Cornstalk Hay...???

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Hey,
does anyone feed baled cornstalk?  It wouldn't be a main diet or anything for my cows but I was thinking of doing half and half alfalfa and cornstalk? :-\  I can get it for $70 for a 1000 lb bale(3x4x8). Think that's good?  It's tested low for nitrates, for sure don't want that in my cows.  I'm in oklahoma

 

[Freerider]

mmmm.....cornstalks ;D

 

[BLRanch]

We bought a few this year to use as bedding, incase it got real wet. Thankfully we haven't had to use them though. I was told that cows would eat them, but like I said, we haven't used them yet. We only paid 20 a bale for them though. I would guestimate them around 1300 pounds.

 

[cpubarn]

We feed corn stalks every year.  We have ddg's from nearby ethanol plants to add caleries.  They will eat it just fine, they just have to eat a lot to keep up.

Price doesn't compare here, we have acres of corn everywhere in iowa. 

Here is a link to some university data....

http://www.thebeefsite.com/articles/840/cattle-corn-and-alternative-feeds

 

[HGC]

If you have good corn stalk bales and feed them in a round bale feeder they will consume about 80% of them and the rest will be trash (mostly stalk shanks).  If you grind them and mix them with a wet feed like corn silage or wet distillers, they will consume a higher percentage of them.

The problem with corn stalk bales this time of year is the rain makes them deteriorate very quickly.  They absorb alot of water and don't dry out and rot.  $70/bale is alot also.

 

[Bulldaddy]

We fed some corn stalk hay last year that we thought was a good buy--$40 for a 5 X 6 round bale in the field.  The cows ate it just fine but left the coarser stalks as you would imagine and it didn't last very long.  The alfalfa we bought for 212 per ton delivered was a much better buy.  I wouldn't use corn stalks again unless they were priced at less than $30 per bale.  We didn't have to worry too much about our corn stalk hay absorbing moisture last year in Texas! LOL.

 

[CAB]

I would suggest not holding stalk bales over if you can avoid it. They will pretty much fall apart if you don't them used the first year. Tub grinding is almost a must for held over stalk bales.

 

[ploughshare]

I am not sure how much corn is grown around Wellston, but wow, that is a lot of cash.  15-20 here for a 1000 rolled bale.  Stalks are great supplement to alfalfa, but work better in a TMR.  Agree with CAB, don't hold them over.

 

[breyfarm]

We have troubles with our cows being too fat and we throw a few bales of it in as a filler and they seem to like it, just watch out for mold

 

[RankeCattleCo]

For the dairy heifers we feed three bales, which they consume roughly 75 to 80% of, then move the feeder, and the stalks just become bedding.  Good system when you don't have a place for the cows to go in. 

 

[aj]

There has been some talk that the genetically enginered corn(like bt and triple stacked) is less digestible and less liked than the old corns. Also the taste of the actual corn is less prefereable.