He Lets Cattle Graze Standing Corn

He Lets Cattle Graze Standing Corn CROPS New Techniques 19-3-29 You can eliminate combining and drying costs as well as save a lot of money on your feeding program by rotationally grazing cows on standing corn stalks, according to Chuck Cornillie. "The concept will work anyplace corn is cheap and hay is high-priced," says the Byron, Mich., beef producer who began rotationally grazing his 75 cows in strips of standing corn last fall. Cornillie grows corn in six- and eight-row strips alternating with strips of soy-beans. Strip cropping is perfect for rotationally grazing corn, he says, partly because it allows the field closest to the barn to be used for corn-grazing every year. He plants corn into soybean strips the following year. With the rotational grazing program, cows eat about 18 lbs. of corn and 8 to 9 lbs. of corn stalks, supplemented with 7 lbs. of hay, per day per head. That compares with 36 tbs. of hay, supplemented with about 5 lbs. of corn, per day per head be-fore. That cut early winter feeding costs from about $1.17 per cow per day to about 72 cents. Savings for the whole herd is about $34 a day. Cornillie, who calves in the third week in January, says grazing corn in December helps get the cows in condition for calving. (Wallace's Farmer)

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