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wintering on corn, BW question

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Could you winter on just corn stalks(not harvested) or would you be asking for trouble with high bw's calving late march and april? we've let the cows go into harvested stocks but only a few months and then they are on hay because all the stocks are gone.
 
I will winter cows on whatever forages are available. I had them on wheat pasture for part the winter/spring last year. I have never had any problem with birthweights getting too high. I don't think so anyway, there's usually a new calf or two every day when I go check them. Usually just let them calve on their own. A lot of people will disagree with me on that, but I see no reason to be watching them 24 hours a day, especially if you're calving in the spring. On those corn stalks, maybe you could just fence off parts of the field at a time and let them graze an area down before moving them to a new one if you're worried about them getting too much grain, but I bet you wouldn't have any problems.
 
Only problem might be a bit of a protein problem, as in they might be a bit difficient.. you would have to limit feed them if you are talking standing corn or once they figured that the ears where on there they might select for them.. But if you limit them they will eat the ears, than the leaves and than work their way down the stalks.. Will have less waste this way... As far as birthweight with the calves.. I would just watch the body condition on the cows and make sure they didn't get too plump..
 
To me weather has more an effect on birthweights,the longer and colder the winter is the higher the birthweight seems to be,the reason seems to be the cows pumps more blood threw her system to keep warm ,which in turn goes threw the calf so they get more nutreints from more blood going threw them,nothing really to be concered about just a lil higher then average
 
Typically over fat cows have more difficulty calving however so that is all I would worry about. We fed lots of corn last year.. from seed corn silage, to gluten to cornstalk bales to shell corn even.. Calves weren't any heavier than usual but a couple cows got into the over conditioned realm and had some difficulty calving... I agree with the cold hard winter usually meaning calves are heavier than if the winter is mild.
 
what i was thinking is turn cows out in standing corn without moving temporary fence. how would you suggest making temp fence with frozen ground and stocks full of snow? thanks for the replies, how many acres of 90-100 bushel 6 foot corn do you think it would take for 1 cow for 6 months? october to march
 
Frozen ground, rebar with a small pipe and a hammer to drive it in.. Or, fasten metal posts to old plow disks... Not perfect but i have seen it work. Drive down the rows with a quad and use that knocked down area to run the wire.. They need to be able to see where the wire is or they will walk through it.

With stalks it is 1 acre a cow per month... But with it standing and strip grazing and 100 bushel corn you will have an extra 2 tons of feed an acre over just stubble.... Hmm.. I am out of my realm here.. Have though about doing it but at 4 buck corn I would have to give pause (that and our ground is more like 150-200 bushel corn ground)..
 
I know corn is high now and i knew someone would mention that. We aren't big corn grain harvesters as we only get 90-100 bushels dryland in dry North Dakota. We do cut about 120 acres for silage and just combine the better stuff for our own feed-none sold. I was just thinking about years down the road. For us swath grazing and pasture grazing would be pretty unpredictable as some winters, our ground looks like northern rancher's pics. So what if you don't put much hay up and change your feeding practices and get a bad storm that buries all your feed. I just thought corn would be off the ground out of the snowdrifts. I am always looking for changes to make things cheaper, less labor intensive.
 
Have you thought about something, and I don't know if this would work or not, like Pearl Millet. A bit cheaper to grow, does real well on dryland and you wouldn't have to worry about the grain overload... Might have to cake still because I bet the protein value is nill.... I see the benifit to the corn being that you will have an energy surplus with it...

The thing with all of the really tall standing forage is how will it hold up if you do get 2 feet of snow and big drifts... I don't know.. I should go look at my neighbors. he left about 60 acres or so of Pearl standing this past fall.. We had 14 inches of snow one night in December + a bunch of rain and freezing rain since than.. Wonder what it looks like, bet he lets me go take a look...

I'm all for trying to reduce your costs. I would say that 90% of the days in the 6, now 7 winters we have been here have been open enough to graze easily... The big problem we have is forage quality degradation from the + freezing days and all the rain... Soemthing we look at all the time.. might be more profitable for us to have less cows so we can make them life of corn stalks all winter with no supplemntation except a couple pounds of a cake like substance for protein.

Hmm... Sharpen pencil time again.
 
we've raise millet and sedan here and yes it does grow good but we've always cut and baled it. If you have a chance, look at your neighbor's I would like to hear what 14 inches of snow did to it. How tall was it this fall?
 
Can't tell you that right now. We grew some back in 02 that we didn't bale (we had so much hay that year is was silly) and didn't try to graze because it was next to a corn field that had a bad fence so we waited till after harvest and than just winter grazed it... That stuff was well over 6 feet tall and the cows loved it in mid november.. Had 30 acres of it I think... Never done Sedan (guessing somathing thing as Sudan?) but have done Sudex a couple times... That stuff was the nicest smelling forage and the cows just loved it.. Great summer slump buster for us.. that stuff was like walking through a jungle.. Much taller than me and I am just shy of 6 foot.
 
nd my cows have been grazing corn since the last week of October. They just finished it up last week before this cold snap hit. They get 10 acres at a time and when it's chewed down to the ground they're moved to the next piece. Been doing it for 4 years now and never lost a cow. The corn works better than swath grazing for me cause the corn makes it's own wind break. The north wind off the lake has a bit of a bite to it by December.
 
Sandy, what kind of fencing do you use? Is it unharvested? Were you giving them protein supplement?Were you feeding any hay before they used it all up? I am sure your cows are looking GOOD.Thanks
 
nd I just use a single electric wire. Make sure they know it's hot before the snow gets deep. The corn is unharvested, they get no protien supp. or hay . You get a pile of feed off an acre of corn.
 
My experience with BW as related to feed is that hi energy feeds, like corn, will have little effect on heavy calves, maybe help recycle even. If you get too protien heavy in the diet, you will see bigger calves. Balance is the key in my book.
 

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