Feeding Ground Ear Corn

[slopjock78]

Hello all.

new to the board, but not raising livestock. I'm going to feed out two steers starting around Nov 1 for my family. i've been involved in our small (25 cow) cow/calf operation my whole life, but have never feed out calves before. I was thinking about feeding ground ear corn. I tried to find some threads involving ear corn but didnt have any luck. i already have the grinder as well as the corn picker, so no extra cost involved there.

does anyone have any experience feed ground ear corn? what should i mix with this in order to provide a good balanced feed? will also be feeding both good quality grass hay as well as alfalfa hay. I have a local elevator that carries some basic feed stuffs; oats, beet pulp, SBM, P11 mineral (??), and molasses. They also carry a product called T-Bone 32% beef feed that says can be feed top dressed, but no idea what this product is

so any advice on what i should mix with my ground ear corn? again, this is just for family meat, so mainly looking for relatively inexpensive yet good tasting beef.

thanks in advance for any help

 

[turklilley]

I feed 3/4 ear corn,1/4 oats, with salt, vitamins, and minerals. Ground together. Start feeding light,then increase the amount until you are feeding 2% of body weight.

 

[highgrit]

When we grind feed using ear corn this is our mix. 100lbs. soybean meal, 100lbs. molasses, 25lbs. mineral, 25lbs. salt.
This is for a ton of feed. You need to add protein to corn.

 

[ohiobeef]

Hello all.

new to the board, but not raising livestock. I'm going to feed out two steers starting around Nov 1 for my family. i've been involved in our small (25 cow) cow/calf operation my whole life, but have never feed out calves before. I was thinking about feeding ground ear corn. I tried to find some threads involving ear corn but didnt have any luck. i already have the grinder as well as the corn picker, so no extra cost involved there.

does anyone have any experience feed ground ear corn? what should i mix with this in order to provide a good balanced feed? will also be feeding both good quality grass hay as well as alfalfa hay. I have a local elevator that carries some basic feed stuffs; oats, beet pulp, SBM, P11 mineral (??), and molasses. They also carry a product called T-Bone 32% beef feed that says can be feed top dressed, but no idea what this product is

so any advice on what i should mix with my ground ear corn? again, this is just for family meat, so mainly looking for relatively inexpensive yet good tasting beef.

thanks in advance for any help

I would grind 1700 lbs ear corn with 100 lbs dry molasses & 200 lbs of the beef 32%. You shouldn't need beet pulp or oats,with the cob for roughage.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

You're still going to need some roughage in your ration, either in mix or free choice hay because corn and cobs doesn't add very much dry matter, or fiber over just shelled dent corn.

 

[ohiobeef]

You're still going to need some roughage in your ration, either in mix or free choice hay because corn and cobs doesn't add very much dry matter, or fiber over just shelled dent corn.

He mentioned in the original post that he had hay to feed them, but ear corn will add a good amount of fiber. A univ. of Fla. study said you could replace 20 lbs of hay with 14 lbs of ground ear corn.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

You're still going to need some roughage in your ration, either in mix or free choice hay because corn and cobs doesn't add very much dry matter, or fiber over just shelled dent corn.

He mentioned in the original post that he had hay to feed them, but ear corn will add a good amount of fiber. A univ. of Fla. study said you could replace 20 lbs of hay with 14 lbs of ground ear corn.

Sorry must skipped that somehow in my reading, but I figured he knew that, but you never know...you know what I mean.
Yes it does replace some fiber, but to make a complete feed you would still need something else like cottonseed hulls, or other fibrous feedstuffs to prevent acidosis.

 

[slopjock78]

thanks for all the replies!

Yes, i will be feeding hay in addition to the corn ration. I have both high quality alfalfa hay as well as grass hay. With feeding the corn ration, is there any benefit to feed a high quality hay, or is the grass hay good enough? Also, should I offer free choice hay at all times, or is a limited amount of hay adaquate, and at what amount?

thanks again for the helpful tips

 

[sim.-ang.king]

I just have year old sudan hay free choice in my feedlot so the grass hay would save you money, but if I had alfalfa and a mixer I would adjust my ration so I could just feed a complete feed. But it would be more work so free choice grass hay is what I would use.