I opened up more grazing corn to the calves today (pics)

[SRBeef]

I've had several pm's asking for information on how/why etc I graze standing corn. I can't get into a long discussion now. But in the interest of not repeating the same answers to several people I will show some pics of how I opened more corn to my calves today.

It is extremely cold right now in Wisconsin and many places as most of your know. I put out bedding in wind-sheltered spots for my cattle. The calves have also finished most of the grain in the grazing corn open to them.

One key to grazing high yielding standing corn by calves is to realize they will trample whatever area is open to them until they eat every corn ear and only eat husks, leaves, upper stalks after the ears and grain are gone. To avoid them overdosing on grain you must limit the area open to them at any given time.

My grazing corn is in a long 120 ft wide strip with access in the middle and water, hay, mineral-lyx barrel and salt block behind them. This continuous corn strip has permanent hot wires running along each side. I start the calves slowly with only a small area open to them and gradually increase it to about a weeks worth at a time. Since I am trying to "finish" these calves to 1050-1100 lb at 13 months in late April, I don't force them to eat much of the stalks and generally get about 250 steer-days/acre before moving the lead wire.

Here are some pictures before, during and after I advanced the lead wire today to give them more corn for energy to keep warm in the down to -20F temps. It took about 45 minutes all told to put up a new cross wire and take down the old. The rebar posts go into the frozen soil with a big enough hammer but will have to wait for a thaw before I can pull the previous ones out.

after around 225 steer days of grazing around 175 bu/a corn:

Driving across the 120 ft wide strip with the Ranger to create a path for a new lead wire. Hint: don't back up if you do this. CV boot replacement is expensive.

Using a non-conductive gate handle to hold the new wire as I run it out:

This time of year with frozen ground I use rebar posts which will go thru frozen ground with a big hammer:

I hook the reel end to a tee posts, then go back and remove the non conductive handle and the new wire is up and hot:

The I reel up the old wire. Calves are at first hesitant to cross where the wire was but I peel back some husks to show them the corn and soon a few leaders get the idea:

Hmmm.... I like the fact they eat many of the ears whole getting roughage from the cob. Sometimes they eat ears, especially on the ground, like we eat sweet corn:

Then the rest follow down between the corn rows:

Seems like a few calves always go down the row as far as they can to find the far wire in the Ranger track:

I hope the pictures help explain the wire move process.

Jim

 

[jedstivers]

Jim those are some beautiful calves.
I have trouble with that kind of wire holding mine back, I tried it one year and gave up on it. We also have trouble with deer and hot wire. This year gone to all high tinsel and flex post. No deer trouble with that.

 

[SRBeef]

Jim those are some beautiful calves.
I have trouble with that kind of wire holding mine back, I tried it one year and gave up on it. We also have trouble with deer and hot wire. This year gone to all high tinsel and flex post. No deer trouble with that.

Jed I have both high tensile and barb for perimeter fences. The single hotwire shown above works with my cattle for interior fences. They won't even cross the line where it was when I take the hot wire down!

We have a lot of deer here too. They just jump over the single wires which I usually put at cow nose height - about 32" above the ground.

Thanks for the kind words on the calves. I love the look of a healthy, energetic, Hereford calf.

Jim

 

[Black and Good]

Nice calves! My question is, is one end open? If so, is that where their water source, Mineral etc. is right? I use fencing like that a lot only problems is during the Deer rut, I guess when strange Buck come into area and fight and so forth. I have to fix it couple times in November. Neat pic Thanks for sharing. B&G

 

[Caustic Burno]

Nice calves! My question is, is one end open? If so, is that where their water source, Mineral etc. is right? I use fencing like that a lot only problems is during the Deer rut, I guess when strange Buck come into area and fight and so forth. I have to fix it couple times in November. Neat pic Thanks for sharing. B&G

If someone figures a way to keep deer out of electric fences during the rut please tell me.
I am always amazed at how much they can tear down here every Oct/Nov.

 

[SRBeef]

Nice calves! My question is, is one end open? If so, is that where their water source, Mineral etc. is right? I use fencing like that a lot only problems is during the Deer rut, I guess when strange Buck come into area and fight and so forth. I have to fix it couple times in November. Neat pic Thanks for sharing. B&G

Yes, I just move the lead wire. Hay, mineralyx, water and windbreak are all behind them.

We have a lot of deer here. Occasionally they will catch a single wire during fall season especially but not a big problem around this corn for some reason. I guess there is so much unharvested corn yet in fields around here mine is not a particular attraction. I would never use the type of fence shown as a perimeter fence. I don't start this grazing of standing corn until near Christmas after about 45 days of fenceline weaning on hay so I miss most of the deer rut.

I have more trouble with deer messing up hot wire fences in another pasture which they regularly cross to get in and out of the woods. I have got to the point where I just flip a cutout switch and don't worry about that interior fence until spring. I'll fix it before starting rotational grazing in May. I don't use that pasture over the winter.

Jim

 

[ibetyamissedme]

Jim you and I are way different, when I see those pictures of cattle trampling down feed so wastefully I cringe, and others like yourself don't see it that way. I wonder if this is because of the different profit margins in our different type of operations.

 

[SRBeef]

Jim you and I are way different, when I see those pictures of cattle trampling down feed so wastefully I cringe, and others like yourself don't see it that way. I wonder if this is because of the different profit margins in our different type of operations.

If you look at the foreground in the first picture there is almost no grain there. Not much different that running a combine over it except the stalks are in larger pieces. The calves have harvested maybe 150 of the 175 or so bu/a corn out there. They have eaten many of the cobs and husks and leaves. What doesn't leave that field as beef is left as manure and organic matter. I run an Aerway over it in April at an angle to the rows then spring coulter only strip till and plant corn again in the same strip in early May.

Nothing is removed except beef, nothing is wasted. The stalks left on this good standing variety are barely palatable. My clay hillside soils continue to improve. By the middle of next summer most of those stalks will have disappeared back in the soil they came from.

Many folks would bale those stalks, maybe shred them and blow into pens for bedding then have to scrape and load all the manure and bedding and spread it back out on the fields. In the end I am doing the same except with a lot less work.

I don't see any waste there at all. A different way of looking at things. Profit margin is a net thing. It can be increased by reducing expenses also.

Thanks for your comment.

Jim

 

[ibetyamissedme]

I didn't mean to offend you if I did. I was just making a comment about how different we think. To me any feed left in the field is wastefull. I would guess I feel that way because I feed cattle. The way I look at this is the 25 bushel of corn left in the field, is 189 pounds of beef lost. The 55 or so % stover left in the field in my eyes is 364 pounds of lost beef. As someone that makes money feeding cattle FEED you can see where this would concern me, in my operation.

 

[SRBeef]

You didn't offend me at all. Yes, the 25 bu of corn probably left in the field (likely harvested by turkeys and pheasants)or the stover you feel is "wasted" in the field could be harvested and fed to cattle in a lot. But at what cost? The equipment, fuel, facilities and manhours required to harvest, feed, load and spread manure/bedding mix might actually cost more than they would return, in my experience.

It requires a large shift in thinking if you have spent years doing things the "normal" way to see in the overview there can be money made, in many situations but not all, by letting cattle do more of the work.

It is -22 degrees F here this morning. As I watched from my house, the calves left the area where I had spread some old hay for bedding behind the corral for a windbreak, they trotted over to the waterer (which I hope is an indication it's not frozen solid), then one by one came up the lane and disappeared into the fresh standing corn I opened up yesterday in the pics above. Sort of like a winter time "Field of Dreams" scene. They are feeding themselves. No tractor to start, no frozen mixer, no frozen operator (me)... There is money saved there, if not so obvious.

Many different ways to raise cattle. As I am hoping to do this, God willing, for many years yet, I am looking for a low work but yet profitable system to produce birth to plate high quality beef for some special markets.

Thanks again for the thoughtful discussion.

Jim

 

[Chris H]

Jim you and I are way different, when I see those pictures of cattle trampling down feed so wastefully I cringe, and others like yourself don't see it that way. I wonder if this is because of the different profit margins in our different type of operations.

We've fed standing corn like this before. The amount of feed loss was less than harvesting with a combine. Now we rent out some of our tillable acres and use the cows to glean the fields. This year the corn was harvested early and good weather followed. There was an amazing amount of grain left under the leaves that grew. At least the cattle got 6 inches of growth to graze after they had gleaned some leaves and dropped ears.

This is a low cost harvest that works for some, not for others.

 

[jedstivers]

I don't see how there is any waste, we put cows or calves behind the combine to get what it wasted. They get all the ears, just not the kernels.

 

[Chris H]

I don't see how there is any waste, we put cows or calves behind the combine to get what it wasted. They get all the ears, just not the kernels.

You ever see a cow step on an ear under her foot to get to the one she sees a couple feet ahead? Once it's stepped on, some is wasted, and if the ground is soft then more is wasted. And you always have some cows that take a whole ear in their mouths, roll it around to shell the grain off the cob and it seems half the grain drools out of the mouth.

That said, I think there is less waste letting the cows harvest rather than mechanical harvest and mechanical feeding.

 

[H and H]

SRBeef - thanks for taking the time to elaborate on this grazing system.

It has got me to thinking, there may be a different/better way than the high overhead mainstream.

 

[HDRider]

Nice calves. Thanks for sharing. When you say "finish", are they being sold directly for freezer beef?

 

[Farmerjon]

Man that is slick!! I have often thought of this method and wondered how people were stringing wire through the standing corn. Ever thought or tried to gap 3' between the planter rows and make a natural grassed break/wire run? Can you explain a little more in depth your pre stalk feeding program? Beautiful calves by the way!

 

[SRBeef]

Farmerjon, I just saw your questions here. I hope I answered them on the other site.

The two keys I found to grazing high yielding corn are 1) no bred females (calves get too big) 2) control access so the calves do not get too much grain and get acidosis, etc.

It is important to understand calves will trample every open acre you give them until all the ears are gone. Only then will they eat husks, leaves, and upper stalk, about in that order. I never force them to eat the lower stalks.

By allowing access to only a small area each time you move the wire, yes they will eat the ears in that area but then will have a few days where they mostly eat husks and leaves... I've found they eat about half of the ears along with the grain. The ears standing they tend to eat which is good for them. The ears on the ground they tend to shell out and eat the grain only, sort of like we eat sweet corn.

Start calves on corn very slowly and always have good hay free choice behind them so they can balance out their own ration, more or less.

I find now that my calves are really acclimated to grazing corn I move the wire about once a week. By about day 7 they are down to eating the upper stalks and it's time to run down a path in across my corn strip with the 4 wheeler and put up a new leading cross wire, then roll up the old one.

Thank you for the kind words on my calves. They are coming along well. I am finding this is a good way to "finish" calves with minimal work on my part, little starting of tractors in the cold etc.

Good luck with your system.

Jim