do you use cracked corn, steamed rolled corn, or steam flaked corn?

To be honest, I am not familiar enough with steam rolled or steam flaked to know what that process entails. But which do you use in your show ration? I am wanting to make up a ton of feed. I have heard that flaked is best, but will not store well, and that rolled is better than cracked, but I don't honestly really know. Thank you.

cracked

There's not a nickel's worth of difference.  High dollar brand name feeds use steam rolled.  High end show cattle traders that feed lots of feed use cracked unless their mills happen to have on-site steam rolling ability (which is rare).

We mix our own.  Generally, I buy a 1400# tote of 3-way (corn, oats, barley) with molasses in the winter and a separate 1400# tote of cracked corn.  I use 1400# totes because that is what my tractor loader can lift out of the back of the pickup without complications.  My feed man says that you cannot safely store a tote full of flaked corn because of the moisture from the steam flaking process -- it will mold even in winter.  However, the 3-way mix contains flaked corn, but in that instance, the other grain absorbs the moisture from the cracked corn.  As the weather warms up, we will likely cut or eliminate the molasses in the 3-way mix to eliminate the moisture and likelihood of spoilage. 

When we mix rations, I keep a bucket of molasses cut with water (1 part molasses : 3 or 4 parts water) to top dress and cut down dust and to help the rumensin, mineral and other additives that we mix in.  Mixing is in a 5-gallon bucket with a mortar mixer on an old electric drill.  It would be nice to mix bigger batches, but this works ok for now.

Interesting. Thank you!

5PCC said:

To be honest, I am not familiar enough with steam rolled or steam flaked to know what that process entails. But which do you use in your show ration? I am wanting to make up a ton of feed. I have heard that flaked is best, but will not store well, and that rolled is better than cracked, but I don't honestly really know. Thank you.

Click to expand...

I work for VitaFerm and This is blog post that one of our nutritionists wrote about cracked vs. whole corn. They give some examples of when whole should and should not be used. Good luck with your cattle this year.
http://blog.surechamp.com/?p=1948

We grind whole ear corn......so I guess technically we are feeding cracked corn.

If you can get good quality steam flaked it is the best. We typically get if from the dairy closest to us and they get new shipments in every week so we always know that it is fresh