Grazing Cornstalks with High Corn Droppage

Now that the corn has finally dried down and producers are able to get cattle to cornstalks, we have had a few questions on how to manage stalks that have had lots of corn droppage. According to Staff at UNL, there are several strategies you can use when grazing Cornstalk fields with excess grain. These include...

-graze yearling cattle or calves first then follow with older cows

-graze cull cows destined for slaughter first, the follow them with the main herd

-short term graze (only a few hours per day)

-increase the stocking rate to reduce grain intake per animal

-divide the field into strips with power fence using polywire and fiberglass posts, forcing cows to consume some husks and leaves along with the ears of corn, this will reduce founder potential.

You can also fill the cows up with hay or other forages before allowing them to graze cornstalks.

UNL has put together a very good publication on grazing crop residues, you can find it at http://www.twinforksclinic.com/kevin/ec278.pdf Just copy and paste the link in your browser or just click the headline for this post and you will be directed to that publication.