Grazing corn stalks with lots of corn....

I have a small corn field in the corner of my pasture.  We have a less than average corn crop, but there is corn there.  The problem is we had 70 mph wind, so the corn is flat.

I will combine what I can of it in a week or two, but my question is do I dare let the cows graze it or will they founder on all that corn?

What can I do to help keep them from eating too much?

Mark

Personally, I'd be more concerned with acidosis initially.. We added sodium bicarb to a ground hay mix & set it in feed bunks for them to help with acidosis last winter after softball size hail decided to stroll through our area & leave all our fields flat... Not sure how to limit intake to prevent founder though..

as far as the corn being down i don't know for sure. but for post combining, we haven't had any knocked down, knock on wood, my grandpa has a pretty big field i would say its close to 20 acres+ not sure, but he has it all fenced in, hes got a big area some woods that field and then a grassy spot where hes got the hay feeder and the shed in, but its in 3 sections so he can lock them in the woods or out of the woods or wherever he wants em. he opens the gate and lets his commercial hereford herd out in the corn stalks it holds em pretty much all winter, and up to planting, he doesn't feed them any extra energy, just hay all winter, and he hasn't had any issues with cows foundering or getting acidosis that i'm aware of, his cows also have good condition for spring and june calving.

To control grazing to certain amounts (limit corn intake), you can always fence with a hot-wire and move the fence daily....it's work, but you can make certain that only so much new feed is available each day.

husker1 said:

To control grazing to certain amounts (limit corn intake), you can always fence with a hot-wire and move the fence daily....it's work, but you can make certain that only so much new feed is available each day.

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Thanks for the suggestion.  It is all that I can think of too, just act like I will rotationally graze it.  I will have to see how much corn is left after we combine.  I just don't want to kill any of them off, I will have to limit area or time, and I have this feeling that  once the combine is running I will forget to kick them out.

Mark

Mark you can feed the cows some corn in a bunk ahead of time to get their stomachs to start changing to a starch based feed, make sure that they are full of a good grass hay ahead of turning them out, depending on their water source, you could if possible add bicarbonate to their water, if that's not an option B/C of water in a creek or otherwise, you could also feed bicarbonate in a feed. You can also limit times that they are allowed in the field and gradually increase their time allotment until you decide it's safe. Down in my corner of the state, I think that I could turn them into standing fields barring nitrates and not be too concerned about foundering. Have a good day. Brent

We have grazed whole standing corn in the past during the winter - Dec > Feb ish when the ground is frozen.  Just partition a portion off each day with electric fence (+a guard fence for the next move so if they get thru the first fence they only get double what they should have, not the entire field!) and let them at it, they'll go for cobs first and when those are done they'll eat leaves/stocks.  Electric tape and or polywire reels (with pigtail pushing stakes since gnd isn't froze) works very well for this and are quite flexible - normally might have to knock down a path for the fence, but you said it was already flat.

Never had any issues, but there is a rumen adjustment period, best to ease them into it with smaller portions to start, and make some hay available for a bit.

David

Either fence a little at time or feed them for a week or so a little bit of corn a day (so it is more of a gradual adjustment).  Unless there is just an awful lot on the ground it really isn't anything to worry about.  It sounds like your corn was already mature and just blew over which is different than it being green and then flattened.  The moving the fence thing around here on standing corn isn't because of worries about founder it is so there is less waste.  Good Luck