SRBeef
Well-known member
My corn grain is still about 28% or 30% moisture but the stalks have dried quite a bit from original grazing standing corn experiment I posted about here in early October. It's still several weeks (or more depending on the weather) from being able to combine with a reasonable drying charge at the elevator.
The pasture is slowing down to stopped and hay is expensive so I decided to go ahead and open some more area in the standing stalks. Plan is still to combine and THEN graze but nature (and very late mid June planting) is not cooperating.
After an initial binge on the wet corn, the cattle appear to have learned to limit themselves. I have tried to have some of the remaining grass pasture available to them as well as mineral. They seem to spend part of the day in the stalks then graze some grass and rest along the woods then go back to the corn. At first I had some dry hay out for them but not recently.
The first picture below shows the previous field of very good strip tilled corn on corn after about 300-325 cow days per acre of grazing pressure.
View attachment 2
I was amazed at how well they have cleaned up/utilized the corn. There was almost ZERO grain anywhere on the ground, either on ears or loose grain. I estimated that they used:
99% of grain
75% of leaves and husks
40-50% of stalks
although maybe you can estimate for yourself. There was a lot of manure also nicely scattered.
I did take a suggestion about using a 4 wheeler rather than a mower to make a path for the new back fence/electric wire. I ran down and back over the stalks with the Polaris Ranger this time rather than mowing as I have done earlier. This probably worked well because the stalks were a bit dryer than last time. The Ranger left a clear enough path for the wire as shown but left the stalks and ears more or less intact rather than in small pieces as the flail did. The Ranger also cut a narrower path then the tractor and mower - hopefully less waste.
View attachment 1
Here also is a photo showing the cattle heading into new front I opened up. Their condition looks good. Will have a couple processed next month. Thanks for the replies and ideas on the previous post.
The pasture is slowing down to stopped and hay is expensive so I decided to go ahead and open some more area in the standing stalks. Plan is still to combine and THEN graze but nature (and very late mid June planting) is not cooperating.
After an initial binge on the wet corn, the cattle appear to have learned to limit themselves. I have tried to have some of the remaining grass pasture available to them as well as mineral. They seem to spend part of the day in the stalks then graze some grass and rest along the woods then go back to the corn. At first I had some dry hay out for them but not recently.
The first picture below shows the previous field of very good strip tilled corn on corn after about 300-325 cow days per acre of grazing pressure.
View attachment 2
I was amazed at how well they have cleaned up/utilized the corn. There was almost ZERO grain anywhere on the ground, either on ears or loose grain. I estimated that they used:
99% of grain
75% of leaves and husks
40-50% of stalks
although maybe you can estimate for yourself. There was a lot of manure also nicely scattered.
I did take a suggestion about using a 4 wheeler rather than a mower to make a path for the new back fence/electric wire. I ran down and back over the stalks with the Polaris Ranger this time rather than mowing as I have done earlier. This probably worked well because the stalks were a bit dryer than last time. The Ranger left a clear enough path for the wire as shown but left the stalks and ears more or less intact rather than in small pieces as the flail did. The Ranger also cut a narrower path then the tractor and mower - hopefully less waste.
View attachment 1
Here also is a photo showing the cattle heading into new front I opened up. Their condition looks good. Will have a couple processed next month. Thanks for the replies and ideas on the previous post.
