Grazing corn

[SCS]

Reports of cobs going moldy, would be devastating!

[grassfarmer]

No mold here but would be nice to get the ground frozen before starting on it. Going to take a while to freeze up with all the latent heat in the soil. How many people have corn that's way too wet/muddy to graze?

[Alderridge]

Reports of cobs going moldy, would be devastating!

We have seen alittle mold on the cob most years, but no more than normal this year.

[Alderridge]

No mold here but would be nice to get the ground frozen before starting on it. Going to take a while to freeze up with all the latent heat in the soil. How many people have corn that's way too wet/muddy to graze?

We started grazing cow calf pairs on corn on November 6 . Fields are to soft to silage so we have way more corn acres to graze than usual, we still have lots of grass , but if we are going to get through all the corn we need to get started on it.
We have never grazed pairs on corn before . But it is to sloppy in the corrals to wean the calves.
We are moving them once a day to control waste , and only expecting them to clean up cobs and leafs . As we are trying to keep the calves gaining weight at a good rate.

[grassfarmer]

This will be our first time grazing corn - was too wet last week so we decided to start feeding them on an old piece of permanent pasture instead as it needs the nutrients. Probably has dried enough now to go to corn but I'll give it a couple of weeks yet. Don't want to waste too much by trampling but there is the issue of getting through all the corn by spring as you say. Having no snow would presumably let them clean up better as long as it isn't too muddy. Will probably leave the calves on the cows for a while and maybe creep feed them hay/pellets if need be.

[AllisWD45]

Please keep us updated on how the cows are doing with the calves on them.If sorry when the weather gets colder it would be interesting how it goes. That has always been one of the things that corn grazers have wondered about is how the cows and calves will do. Also interested in how long you plan to leave them on corn not weaned

[WiltonRanch]

How's the feed test? I hear nutrient profile can vary so much with corn. Nobody in my immediate area on my soil type grows corn. How's it handle clay clay/loam? Tried it once but thought it sucked but that was 6 years ago. So many I know around me have great success but they're on sandier soil. I hate the thoughts of having to work the crap out of my land to warm it up so corn will grow but the production is amazing.

[grassfarmer]

Ours is on clay loam and it did great this year with all the moisture (apart from some drowned out spots) normally moisture would be our biggest limitation so don't know how it would do on a sandier soil. Depending on your heat units I question if you need to warm up the soil - maybe just wait another week or so i'd think if you live in a warmer area anyway. We seeded May 24th this year and cobs were mature enough by mid September. I really hate recreational tillage and hope to zero-till if at all possible.
Still waiting on a feed test coming back but crop insurance assessed our better variety at 18 tons/acre and just loaded with big cobs.

Big shout out to De Dell seeds out of Ontario, excellent varieties all non-GMO, considerably cheaper than the big companies and a pleasure to deal with.
[URL="http://www.dedellseeds.com"]http://http://www.dedellseeds.com[/URL]

[Alderridge]

How's the feed test? I hear nutrient profile can vary so much with corn. Nobody in my immediate area on my soil type grows corn. How's it handle clay clay/loam? Tried it once but thought it sucked but that was 6 years ago. So many I know around me have great success but they're on sandier soil. I hate the thoughts of having to work the crap out of my land to warm it up so corn will grow but the production is amazing.

The local forage association has tested it most years and has always provided to be very adequate for bred cows.
The only feed tests I have on hand are from last year
Protein ran from 10.3 down to 8.75 %
TDN was from 73.34 down to 65.77%
Relative feed values ranged from 115 to 171
We have row cleaners for the planter and are hoping to seed right into the trash.
If that doesn't work we will disc once then plant
Yields can be very good

[Alderridge]

The local forage association has tested it most years and has always provided to be very adequate for bred cows.
The only feed tests I have on hand are from last year
Protein ran from 10.3 down to 8.75 %
TDN was from 73.34 down to 65.77%
Relative feed values ranged from 115 to 171
We have row cleaners for the planter and are hoping to seed right into the trash.
If that doesn't work we will disc once then plant
Yields can be very good

The feed tests are from the silage pitt
Very dry year so I think the cob to stock ratio was higher than normal

[kato]

Hubby has a theory that mouldy cobs can happen if you push down the fencelines for the paddocks too far ahead of time and it lays in the wet and snow. Hubby just flattens the corn a couple if compartments at a time. Seems to work.

Wejust finally got them back out three days ago. Earlier on they had a 6 acre plot, and then along came the rain, so we switched to hay. Far too much waste when it's muddy. This puts us quite a bit behind a normal year. Usually mid October is when they get started. Our biggest problem getting farther into winter is that if the snow gets too deep, the electric fences don't work so well. The cows are too far off the ground for a proper shock. That shouldn't be a problem this year because a hail storm cut our yield.

For anyone in Manitoba, there's a field day coming up at the research farm north of Brandon.

[grassfarmer]

kato, probably easiest to get a bigger fencer if you can, having that extra power there even in summer makes sure your cows respect fences all the time. Ours is often sitting about 8000-9000kv and fence challenging is not a problem!

[perfecho]

Grazing some barley that got too nasty to combine....have a good fencer, battery dead for 2 days and only one calf had gone thru....they do learn quickly when a good fencer being used. Do think the ample moisture in the ground helps with the ground....big difference.

[grassfarmer]

So for the more experienced corn grazers - are you seeing any reduction in cow longevity due to the amount of grain they are ingesting? That's one part that concerns me and I know of one guy who has quit grazing corn for that reason.

[kato]

We haven't. We have had cows get into the teens having spent some time every year on corn. Ours are on the corn during the last trimester when their requirements are pretty high, so that may make a difference.