Several people in the local area grow far more sweet corn than they can possible use. After they have picked what they want they will let me come and remove the stocks to feed to my cattle herd. Normally I go and get them about 6AM when the temperature is still cool. Apparently the cows hear me head out with the truck and know what is coming since they are waiting at the gate when I get back. I use a machette to chop all of the stocks I can hold in one hand at one time. They are spread on the ground around the herd so they aren't trambled too much. By the time the herd gets done with them there isn't much left. Order of priority is apparently: ears, tassle, leaves, then the stalk starting at the small end.

When unloading I have one small cow which will come up and nudge me. It is not enough for me to just pull off an ear for her, she wants the husk pulled back and the ear inserted into her waiting mouth. My herd bull will do this also, but he doesn't care about husking.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 29, 2000

Answers

We have always fed our left over sweet corn to the stock - ours or our neighbors. When we had cattle, their absolute favorite was the pomace left over from pressing apple cider! I had an old Dodge pickup with a rather loud muffler that we would always use to haul the pomace over to the other farm where the cattle were - they would hear the truck coming down the road and even from the back pasture, they would beat me to the gate, then stand there slobbering and bellowing til I got it shoved out of the truck! The hogs also loved it and the rabbits and chickens also got their share!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), July 29, 2000.

Polly:

You reminded me of something. For families who have someone who works in a city have them check to see if they are any micro- breweries there. If so, find out what they do with the spent grain/malt. They might let you haul it off for free and it is good feed for most livestock. An article in Countryside a couple of years ago said even their dogs chowed down on it.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 30, 2000.