The recent post on Growing Field Corn for Livestock got me thinking - a sometimes dangerous exercise.

Instead of growing field corn, why not grow sweet corn instead? In Morrison's Feeds and Feeding it is rated at 88.6% total dig. nutrients versus 82.0% for #l dent corn and 83.4% for flint corn. As far as protein, it is listed at 11.5% versus 8.8% for #l dent corn and 9.8% for flint corn (popcorn was also 9.8%).

My experience is cattle at least will eat just about every bit of a sweetcorn stalk (even dried) while they only eat the leaves and tassels of field corn.

Why can't sweet corn be grown and the dried ears used just like field corn? Feed the stalks as you pick ears for your own use, then store the stalks for winter use after the dried ears have been harvested.

There is likely some difference between bulk seed for field corn and sweet corn, but then you are not planting hundreds of acres.

Anyone have an opinion on this?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 17, 2002

Answers

Ken,

The only drawback that I can think of is I believe sweet corn requires a lot more water than field corn, so if you didn't have irrigation it probably wouldn't do well.

-- bruce (rural@inebraska.com), January 17, 2002.

what about storeing it? Ever seen dried sweet corn? not a pretty site, wondering how much nutrients it losses then. Also,,it does shell very well

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 17, 2002.

1. Storage. It's very wet, drying it down would be difficult, loose some sugars, stalk drop, & racoon damage before you'd ever get it dry enough.

2. Yield. Where sweet corn yields 80 bu an acre, field corn will give you 150 for similar inputs.

3. Pests. In addition to the racoons, sweet corn is suseptable to many more insects, disease, and enviornmental problems (drought, lodging, wind, ...) than field corn.

On the other hand, if you are raising sweet corn, the extras can certainly be fed to livestock. Be careful you don't let the cattle run on green stalks, they can get bloat or nitrate posioning. A little won't hurt, a lot can kill. A problem for either field or sweet corn stalks, but moreso with sweet. Stalks of either don't have much nutrition but good roughage.

My cattle eat the field corn stalks too, most have gone to grazing or round baling the cornstalks for cattle feed.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.