We have an old 2 ton grinder/mixer. When I was growing up we raised 40 acres of corn. We sold the roasting ears and picked the rest with a one row corn snapper.
We crushed 2 tons per week and augured it into burlap bags.
Gran dad did not feed any hay. We crushed the ear whole, added salt, some dry molasses, and cotton seed meal. Now and then added some citrus pulp or cottonseed hulls.
I am thinking of either buying some ear corn or shelled this next fall. I want to make my own again. There are a couple of farmers who still sell it on the farm.
I did not know until I was in my late teens that other folks fed hay during the winter.