Grazing standing corn

[BFE]

Anybody tried it?
It looks to be a good way to winter cows fairly easily and is cost effective. I have a long, narrow hay feeding lot which would be an ideal place to make it happen, I think I'll try it next winter on about 15-20 head of fall pairs.

 

[TexasBred]

Use to be a member that did it every year but haven't seen him post in a while now...

 

[Jogeephus]

Use to be a member that did it every year but haven't seen him post in a while now...

I think that was SRBeef or something on those lines. Search for his posts on this. Sounded expensive and time consuming to me but he had some fat cattle.

 

[ChrisB]

Jim from Wisconsin also does it. I think his user name was maybe JimAtDawn or something.

He posts on NewAgTalk frequently. Didn't realize he quit posting here.

 

[BFE]

Use to be a member that did it every year but haven't seen him post in a while now...

I think that was SRBeef or something on those lines. Search for his posts on this. Sounded expensive and time consuming to me but he had some fat cattle.

I'm checking them every day anyway, moving 100 yards of hot wire can't take that long. I can put out an acre of corn for $350 ballpark, and I'll have less in this than that (less N, just enough chemical to give the corn a running start). Can't be any more than good hay, and surely the cows and calves would do better on this program.

 

[Jogeephus]

Use to be a member that did it every year but haven't seen him post in a while now...

I think that was SRBeef or something on those lines. Search for his posts on this. Sounded expensive and time consuming to me but he had some fat cattle.

I'm checking them every day anyway, moving 100 yards of hot wire can't take that long. I can put out an acre of corn for $350 ballpark, and I'll have less in this than that (less N, just enough chemical to give the corn a running start). Can't be any more than good hay, and surely the cows and calves would do better on this program.

Moving wire is not hard at all but it does take time. I figure corn will sell for at least $670/acre and nearly twice that if you market it yourself. Guy down the road made 500 bushels/acre this year so he made a lot more money than this but I guess it depends on how much you expect to make per acre on your cows and how much your time is worth. When I pencil it out it wouldn't be worth it to me. I think I'd rather grow the corn, harvest it, turn the cattle out on the stubble, sell half my corn to hunters and keep the other half to supplement the cattle if I didn't have a source for good hay.

 

[BFE]

I think that was SRBeef or something on those lines. Search for his posts on this. Sounded expensive and time consuming to me but he had some fat cattle.

I'm checking them every day anyway, moving 100 yards of hot wire can't take that long. I can put out an acre of corn for $350 ballpark, and I'll have less in this than that (less N, just enough chemical to give the corn a running start). Can't be any more than good hay, and surely the cows and calves would do better on this program.

Moving wire is not hard at all but it does take time. I figure corn will sell for at least $670/acre and nearly twice that if you market it yourself. Guy down the road made 500 bushels/acre this year so he made a lot more money than this but I guess it depends on how much you expect to make per acre on your cows and how much your time is worth. When I pencil it out it wouldn't be worth it to me. I think I'd rather grow the corn, harvest it, turn the cattle out on the stubble, sell half my corn to hunters and keep the other half to supplement the cattle if I didn't have a source for good hay.

Randy Dowty? I read about him all the time in the farm magazines. Needless to say, the only 500 bushel corn we can raise on the majority of our ground takes 3-4 acres to do it most years. Sometimes more. We have heavy clay soils on the hills, low OM. No hunter market here.

 

[Jogeephus]

I'm sure your cattle would do well on it but I'm old school I guess and remember how the extension agents would chastise farmers who fed lots of corn from their bins because the corn was "free". Ain't nothing free and feeding it to your cattle rather than selling it comes at a cost but only you can figure out if that cost is worth it.

Then there is the matter of your time. No one seems to count this but time is my most precious resource and personally I'd rather sell my time than spend it moving wires every day. But it really depends on your situation but in my situation it would be about as productive as chasing butterflies but it would surely end up with my having some fat calves that would get docked at the sale for being too fleshy. SRBeef had some beautiful cattle and I believe he direct marketed them as beef so his economics was different than mine.

 

[Banjo]

Where is your location? You can pull up ur profile and easily enter that.....will make it easier to give an answer if everybody knows your general location.
If your in fescue country, I think you would be better off to put that area in fescue/clover and mow it all year until fall and then strip graze it then it will probably grow back and you can graze it again. With corn you only have a one shot deal and then nothing till next year and really nothing all year until you graze it.
If your not in fescue country, then I would go with some sort of OP corn...Its a lot more nutritious IMO.

 

[BFE]

SE IL, it's in my tag line. We have summer pasture about ten miles away, and winter them in a 4 acre lot close to home. I am in fescue country but that idea won't work, too much foot traffic.

In the breeds board, a link to a breeder in Canada said they use this method. According to the breeder (Mac Creech) every time you put diesel fuel between a cows mouth and its feed you're losing money. My thinking is, why not maximize a sacrificial lot? If I can get more tons of higher quality feed per acre and not have to haul it in, why not? Dollars are dollars, no matter if you sell corn and buy hay or feed the corn plus the fodder.

In the same vein of thought, Other than corn and fescue, what else do you all think could be planted to do the same thing? I've also considered pearl millet or cereal rye. I tried rye this year, but we were so dry it never came up (planted around Sept. 1). I thought corn would make the most feed, but I'm open for anything. All that is 100% is that something will be planted there.

 

[littletom]

I think it would take a bit more than 350 inputs to get 500 bushel. I've read about but never seen it done. Seems like they would knock down a lot and waste it.

 

[Jogeephus]

I think it would take a bit more than 350 inputs to get 500 bushel. I've read about but never seen it done. Seems like they would knock down a lot and waste it.

I agree and it would be foolish to put cows on it just as it would be foolish for me to put them on 200 bushel land. Either way though, what do you figure the cost of grazing would be with an input of $350/acre? How many days of grazing would it take to break even? These are just things that I think are worth considering but if none of this is important growing corn to feed cattle will surely make for some good looking fat cattle I'd think.

 

[BFE]

http://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/extra/ ... nuxxLpFxzM

 

[BFE]

http://www1.foragebeef.ca/$foragebeef/f ... razing.pdf

 

[BFE]

Who said anything about putting them on 200 bushel corn? Apparently, this method has been used, and quite successfully. I don't think it's foolish to try a four acre experiment. Also, this is not feeding it from bins, as was mentioned earlier. I do think it's foolish to make such presumptions. Maybe you can get top quality hay a lot cheaper than I can is the only thing I can figure.

 

[kickinbull]

YouTube. How I intergraded corn grazing into my forage program. Tommy Yankey.

 

[Jogeephus]

Who said anything about putting them on 200 bushel corn? Apparently, this method has been used, and quite successfully. I don't think it's foolish to try a four acre experiment. Also, this is not feeding it from bins, as was mentioned earlier. I do think it's foolish to make such presumptions. Maybe you can get top quality hay a lot cheaper than I can is the only thing I can figure.

I did but I wasn't calling you foolish. Here again is what I said and all I was trying to do was give you food for thought and I do apologize if I offended you by offering advice contrary to what you wanted to hear but like I said, it won't work for me and it would be foolish for ME to do it because I have a lot of cheaper options to overwinter cattle. Good luck with it.

I agree and it would be foolish to put cows on it(it being 500 bushel land) just as it would be foolish for me to put them on 200 bushel land. Either way though, what do you figure the cost of grazing would be with an input of $350/acre? How many days of grazing would it take to break even? These are just things that I think are worth considering but if none of this is important growing corn to feed cattle will surely make for some good looking fat cattle I'd think.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Yes.
Green corn works really well for popping stockers in August. :nod:
SRbeef used standing corn to finish steers during the winter.
Standing corn has a lot of energy and is usually a bad idea for beef cows :!: Some address this by combining most of it, and leaving standing corn strips every so often. Others just hope they don't lose cows to acidosis.
I called a Canadian who was wintering cows on standing corn and snow. Turned out that low input corn in the artic vortex only yielded 60 to 70 bushels per acre...
Plan to move cattle every day initially to minimize deads. You will need high voltage wire to strip graze, and deer can still be a reoccurring winter problem.

 

[Texasmark]

I think that was SRBeef or something on those lines. Search for his posts on this. Sounded expensive and time consuming to me but he had some fat cattle.

I'm checking them every day anyway, moving 100 yards of hot wire can't take that long. I can put out an acre of corn for $350 ballpark, and I'll have less in this than that (less N, just enough chemical to give the corn a running start). Can't be any more than good hay, and surely the cows and calves would do better on this program.

Moving wire is not hard at all but it does take time. I figure corn will sell for at least $670/acre and nearly twice that if you market it yourself. Guy down the road made 500 bushels/acre this year so he made a lot more money than this but I guess it depends on how much you expect to make per acre on your cows and how much your time is worth. When I pencil it out it wouldn't be worth it to me. I think I'd rather grow the corn, harvest it, turn the cattle out on the stubble, sell half my corn to hunters and keep the other half to supplement the cattle if I didn't have a source for good hay.

You guys just blow me away. Last time I was in a yield conversation on corn, the braggart of the group was boasting 40 BPA....................... Good luck to you. Glad you can make it.

 

[BFE]

Who said anything about putting them on 200 bushel corn? Apparently, this method has been used, and quite successfully. I don't think it's foolish to try a four acre experiment. Also, this is not feeding it from bins, as was mentioned earlier. I do think it's foolish to make such presumptions. Maybe you can get top quality hay a lot cheaper than I can is the only thing I can figure.

I did but I wasn't calling you foolish. Here again is what I said and all I was trying to do was give you food for thought and I do apologize if I offended you by offering advice contrary to what you wanted to hear but like I said, it won't work for me and it would be foolish for ME to do it because I have a lot of cheaper options to overwinter cattle. Good luck with it.

I agree and it would be foolish to put cows on it(it being 500 bushel land) just as it would be foolish for me to put them on 200 bushel land. Either way though, what do you figure the cost of grazing would be with an input of $350/acre? How many days of grazing would it take to break even? These are just things that I think are worth considering but if none of this is important growing corn to feed cattle will surely make for some good looking fat cattle I'd think.

Sorry I misunderstood you, and I should have been more specific myself. What I plan to do with this will be nowhere near $350 an acre. I'll use far less fertilizer, and possibly use bin run corn to have practically nothing in seed cost. I'll be shooting for more fodder and less grain.