SRBeef
Well-known member
I should use my real camera but just had my phone and snapped a picture of some of my calves that were grazing the strip of standing corn near to the house. I am embarrassed by this drought corn anyway so just as well its a poor picture. Folks have said they like seeing pictures of my somewhat different way of "finishing" calves.
Corn didn't get very tall with my late planting and very dry hot conditions last summer. But this is a time of year when I really need the grazing. The corn has been giving them some energy as nights have been near below zero F for the past week or so. Having a heat wave today - current temperature is 12 deg F. Feels warmer now that the wind has died down a bit. Snow flurries also made the picture a bit fuzzy.
Supposed to get above freezing for highs this coming week. If the snow melts over my scale platform in the corral I'll try to get a weight on the calves to see how they're doing as far as gain. Looking at them I think they look like they are gaining pretty well, especially given the cold weather. fwiw here's a poor phone picture.
One of the things I do like to see is them eating the whole ear cob and all. I want the roughage. In past years with larger ears (length and girth) I have seen some shell the corn off of the cob in their mouth and spit out the cob. For this grazing I like a hybrid with smaller ears. Ear size was definitely not a problem this year.
I am pushing them to eat more of the smaller stalks when the finish the ears in the area open to them this year and it is helping stretch my hay supply. As I have posted in the past, you can NOT just turn calves into a large corngield. The area open to them needs to be limited. I drive down a path with a 4 wheeler then put up a cross wire advancing the wire only when they get down to the mid stalks.
Still a foot of snow in the pasture in the foreground.
Jim
Corn didn't get very tall with my late planting and very dry hot conditions last summer. But this is a time of year when I really need the grazing. The corn has been giving them some energy as nights have been near below zero F for the past week or so. Having a heat wave today - current temperature is 12 deg F. Feels warmer now that the wind has died down a bit. Snow flurries also made the picture a bit fuzzy.
Supposed to get above freezing for highs this coming week. If the snow melts over my scale platform in the corral I'll try to get a weight on the calves to see how they're doing as far as gain. Looking at them I think they look like they are gaining pretty well, especially given the cold weather. fwiw here's a poor phone picture.
One of the things I do like to see is them eating the whole ear cob and all. I want the roughage. In past years with larger ears (length and girth) I have seen some shell the corn off of the cob in their mouth and spit out the cob. For this grazing I like a hybrid with smaller ears. Ear size was definitely not a problem this year.
I am pushing them to eat more of the smaller stalks when the finish the ears in the area open to them this year and it is helping stretch my hay supply. As I have posted in the past, you can NOT just turn calves into a large corngield. The area open to them needs to be limited. I drive down a path with a 4 wheeler then put up a cross wire advancing the wire only when they get down to the mid stalks.
Still a foot of snow in the pasture in the foreground.
Jim
