By Aaron Berger
Corn harvest is just a few weeks away for those picking high moisture corn and with dry conditions and heat, traditional harvest may start sooner than what is typical. With severe drought conditions impacting large portions of the state, forage production on rangeland and pasture has been significantly reduced. Hay production has also been impacted by the drought, leading to yields that in many places are only a third to half of the long-term average and in some places farther west even less. This means for many cow-calf producers, there will be very little fall and winter grazing available. Hay also will be in short supply. Corn residue grazing, especially on irrigated pivots, is going to be in high demand. In fact, demand for corn residue grazing will exceed supply in many locations.
While forage prices are high, corn prices are currently near the cost of production. When both forage and other feed options are considered, corn in many cases is the most economical energy source available for feeding the cow herd. This sets up a scenario where purposefully leaving some corn standing in the field to be gleaned directly by the cows while also grazing residue could be a way to significantly increase the number of grazing days a field could provide.
A rule of thumb is that for every 100 bushels of corn yield that is in a field, there are approximately 25-30 grazing days available of husks and leaves for 1300-pound cows. However, if with corn residue, cows are given 11 pounds of corn per day of standing grain through strip grazing, the number of days of feed available could be increased by 1.5 to 2 times. In this situation, the harvested area of residue needed could be allocated along with a daily delivered strip of standing corn. In addition, a supplement could be provided daily in a pound or more of a feed that contains the ionophore monensin along with vitamins, minerals, and additional protein. Under these conditions, supplementing non-protein nitrogen in the form of urea would be an option to meet rumen degradable protein needs of the cows, as the microbes in the rumen could effectively utilize the nitrogen with the readily available energy from the corn.
Source : unl.edu