Corn Straw in Dairy Cattle

I have been using corn stalk for my dairy cattle successfully without any problem as my area is corn growing area
Roughly i can say it is acceptable by dairy animals and it is a good substitute of wheat straw and at the same time it is much cheaper as corn grower is in a hurry to get his field clear. Now i have options for two types of stalks
1. green stalk after the farmer has removed green maize cob for sale in the market while the field is still green and the crop is at half milking stage. This type of stuff has better nutritional value like CP 3% as compared to 2nd type .
2. the dry corn stalks when the crop is free from cobs which were meant for grain production. Again this is much cheaper as corn grower wants to get rid of to get his field clear. This type has almost equal nutritional value of wheat straw
Both these types are chopped like fodder and mixed it with green fodder or some concentrate.
Important thing is to know the nutritional value of the corn stalk you want to feed once you know you can mix different ingredients to elevate the value of this material for the health requirements of your animals. Normally i mix mineral mixture,maize gluten. molasses,wheat bran etc whatever is cheaper. Once any livestock farmer knows the feed value requirement of his animals he can play around with this material very easily,economically and successfully

Cut corn stover in green stage and try to get a chop of 3/8 inch. add molasses and urea based on your total NPN in ration. this give good feed for dry cows and heifers and can also be used in dairy cattle ration up to 5-12 Kg.

Sir,
Interesting article about Corn Straw in Dairy Cattle. In India the staple dry fodder is Paddy straw and next in order is Corn Stover/ straw. This is being fed as such but the waste is unavoidable. So nowadays it is being chaffed in the chaff cutting machine and fed to animals and there is no chance e for damaging the mm of mouth. We used feed 1 % of the live weight of the animal in the form of Corn stover/ straw and during the green fodder scarcity we try to balance the dry matter requirement in terms of dry fodder.

Dear Dr. Ekin
I did some research works on utilization corn straw/stover in dairy cattle ration and for fattening purpose. For utilization of corn straw in the TMR we have to chop it 2-3 inches and then grind and mix with other ingredients. Or after chopping 2-3 inches mixed with molasses and directly feed to dairy cows. Further, you prepare pellet feeds mixed 40-50% grinded corn straw as roughage and another 60-50 % concentrate ingredients. I got very good results both in dairy and fattening cattle.

Dr. N.R. Sarker
Senior Scientist
&
Head, Animal Production Research Division
BLRI, Savar, Dhaka-1341

Please can you explain to me iDM -CP -NE in this ration and the percentage of mixing to premix this one the other quistion is: How many KG per head aded to how many KG premix to have TMR?

Ben,

I worked in Kenya in the 80s conducting research into the utlisation of poultry manure as source of non-protein nitrogen in ruminant nutrition. Combining it with molasses and mixing it with maize stover might result in a safer more and more degradable feedingstuff than using urea with the high toxic potential. Moreover, poultry manure has some content of spilled feed which adds to its feed value.

Using corn straw in animal feed is generally easy using different %ages as per suitable according to the availability by the farmer in economic terms. However when you intend to use it in pellet feed you will have to grind it for proper mixing and being part of pellet feed. I have been grinding rhodes grass for the same purpose. Grinding will be best at 12% moisture. More moisture than 12% will cause more problem in proper grinding procedure.

The forage prices is very high in Turkey in 2012. Wheat straw is 217.4€/mt and 326.1€/mt for alfalfa hay. In this situation it is very difficult to held a dairy cattle farming. So we have started looking for alternative forage sources.

One guy from Israel has adviced me to use corn straw. I have made quick research about it. I got different kind of opinion from people. First group said "if it is not cut up finely, it could damage mouth and rumen of dairy cattle". Second group said "it can be used very effectively".

I had doubts so I made a trial. I collected some corn straw from the field and I made TMR with it. I was thinking that the TMR mixer wagon can cut it up finely but it did not. In the TMR there were a lot of corncob which is not good because animals would not eat. so It was useless.

But in some countries it is used very effectively, even in some parts of Turkey.

We are selling TMR which we produce. So I do not want to take a risk by using corn straw in my TMR ration. But I would like to know If there is anybody else that has used it before and what was the result. Also how it is used in rations etc.

I would be very glad if you share your info about it.

Corn straw is used as filler in ruminat ration in low milk producting group instaesd of costly jowar straw
Dr. Jadhav

Dear all
I am a producer of TMR pellets in Sudan. We used to market our product localy and it is expanding. Our TMR is based on Alfalfa hay, Guar meal Peanut meal, Molases and Sudan grass. We are expecting to supply the near countries and Tukey with our products very soon. I dont know what prices will be offered but the cost FOB portsudan will be about 360 US$ I think it will cost another 40 US$ for sea frieght. Can any one feed me back with prices of pellets of very high quality in some contries? Are our prices going to be competing? I will appreciate feedback. 

Hani Maslamani