New Fodder System

         Hello everyone! Abby here. It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm so glad to see that the other volunteers have kept up the blog and taken advantage of all it has to offer. Being that it is the holiday season I wanted to bring up a very important issue for Vida y Esperanza... food. As I'm sure you have seen in pictures that have been posted, many if not all of the horses in the project are barely able to keep weight on. Currently the program struggles to find donors to help pay for food, since there isn't enough money to cover it from lessons Jose Luis gives to his private students. With 10 horses eating 6 kilos of food per day (a combination of grains, cereals, and alfalfas) the annual cost of feed comes to $9,739. In order to pay for this on his own, Jose Luis would need to maintain 13 full-time students, which isn't reasonable considering he needs to make enough money on top of that to feed himself and his own family.

         Having watched several "green" documentaries lately, I got to thinking.... isn't there some way we can cut down on costs? A way to cut out the middle man and grow our own food efficiently? Lee and I began brainstorming, and she came across the idea of growing barley fodder. We found this great video which gives comprehensive instructions for growing this great alternative to conventional ways of feeding. Take a look...

         The action of sprouting amplifies the natural proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymatic activity, omega 3’s, amino acids, natural hormones, and stimulates immune response. In addition, sprouting the grain increases the digestibility from 40 percent to 80 percent, so that the horses will not need to consume as much fodder compared to commercial feed since they will be obtaining more nutrition from a smaller volume of feed. A 5 pound batch of seed will yield a 25 pound fodder mat in only 7 days, exponentially increasing the efficiency of barley as a food source. By implementing a similar system to the one shown above, we would be able to produce 100 pounds of sprouted barley per day, plus feed them alfalfa at a cost of $5,322 per year! This would be a savings of 45 percent or $4,417 a year. This would translate into 7 full-time students, which is much more reasonable for Jose Luis.

         Excited about the possibility of this new system, Jose Luis and the boys put together a prototype with the help of a new volunteer named Micah. As you can see they used chicken wire and wood to construct shelves that are conducive to the flood-and-drain system that is the most effective in this kind of set-up. The entire process from seed to full sprouting takes only 7 days to complete. After some initial precautions are taken against mold (rinsing and soaking with a small amount of bleach or vinegar), all that is required is watering a few times a day, and voilà!

         This project is a great way to get the boys more involved with the program. Many of them have really taken to the idea, excited to learn about the growth process and becoming sustainable. Since the fodder will be harvested at Blajot, it will also provide much needed structure and a sense of responsibility among the members of Vida y Esperanza.

         Construction is set to begin next week at Blajot, starting with building a floor space and walls on an already existing lean-to structure. The bit that will be started next week Micah has very generously agreed to finance!! As for the rest of construction and material costs we predict that it will come to approximately $2,200. This figure may sound high, but with the fodder system in place we will still be saving over $2,000 the first year. We will need to buy:

34 Plastic 40L Gasoline Tanks (cut in half to make 64 24" x 15" trays) 
                $8.82 x 34 =  $300    

Materials to Build 2 Large Shelving Units 
                $350 x 2  =  $700

Drainage Supplies
                $200

Foundation and Walls for the Existing Lean-To
                $1,000

         If you wish to contribute to this project, please find the 'Donate' button on the right side of this blog. Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. If you are unable to contribute monetarily, your input and ideas about how to further Vida y Esperanza's sustainability effort are welcomed, and you can do so by leaving a comment below each post! Sharing this page and spreading the word to friends and family is immensely helpful as well! Thanks again for all of the support!