cooked corn vs. steam flaked corn

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colosteers

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Sep 9, 2007
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I have heard people talk about cooking corn to get a better finish on steers.

Is steam flaking corn going to be the same or close to cooking corn for finish?   

I can get steam flaked corn for my sons steers,  this corn is suppose to reach over 200 degrees before being flaked.

Also -  how much steam flaked can be added before affecting their hair, but still add to their finish?

Thanks in advance for any and all info
Have a good one
 

steer-guy

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Mar 3, 2009
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Both are good but I would have to say that the cooked corn is a little better. Simply because you still get all the starches. You loose some of that when it is pressed or flaked. When you cook it and it cools, you will see all the "good stuff" that is still there. Pressure cooker or a Roaster works good....
My opinion
 

TMJ Show Cattle

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Feed your steam flaked corn and cook some barley instead. Believe it or not if your calf is having trouble finishing like you want,say 30-45 days out,add about 2lbs. of mashed up raw potatoes to the diet. Oldtime remedy that WORKS.
 

SlickTxMaine

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TMJ - 2lbs per day, or 2lbs per feeding??  Are you saying the potatoes give better results than cooked corn?
 

SouthWest

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Aug 18, 2008
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Steam Flaked.  Steam flaked is also cooked.  It is process one step further to expose more of the gluten.  With it being flat and exposed, the digestive tract can more easily and fully absorb all of its energy.  With a kernel, the rumen needs to further process it to expose the gluten on its own.  I guess thats why all the big feedyard steam flake thier grain.
 

shortyjock89

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TMJ Show Cattle said:
Feed your steam flaked corn and cook some barley instead. Believe it or not if your calf is having trouble finishing like you want,say 30-45 days out,add about 2lbs. of mashed up raw potatoes to the diet. Oldtime remedy that WORKS.

I was going to say the same thing.  I had an oldtimer tell me the potato thing a few years back and I saw a steer that it was used on, and it really did work.  Never have done the potato thing myself, but I've fed the cooked barley and I LOVE barley for adding finish once you get 120 days or closer to finish.
 

aj

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Jul 5, 2006
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I worked for a steam flaked corn outfit a couple years. We also flaked barley for a big customer. The barley has tremendous feed value and was cheaper to raise on irrigation than corn. The barley went to a 10,000 head feedlot. Dairies love the stuff. We usually delivered the corn at about 20% moisture. Our market niche were feedlots or dairies that weren't big enough enough to put their own steamer in. I think it was around a million dollars for the system. Shelf life on flaked corn was around 7 days before it spoiled(probably 3 days on 100 degree days).We didn't dry down flaked corn but one feed mill did. However they gave up on that cause they were loosing so much payweight on the drydown. Barley really had some advantages. One cool thing about flaking corn was that we could take wet corn out of the harvest field at say 20% moisture and run it in the steamer without drydown. When we prepared dry corn at say 16% moisture we actually had to run water into corn corn. The business employed around 6 full time people and easily could process 8 semi loads aday.
 

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