Anybody ever had any luck planting bin run corn, for grazing? I've got a few acres, I will burning down with glyphosate in the spring, and disturbing with a disc. What I really want to do on this field is encourage my native crabgrass. I had some pretty decent luck last year doing this. I keep thinking I could get some pretty good bang for buck, by discing in about 50-70 pounds of bin run corn. Sudan would be my first choice, but its $1.40 a pound here. Millet would be next, but it's right in there with it. $12 worth of corn, might give quit a bit of graving.
Bin run corn for grazing
- Thread starter Bigfoot
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The downside is its only a one time deal. You won't have much regrowth if any unless you grazed it about knee high ...then it it might regrow some maybe, but then again it is whatever your objective is. That would be a good way to promote some crabgrass...I think i would just go ahead and plant some RR crabgrass too I would put some fescue in there too so you have something after frost.
Dave
Well-known member
A different angle on the subject. The neighbor who I helped by feeding with the mixer is just getting this system set up. Not all the feed bunks are in place yet. And mainly this system will be used to feed a hay, straw, and corn silage mix to cows and be fed on the ground. But there was one group of about 150 head of bigger calves that were getting whole corn in their ration. It was being fed on the ground. A fair amount of that whole corn fell out. The snow melted and the ground has been getting muddy. I wonder how much of that corn will get walked in to the ground and sprout and grow.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Following is from a 2008 discussion on a Management-Intensive Grazing list I belonged to; this response from a retired KY Ag. Extension agent:
"Consider drilling in corn (2 bushels of bin-run corn/acre with approx 70 actual units of N/acre) for summer grazing (we can plant the corn in late Apr/early May and in 80-90 days have the corn ready for grazing - 160,000 plant population/acre will give you tremendous carrying capacity)."
that's all I know about it...
"Consider drilling in corn (2 bushels of bin-run corn/acre with approx 70 actual units of N/acre) for summer grazing (we can plant the corn in late Apr/early May and in 80-90 days have the corn ready for grazing - 160,000 plant population/acre will give you tremendous carrying capacity)."
that's all I know about it...
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Yes, in a mix.
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Grazing mixes are all the rage. More resilient and more soil regeneration benefits and more balanced feed, but not usually max short term tonnage.
It is easy to choke down the corn. That's why we use so much Round up. SS has finer roots and is not as touchy as corn. I also think it canopies quicker.
Best place I know to try mixes in on the net at Green Cover Seed. They have a free "Smartmix Calculator" you can use to mock up and rate mixes - - once you declare your goal(s). Bastards.
Always want to clarify goals are before you start making changes...
It is easy to choke down the corn. That's why we use so much Round up. SS has finer roots and is not as touchy as corn. I also think it canopies quicker.
Best place I know to try mixes in on the net at Green Cover Seed. They have a free "Smartmix Calculator" you can use to mock up and rate mixes - - once you declare your goal(s). Bastards.
Always want to clarify goals are before you start making changes...T & B farms
Well-known member
If you are planting it at 160,000, you don't have to worry about ear development. There won't be any.
OP
OP
Bigfoot
Well-known member
T & B farms said:
I thought the same thing, until I saw a pretty small raised bed with like 500 or more stalks growing in it. At a glance, it didn't even look like corn, because it was so thick. Turned out every stalk had decent looking ears. Now how good the ears will be on F2 corn, I don't know. Can't amount to too much.
T & B farms
Well-known member
160k population would be a plant every 5" in a 7.5" drill spacing. You would have to have extremely good soil, lots And lots of nitrogen, and bunches of timely rains for it to put on any type of ear. you might get a lot of grazing out of the stalks and leaves but I wouldn't bank on any corn.
In our very best soils (heavy riverbottom) we will plant 32k population and a 180-90-90 Fertalizer analysis. 30" rows with around a 6.5" spacing.
In our very best soils (heavy riverbottom) we will plant 32k population and a 180-90-90 Fertalizer analysis. 30" rows with around a 6.5" spacing.
sim.-ang.king
Well-known member
T & B farms said:
If he's planting bin run corn, he's not going to get much of an ear which ever way he plants it. That being if it's hybrid.
kickinbull
Well-known member
Make sure you germination test before planting! I added corn to mix I planted last year. Not one plant of corn came up! Everything else came up fine. My guess as to why, terminator seeds, or it was dried too hot and it killed the germ!
Ky cowboy
Well-known member
What about adding a clover after corn sprouts. Something to fill in rows and continue grazing after corn is picked down and will mix good when crabb grass takes off in July. I'm thinking about sowing 2 acre feedlot in med. Red clover as a cover crop this spring just to square bale and flush sheep on
callmefence
Keyboard cowboy
Do what your thinking with the corn.
But use Milo instead.
But use Milo instead.
Ebenezer
Well-known member
Add cow peas or forage soybeans and some sudan or forage sorghum with the corn. If you want a species to compete with weeds ass some brassicas. The corn can be a one time graze but with good management the peas and sudan can be regrazed. And with the seed blends sunhemp has become popular. I've seen several folks do the above mixes or variations and the guy in GA was getting 3+ lbs/day (maybe 4+) on the mix. But there is the N need and if you put a lot of N or over apply litter there is N accumulation. Oddly it was highest in the cowpeas which surprised me.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Yep, BF, that was him. Haven't heard from him in years... that MIG listserve, and the one that followed it, have died off.
Looking at the almost solid stand of 'volunteer' corn that comes up in some fields here after they combine it, I wonder what % of what they grew gets left on the ground. Of course, it's dead as a hammer after the first freeze, but some years, it gets to grow nearly 2 months before it gets nuked by Ma Nature. Don't know what % of high-moisture, dried corn would germinate, but the stuff left behind sure comes up readily!
I read all these articles about folks out in the Midwest overwintering cows on cornstalks, and think about how much 'forage' goes to waste on the thousands of acres of corn grown right here in this county, with no fences around 'em, and no cows picking through it.
Looking at the almost solid stand of 'volunteer' corn that comes up in some fields here after they combine it, I wonder what % of what they grew gets left on the ground. Of course, it's dead as a hammer after the first freeze, but some years, it gets to grow nearly 2 months before it gets nuked by Ma Nature. Don't know what % of high-moisture, dried corn would germinate, but the stuff left behind sure comes up readily!
I read all these articles about folks out in the Midwest overwintering cows on cornstalks, and think about how much 'forage' goes to waste on the thousands of acres of corn grown right here in this county, with no fences around 'em, and no cows picking through it.
OP
OP
Bigfoot
Well-known member
callmefence said:
You know, I hadn't thought of that. We raised milo when I was a kid, and cattle would eat the stalks to the ground after we had combined it. I had bin run corn in mind, because of the cost to plant. I'll have to ponder on that. Good suggestion though.
