hay feeders within the loafing shed areas have the bottoms coated with a good layer of Ag Lime as well.  Our hay feeders are always bug free and clean smelling. We’ll use Ag Lime in conjunction with some baking soda if we have a need to re-locate a poorly chosen poop pile that the herd suddenly starts somewhere. In combination with the baking soda, all the olfactory and visual cues are interrupted causing the herd to think twice about using that spot to poop.

But the real star player when it comes to talking dirty here at the ranch, is Diatomaceous Earth, and if you have not heard about it yet or used it, I’m about to change your life for the better! It truly is the miracle of miracles, naturally occurring substances that every farm and home should be using!

Want to completely eliminate the need for deworming and parasite control?  Drastically reduce flies? Eliminate mites and fleas? Increase your animals health?  Eliminate algae coated water buckets? Add trace minerals to their diets? Even reduce your own cholesterol and detox your gut? How about treating E.coli?

Do I have your attention yet? All the above are possible, along with hundreds of other uses which allow you to go pesticide and chemical free on your homestead.

Diatomaceous Earth is basically, well, dirt!  Actually, it’s the fossilized remains of diatoms, a form of algae, that lived thousands upon thousands of years ago, which died and then sank to the bottom of the ocean and lake beds to accumulate.  It is the most abundant form of organic amorphous Silica in the world. As it turns out, our bodies actually need more silica than even iron. So, yes, this dirt is good for you, and it also contains an abundance of trace minerals too:  Calcium, Magnesium, Titanium Dioxide, Gallium, Vanadium, Strontium, Sodium, Boron, Potassium, Copper, Zirconium, iron, all existing in mineral oxide forms making them bio available.  In addition, the not-so-trace element which it most contains is Silicon Dioxide, essential for good bone growth and nutritionally important for preventing some forms of chronic diseases associated with aging. Basically, humans, animals, and plants have an essential need for the mineral, Silicon, in order to maintain life, and unfortunately, in today’s world, our diets can easily become Silicon deficient.

So, how do we use it? So many ways!  Let me highlight a few for you:

- Added to water sources to prevent algae accumulation and to allow animals to drink it when they drink water

- Acts as a natural dewormer and parasite control when ingested.

- Spread on corral floors to allow alpacas and llamas to “dust” in preventing skin problems and cleans their coats. Eliminates all mites and fleas!  (Dust your dog or cat with it!)

-Spread in chicken nest boxes to eliminate fleas and mites.

-Scooped into the chicken’s free-choice feeder to eliminate weevils, moths and all bugs in the feeder. (and the chickens will eat it too!)

-Added to chicken waterer to keep the water clean and for chickens to drink as well.

- Tossed into chicken coop, onto roost poles, and over the poop catch trays to control flies and maggots in the composting manure.

-Top Dressed on Fodder mats, as needed, to add trace minerals, and control parasites, bacterias, and other “baddies” in the guts of alpacas, including Nemotodirus. Strongyles, and Coccidia. (not only working inside the animal, but you’ll notice a big difference in flies at the poop piles as well: they won’t lay eggs in poop that contains diatomaceous earth from feeding! DE continues to work even after it’s pooped out!)

- A scoopful is added to every 50lb bag of dog food we open in the pantry. Our dogs eat it too! (can also be added to their water bowl)

-Added to our garden harvest of grains and seeds for storage to help absorb moisture and prevent bugs.

-Used in the garden to control bugs and as a soil supplement.

-and even the human takes a teaspoon full a day mixed with a bit of water, on an empty stomach, 10 days on and 10 days off, as a natural detox, a source of silica and trace minerals, to reduce cholesterol, and for the health of his gut and immune system.

Phew! That’s a lot to take in! You can learn more by checking out the book “Going Green Using Diatomaceous Earth How-To Tips” by Tui Rose, R.N.  You can also check out the numerous evidence on human use at www.earthworkshealth.com (also a source to purchase).  Most feed and supply stores sell 50lb bags of the “Food Grade” DE.  This is the most economical to buy, and actually, its relatively cheap. Be sure that you pay close attention to the label and only buy DE that is rated “Food Grade”.

Barley Fodder: From Trials to Production

We have some really happy alpacas and llamas at Paca Pride Guest Ranch with the ramping up of our production system for growing barley fodder mats for their winter diet. Even the chickens are enjoying pecking around for the rogue barley grains in the mats. What started out earlier this year as a trial to explore producing micro-greens, or fresh sprouts, for the herd (see previous blog entries) has really turned into something that is quite inspiring and, so far, we’re glad for taking the risk.

Barley sprouts are a superior feed for ruminants that takes a small amount of grain and, via a hydroponic growing process, turns it into a highly digestible, fresh mat in 7-9 days giving a high yield in a very small footprint of space. This approach represents a reduction in feed costs as we change from a diet of dry hay and dry pelleted grain rations to a diet of  fresh greens supplemented with hay for fiber and roughage.  Commonly laid claims of barley sprouts tout them as superior nutrition; vitamin and mineral saturation and availability; phytic acid reduction giving a PH balanced diet; increases in Omega 3, amino acids, and natural hormones.  While benefits like this always sound great, livestock owners should explore the feed values represented in a product with relation to cost. However, as we have found when testing for nutrition, a dry feed analysis of this fresh product does not necessarily translate; to do a dry feed analysis you must first dry the fodder sample, essentially ending up with hay, which is what gets tested for nutritional value. But that’s like comparing apples to oranges. A dry grain of barley is only 30% digestible, a barley sprout is 80% digestible. A dried sample of barley fodder is not the same as a fresh sprout in terms of nutritional benefits either. So, be careful in knowing the basis of any calculations you are doing when looking at nutritional values of a fresh vs. dry feed product. Our conclusions have so far led us to believe that our fresh salad bar offering will not only save money, but also be healthier.

Our current production system is taking 6lbs of barley grain and turning it into a 36-40lb fodder mat. That’s over a six fold increase in weight!

The process is simple, but the operational parameters demand a bit of attention. First let’s look at the steps we go through when we visit our fodder room, once a day, for both harvest and grain prep chores, which are taking approximately 20 minutes. Then, we’ll talk about the nuances to be aware.

Each day, we are dealing with 2 trays in our system for loading with pre-soaked grain and 2 trays for harvesting a final product to feed to the herd (about 80lb!)  In the first step, the grain is prepared for a 24 hour soaking period that loosens the hard seed hull and triggers the germination process. For this we use two 5 gallon buckets; one is drilled with numerous sieve holes, large enough to drain water easily and small enough that the grain doesn’t fall through. This bucket sits inside the second bucket allowing the seed to soak and then lifted and easily drained for spreading in a tray.  The bottom bucket is the one we use initially to wash and rinse the grain seed removing any chaff and debris that floats to the top of the water with a spoon strainer. (In fact, we actually use the leftover soak water after draining the previous days seed to wash our next day’s seed in.) We add 12 lbs of grain and after a bit of stirring and straining the debris, we pour the washed grain into the bucket with the holes, then placing the drain bucket back into the wash bucket. It gets fill with water and chlorine bleach is added at a rate of 1 tablespoon per gallon for sanitizing the seed and killing any mold or yeast that may be on the grain hulls.  The soaking seed sits until we come back the next morning.

As far as the chore list goes, preparing the next day’s batch of seed is actually our last step. Our first task is harvesting 2 of the finished trays from the system. We simply pull the trays out, empty the fodder mat in one piece into a tote for transporting to the animal feeders.  The trays get rinsed and examined for any grain or roots blocking the drains, then placed back in their spots on the grow shelves ready for use again. In our new production system, the trays sit lengthwise onto shelves that are 48” deep and allow the drain fittings to simply hang over a gutter system that directs the runoff to the drain. No pipe fittings to plug or unplug from the trays. Each tray has it’s own 1/4” irrigation tube hanging from the water distribution line right above. The only thing to watch out for is that the irrigation tube is properly flowing into the tray seated below it.

We then turn our attention to spreading yesterday’s soaking grain into 2 trays. For these flood-and-drain trays, 13”x40”, we have settled (somewhat) on a seeding rate of 6lbs of grain per tray determined by how much soaked grain it takes to spread 1/4” deep (we’re actually thinking we can go lower towards 5lbs).  The seed is simply scooped out with a pre-marked measuring tub and the tray shaken until it looks evenly distributed.  The tray is then set back in its spot on the shelves, checking that it’s irrigation tube is in place, until it is ready to harvest. After spreading the pre-soaked seed, we prepare a new batch for soaking as described above.

The process described above is currently taking around 20 minutes from start to finish, once a day. Most of the work is done by the system itself. Here’s how it plays out over the course of 7 days

From our trials this year we learned quite a bit about the operational parameters that must be maintained in order to assure, not only good growth and production, but also to avoid problems with mold and fermentation. So here’s a general rundown of things to be concerned about:

Growing Environment – The grow room itself should be run as clean as possible. This is not a project that does well in a dirty environment. We’re not talking donning hazmat suits, but I wouldn’t exactly approach this project in a greenhouse either. Having a dedicated fodder room not only gives you control of its cleanliness, but also the other important factor, the temperature.  Ideally, barley is a cold weather crop and actually performs best in temps that are around 60F degrees. Having a grow space that can be temperature controlled is critical to this operation. A room that goes above 70F degrees will not only experience poor performance, but will also be more likely to see mold develop too.  Humidity has not been a challenge as of yet, but our levels are measuring between 40-70% depending upon outside conditions. High humidity may require ventilation to circulate fresh air.

Seed Prep – This operation requires the use of a sink for rinsing and cleaning trays as well as for preparing the batches of seed. We use household bleach during the pre-soak process only, not during the actual grow cycle. This little bit of bleach (1TBSP to 1GAL ratio) sanitizes the seed quite well.  Concerns about the use of this chemical abound and there are numerous opinions about whether to use it or some other product that is non-toxic. For us, bleach is cheap, readily available, and losses it’s effectiveness after 24-36 hours. Since it is only used during the pre-soak, it doesn’t damage the barley grain itself so much as effectively kills any bacteria and mold spores on its surface. Once the seed is spread in the trays, the first watering cycle gives it a good rinse as well assuring no chlorine bleach reaches the final product. Having mold free trays are much more important to us than concerns presented by a diluted bleach solution, but it is imperative that with whatever preparation is done, some sort of sanitizer is used to clean the grain hulls during the wash and pre-soak stage.

Water – To recycle or not to recycle is always a question that gets asked. We firmly fall into the fresh water is best category. Recycling water via a reservoir leads to a bevy of problems that are detrimental to operation.  If one tray has a problem, recycling water will spread that problem quickly.  In fact, water usage is rather minimal when comparing the yields of this type of operation to watering a field to grow the same amount of grass. Our water cycle lengths are simply determined by the amount of time it takes a tray filled with soaked seed to get covered, or flooded, with water. In this system, that is a 4 minute long cycle.  Trays that are further along and have considerable root mass, actually need less water; longer watering times can cause the more mature trays to overflow. It’s this last point that makes the overflow drain a thankful precaution in the later days of growth when some of the roots can grow into the drain and slow the flow of water.  Our watering schedule is set for 4 times a day: 8am, Noon, 4pm, 8pm.  We scheduled no watering during our “night” period when the lights are off. We also were keen to schedule our fodder room chores of harvesting and spreading to happen at least an hour or two after the 8am watering to assure the trays being harvested have had enough time to drain.

Light – We set our lights for the room on a timer that is 16 hours on and 8 hours off to simulate a day and night. Currently we use a few CFL blubs for the main lighting source but are also in the process of securing LED rope lights to dispel the darker shadows at the back of the shelves. A little bit of light serves well to green up the sprouts along with encouraging the barley to stretch a bit towards the light.  No intense HID lighting or grow lights that give off heat should be used for this operation.

Flooring – Let’s just say that when you are setting up a DIY operation like this, you are bound to experience the mishaps, and it usually involve some flooding.  We’re glad we bought a remnant piece of linoleum for our floor so that clean up of any water becomes easy. So far we’ve had two instances of flooding in the fodder room. The first was due to an irrigation line not being properly placed in a tray (oops! user error!). It was a minor flood from just one tray. The second flood was experienced about a week into operation and was much worse. It was caused by the gutter system backing up where a mesh screen was inserted as a last chance pre-caution to catch any rogue seed before it flowed out of the room.  What happened, however, was that the starchy runoff from a week started to clog the filter and caused the lowest gutter to overflow on to the floor. We have since removed that mesh screen (oops! over-design! turns out the mesh screen was overkill as the tray drains are doing a really good job keeping the barley grains in the tray.)

Our next steps with this operation, now that it has been successfully integrated into our farm system, is measuring.  We have started rationing our hay as well as weighing the fodder mats. Next June, coming shearing time, we’ll be measuring how much hay we have left in the barn along with measuring the amount of fiber harvested from the alpacas.  We’ll be comparing the results of this coming harvest to the prior year’s to see if fiber production is impacted. Of course, we’ll also be measuring the bottom line of costs too!

UPDATE: We now sell our grow trays! see this posting: http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/barley-fodder-grow-trays-now-for-sale/

Intrigued by this article? Be sure to watch our companion video of our Fodder Room Procedures here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hes3ZhvjtqY

Paca Pride Gets “Shear” Press Coverage!

The alpacas are all excited with the recent media coverage they received during shearing.  The hoards of crowds, and even a tour bus or two that arrived for viewing, enjoyed the pastoral scene with the vista views and the action at the shearing table.  This year was the year of the poodle dog haircut for some of the animals, as they kept their neck and leg fiber to grow double long for next season’s harvest. These styling animals are now all enjoying the summer days lying in the grass tanning themselves. If you missed all the action, take a look at some of these articles that appeared in the Everett Herald and some videos, from the public who visited, on YouTube!

It’s alpaca-shearing time at Granite Falls farm

Alpaca shearing is a team effort at Granite Falls ranch

Here are a couple of compilation You Tube videos from the public visitors, and be sure to check out the last one from the Everett Herald reporter that used a GoPro camera to put together a time-lapse video of shearing an alpaca (in 45 seconds!)

From LittleMovies1’s YouTube channel

From our friend Paul’s YouTube channel

From the Everett Herald, “How to Shear an Alpaca…in 45 seconds!”

Bonus! 

We used a GoPro Hero2 camera and attached it to Uber, the llama, as we walked him and Mucho the llama in the 4th of July “Robe Valley Hill-Billy Indy Day parade”.  You can view the entire album of llama cam pictures on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PacaPride including this one:

But if you’d like the super-duper, Uber, time lapse video of the entire 45 minute parade in 7 minutes, as seen from the Uber’s perspective, check out THIS video!

From the GoPro Llama cam, attached to Uber the llama

Barley Fodder Sprouting Trials continued: New Flood and Drain Tray System Installed

To get a bit of background behind this project, read our previous blog entry entitled “From Seed to Feed”.

In our Phase One Trials, we were performing a “proof of concept” with using barley grain seed and seedling propagation trays to see if we could grow fodder mats to feed as an alternative livestock feed.  Well, the jury of our peers, ahem, our herd, has ruled that they love the stuff!  The Phase One Trials were not without some challenges.  The approach we used involved trays that did not drain, and were hand watered.  With some of them receiving an excess of water, the barley does what it does best when sitting in water, it started to ferment. When it starts to ferment, it is prone to mold as well. In others, too little water meant the grain drying up and not growing.

In the newly installed hydroponic system, we approach sprouting the barley grain through a flood and drain style tray.  We’ve set up a series of nine trays stacked vertically. These trays cycle through a timer that periodically turns on a pump in the water reservoir to fill the trays from one end. At the other end, a drain guides the water back to the reservoir.  This approach keeps the barley seeds moist and wet, but not soaking and not drying out.

Since we are using a barley that is classified as “field run”, it tends to contain a bit more chaff and dirt on it. So an extra step we’ve added at the beginning is to wash and rinse the seed in water. This causes the chaff to rise to the top for easy removal.  Extra chaff and dirt in the barley just adds to the possibility of molds appearing, so we want our grain seed to be as clean as we can get it.

After a good rinse, we toss the barley into a mesh bag for an overnight soaking in a bucket. We add a small amount of chlorine bleach to the water to kill any mold spores on the surface of the grain. We use bleach for a couple reasons: it’s cheap, and effective. It doesn’t affect the germination of the grain, as the overnight soak just softens the hard seed coating for germination. There are other sanitizers available out there, but for our trials we have found household bleach to be appropriate. We are not worried about a lingering affect as the seed is removed from the soak the next day and placed in the trays where they are awash in water from the reservoir. In addition bleach is effective for about 24-36 hours before it loses it’s ability to disinfect. The mesh bag makes for easy removal and draining from the bucket to the grow trays the next day.

The soaking of the barley is key to good germination. Some farmers will even soak their seed before sowing it in the field in order to increase the germination rates. Our total soak time is up to 24 hours depending upon when we get back to the trays the next day. Any longer of a soak and the barley will simply start to ferment.  Fermented seed is not bad, in fact, it contains beneficial enzymes that are good for the gut of a chicken or alpaca, like a good fermented pickle for people.  I’ve heard of goat owners that ferment grains for their animals for this reason.

However, fermenting is not our goal, sprouting is our goal.  We are concerning ourselves with protein levels and nutrients in the fresh barley grass, rather than enzymes.

Our current seeding rate as well as the watering cycles are not yet set in stone as we figure the optimums out. We are also trying to figure out the best number of days to allow for growth; it seems around 9 days that the best mat forms. At the moment, we are starting with 6 pounds of barley seed per tray. We want a good 1/2” depth of seed in the tray so that we get enough density that the roots knit together to form a solid mat. We started with four 15 minute cycles per day and recently adjusted that down to two 20 minute cycles per day watching for how wet the seeds seem to remain throughout the day versus drying out.

The first tray came due yesterday with this new system installed for about ten days now and from the 6 pounds of seed we got 22 pounds of fodder. That’s almost a four-fold increase in weight; not bad at all for a feed source.  We’ve stuck with this seed rate for  a full cycle of the nine trays so far just to compare against.  We may make some adjustments over time, but for this size of tray, a minimum of 6 pounds seems good, any less and it’s just not as dense a growth.

As far as growth is concerned, well you can see for yourself in these pictures! With a root mat about an inch thick and growth of at least 8 inches, the system works! As you can see looking at the entire tray, the minimum lighting we are providing is enough to green up all the way to the farthest end of the tray from the light source. In fact, if there is enough ambient lighting in a grow space, additional lighting is not really required.

What do the animals think of it? Well the first tray was served to them on a wet rainy day, and as you can see they gobbled it right up!

UPDATE! We now offer our grow trays for sale! See this posting: http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/barley-fodder-grow-trays-now-for-sale/

For a video tour of the new system, check out our You Tube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_6hfN_4KCo

Tour the new Flood and Drain style system we installed for our Phase 2 Trials.

2012 Shearing Dates Announced!

We will be shearing our herd of alpacas over the course of 2 days this year starting Saturday, June 30th and Sunday July 1st.

The general start time will be 10am and usually proceeds until around 5pm or until the slate of animals for that day is complete.

The Saturday and Sunday shearings will be open to the public for viewing if you’d like to bring a picnic lunch and watch…

For more information, visit our Facebook page for updates: www.Facebook.com/PacaPride