What causes poor germination of wheat?

Although I no longer have rabbits, I still sprout smaller quantities of wheat as a winter supplement for our Pilgrim goose, Elsie and occasionally for the chickens as well.

We recently bought a sack of wheat that looked rather dirty and only about 10% of it germinated -- and the sprouts were weak and small. I called the feed store. The woman there tried to give me the run-around: "Who grows wheat at this time of year?" I explained, very briefly the process and advantages. "We don't sell wheat for that," she said. "We've been buying wheat from you for years," I told her, "and it has always sprouted just fine. There's something wrong with this wheat."

We went a couple more rounds and then she gave in and said we could have a replacement bag free of charge. I thanked her nicely and Brian picked up the wheat the next week.

This wheat looked only a little better and the germination rate is about 20%. I guess we will be getting our wheat elsewhere in the future.

We had been feeding the wheat dry to Elsie and the chickens prior to trying to sprout it and have noted no ill-effects. I suspect it is just very old. This is a new problem for me and I'd really appreciate hearing from more knowledgeable members.

I wouldn't classify myself in the "more knowledgeable member" category, but I know our feed store carries both feed wheat and seed wheat and there is a drastic difference in quality (but only a couple/few dollars differe3nce in price for 50 lbs). I tried being cheap and just use the feed wheat (as if it was that much more expensive to get the seed :roll: ) and it just didn't work well. It sprouted OK, but got scummy much faster from all the dirt and debris and definitely had a lower germination rate.

Don't know that I am any help--it was from Maggie that I learned the basics I've used for growing out wheat into fodder the past 2 winters. We buy feed wheat and it sprouts well. There are bits of other things in it--I've seen corn and some other seeds that I don't recognize. And sometimes it's dirtier or dustier than others. We set up a fan in the barn and pour the seed from one bowl to another in front of it to blow away the dust and chaff before we use it for sprouting. We buy 50 pound bags and only sprout part of it--the rest is fed to chickens, goats and rabbits along with oats and BOSS (not the last for rabbits except for nursing does) We order it at our local feed store and they get it from the mill along with other grains that they regularly carry. I don't know if anyone at the feed store could tell us where the mill gets it or how hard it would be to get that information. That's why we like to grow as much of our own feed as we can--we know where it came from, know when it was harvested and how it was dried. We know if there was a problem along the way and can decide whether to still feed it and to whom. It's so frustrating to see that kind of change in the quality of a product you've been buying for some time and not to be able to get a straight answer about the change.
Thanks for helping me get started, Maggie. Hope you find some wheat that sprouts.

It's always my pleasure to help introduce people to natural feeding, Rainey.

Heritage, I'll ask at the feed store if they carry two grades of wheat. A bag of wheat lasts Elsie a long time, so a bit more expensive won't be an issue.

I think, however, that we'll start getting the wheat at the other feed store. It's quite close and I like dealing with them, but we don't like their layer crumbs -- too fine and a lot gets wasted.

It's been a fairly open winter here, fortunately for Elsie, and she's been able to graze last years grasses more than half of the time. She is such a sweetheart: ten years old this spring and never a mean moment in her whole life.

Maybe there was some sort of change with the vendor, or the vendor's supplier? Heat treated? I've had cheap dirty junky wheat before. It sprouted just fine and grew boatloads of mold along with it :lol: :lol: The oats I tried were treated in some way and did absolutely nothing. Thankfully my feed store is savvy and actually knows about fodder!