Feed corn stalks and sell the hay????

[Wisteria Farms]

Hi all...
I attended a seminar from the University of Illinois today... it appears a really good (economical) feed for cattle is corn stalks (or any crop residue) fed with corn gluten OR distillers grains and mineral. Wouldnt it make sense to sell the hay I'm able to put up (not using it for my own consumption) and feed the other cheaper feed? I'm not used to buying baled cornstalks... can anyone verify cost for round bales?....

 

[iowafarmer]

I think they are running a bout $25 a roll. I would keep your hay and feed with the corn stalks and then use less distillers grain. We can't get distillers grain around here unless you have a cotract. It sells out that fast and they have so many contracts. Check with ethanol plants by you and see what it cost and if you can get a steady supply of it.

 

[Wisteria Farms]

Thanks Iowa.... that's one thing they DIDNT mention is having contracts... they acted like you had to just call the marketing # listed on their master list and place the order. I don't know where you're at in Iowa but one of those links I gave you on the other post about Distillers has the list of co-product plants. Some might be convenient to you if you're Eastern Iowa. (The distillers though are Anheiser-Busch in St. Louis or Millers in Milwaukee.

My husband wants to feed strictly hay (its a good alfalfa mix) because we produce it ourself but with the cost of hay I was thinking maybe we'd be smarter to sell it and go to cornstalks + distillers or gluten. My luck though next year I'd order a bunch of cornstalk rolls and then get an abundance of rain driving hay market back down to nothing!!! Its all a gamble I guess.

 

[simangus23]

Cornstalks no problem check this out

http://www.haymastersystems.com/inthenews.asp