running corn stalks

[jigs]

had a neighbor bounce me the other day about staliks. Vet told him to grain his cattle for 4 days before turning into stalks to avoid bloat.

I have usually fed silage for a few weeks before turning out on stalks, simply because we are still harvesting and the cows are home in the lots.

anyone else flush em before turning out?

 

[katrina]

No...... We give ours hay to fill them up.. And if there is alot of corn put them in for only an afternoon or so....... Corn founder sucks.......

 

[Klinker]

We also fill ours up with hay before we put em on stalks..The year is real bad.. Lot of corn on the ground, we were lucky and didnt have to pick alot up off the ground, but there was some.. Put out some sodium bicarbonate this year cause of all the corn in the field.

 

[cowzilla]

I have been turning my cows out into standing corn the last few years. So far no problems , just don't stand behind them They tend to stay in the corn only for a couple of hours them go back to the grass. But I think its a good idea to give them some straw or a bit of hay just so they don't gourge themselfs. How much sodium bicarbonate would it take per cow and how do you get it into them?

 

[IL Rancher]

We don't run them on stalks to often but my first year with cows we did and we didn't do anything to fill them up.. I'm thinking we probably got lucky but we ran them on 125 acres of corn along with 25 or so acres of Millet that we had planted in a failed alfalfa strip... Most folks I know just turn them out into the fields in the afternoon after filling them up a bit..

That being said as I have been baling the stalks in some crop ground this year I don't think I would want to turn cows out on it with no protection as there is tons of corn on the ground in those fields... Something with the way that this farmer does things leaves giant piles in the field where they load. I think they are going to fast or something, who knows.... Also, a lot of corn stalk rot this year meant a lot of down corn, those fields would be a nightmare too..

Have lost one bull from corn founder right about when 9/11 happened (Remembered because I had to go to the store to get medicine and almost ran out of gas because we had 3.00 gas that day and I refused to pay it.) He got into a grain auger during the day they were moving corn so the area was just full of grain... He ate tons of it.. Was very sad and I kicked myself but I still don't know how that gate got open.