202 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



304. Corn stover. The forage which remains after removing the ears 

 from shock corn has a higher feeding value than is usually believed. 

 Stover produced in the northern portion of the corn belt is superior in 

 nutriment and palatability to that grown in the South. As soon as 

 thoroly cured, stover should be placed under cover or stacked, rather 

 than left to waste away in the field. When fed with alfalfa or clover hay, 

 good corn stover may often profitably form half the roughage allowance 

 for fattening cattle or sheep. (771, 862) For stock cattle and breeding 

 cows it may be utilized to even a larger extent, and it is also satisfactory 

 as part of the roughage for breeding ewes. While corn stover alone will 

 not quite maintain the weight of growing steers during the winter, 

 stover and legume hay with no grain will make fair gains. This cheap 

 feed is also a satisfactory roughage for horses doing but little work. 

 (502) Most of the roughage of dairy cows should be more palatable and 

 nutritious in character, but corn stover may often be economically fed 

 in limited amounts even to them. (622) 



305. Shredding or cutting stover or fodder. When shock corn is 

 husked by machinery, the stover is usually cut or shredded at the same 

 operation. Corn fodder is also often passed thru a feed cutter before 

 feeding. This finer material is no more digestible than the uncut 

 forage. However, cutting or shredding usually reduces the waste, 

 as it induces the cattle to eat a greater part of the stalks, unless they 

 are coarse and woody. The cut or shredded forage is also easier to 

 handle, and the waste is in better shape for bedding. 



306. Pulling fodder. In the South the tops of the ripening corn stalks 

 are quite commonly cut off just above the ears, leaving the tall butts, 

 each with an unhusked ear at its top. Next, the leaves are stripped from 

 the butts, and these together with the severed tops are cured into a 

 nutritious, palatable fodder, which is extensively employed for feeding 

 horses and other stock. The previous study of the development of the 

 nutrients in the corn plant shows the folly of this practice. During 

 the last stages of its life the corn plant is busiest in gathering crude 

 materials from air and soil and elaborating them into nutritious food. 

 Removing the top and leaves, at once stops all this work of food making. 

 Stubbs of the Louisiana Station 15 found that pulling fodder caused a 

 shrinkage of from 15 to 20 per ct. in the yield of grain. (23) 



307. Corn for soilage. Corn ranks high as a soiling crop on account 

 of its palatability, the high yield of nutrients, and the fact that it remains 

 in good condition for feeding for a much longer period than many other 

 crops grown for soilage. On farms lacking summer silage., feeding corn 

 forage in the green state as soilage should become general, for during 

 the late sumer and early fall, pastures are often too scanty to enable 

 animals to do their best. In the case of dairy cows such a shortage of 

 feed will cause a decrease in milk flow, which often can not be. recovered 

 by subsequent liberal feeding. (421, 643) An acre of ripening corn fed 



La. Bui. 22 (Old Series). 



