With winter rolling in across the Prairies and parts of Eastern Canada, you may be turning to extended grazing to help keep cattle out on pasture longer. Grazing standing corn has many benefits, including being a high-energy forage, but can also pose animal health risks if not managed properly.
Here are some tips to help you successfully manage standing corn for grazing.
EASE CATTLE INTO GRAZING CORN
If this is the first-time grazing corn, it may take some time for cattle to realize what they are supposed to do with the tall stalks. It is a good idea to slowly transition cattle from pasture to fall or winter corn grazing. Regardless of how familiar they are with grazing, the rumen takes time to adapt to the new feed source. One way to do this is to provide access to only a couple days’ worth of feed and also supply cattle with an alternative feed source such as a bale of hay to help them through the transition period.
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