Sugar Cane stalks

[kenny thomas]

A friend is making molasses and has a bunch of cane stalks to.get rid of. I have a newly cleared area that needs some fertility. Is there any reason that I can't spread the stalks on this area with the cows in the same area? They have been squeezed so not much.left but fiber so I'm not sure if they will eat a lot of it.

 

[Son of Butch]

Well Kenny, since no one has commented. I'll throw out my opinion based
on my vast knowledge of sugar cane in Minnesota. (Tongue firmly in cheek)
Won't hurt the cows, they will just trample most of them. My guess is, they would decompose better if shredded or chopped up.

 

[sstterry]

I suppose it would be like how we used to spread tobacco stalks after the leaves had been stripped.

 

[Son of Butch]

Based on my total knowledge in growing either sugar cane or tobacco
I would say cane is tougher and more fibrous than the tobacco stalk.

 

[jltrent]

Shouldn't hurt a thing IMO. He has three new wagons he could load them on to spread.

 

[kenny thomas]

Based on my total knowledge in growing either sugar cane or tobacco
I would say cane is tougher and more fibrous than the tobacco stalk.

Difference being these have been run through a roller to squeeze the juice out so the stalks are crushed.
sstterry, how we done tobacco stalks is what made me think about doing this. Where we spread the tobacco stalks always grew better grass.

 

[sstterry]

Where we spread the tobacco stalks always grew better grass.

Agreed!

 

[Allenw]

Assuming it's old school sweet sorghum of some type I would say the usual precautions when feeding sorghum hay about nitrates would apply. How much crushed stalks the cows would actually eat I don't know. They will be a good addition to your soil.

 

[greybeard]

I don't know about the variety you have Kenny, but in La, they grind the crushed stalks at the mills and turn them into what they call bagasse. Most is used for fuel in boilers at the mill.
The stalks there traditionally had hardly any leaves as the stalks were cut, laid down in long rows and then burned to remove the leaves but more modern methods use a combine looking machine to harvest the whole stalks, separate them from the foliage, cut them into short pieces and shoot them into a hopper.
Sometimes, they burn the fields with the stalks still rooted then harvest it.


Cows probably won't eat much of the stalks because it still contains some sugars and sours pretty quickly.
If it hasn't been heat treated, there is a very good chance you will have cane coming up where ever you feed it. Each joint of the cane is capable of producing a new plant if it is planted or even in contact with the ground.

 

[Nick Wagner]

Cows often eat around sorghum sundangrass stalks if they get too big. But, cows will eat sugar beet pulp.

 

[kenny thomas]

Well, 5 months later I finally got the cane stalks spread. Well on its way.to being rotten. But will see if it helps any. It's only a small area but enough to.see if it helps.