whole vs. rolled corn

Does anybody have any feelings one way or another on feeding whole vs. rolled corn to feeder cattle? Is there a significant difference?

Most of the whole corn will pass thru animal and they will not get any nutrients from it, roll the corn much better way.

Pete

x2

Would rolled corn be similar to feeding cracked corn to cattle or would rolled corn be a little better?

Yes. Rolled or ground corn is way better feed than whole kernel. The cattle utilize the feed so much better if it is broke down. The starch (white part of kernel thats on the inside of kernel) is actually what puts the fat on feeder cattle. If cattle eat whole kernel, they don't get it broke down enough by just chewing to utilize the starch in it. Most whole kernal will just come out the other end as whole kernel. Cattle don't really need to chew kernels of corn down into a powder to get it through thier digestive system, so they simply aren't going to do that. And the starch inside the kernel is what they really need to put fat on.

whole corn passes right through them . the digestive system can not break down the outer kernel shell to get at the good stuff inside. therefore rolled is essential.

rolled and cracked corn is virtually the same thing. Ground corn on the other hand is different. Its ground down alot finer. Almost like a powder, and is even better yet.

Ok , I am going to go against the grain here. If the cattle on feed are fed only whole corn, and no hay or pasture or silage, the cattle will do just as well on whole kernels as rolled, cracked or ground. If whole kernel corn is all the get, with perhaps some supplements on top, that is what they will have to chew on while chewing their cud. It is true that whole corn will pass through cattle if they are fed whole corn along with forage. Not the case though if these cattle are being finished on whole corn alone. I raised baby beef/red veal that way for years. Holstein bull calves fed whole kernel corn with supplement, after weaning, on full feed till they weighed 600lb.

that makes sense

Make's sense to me as well.

There is a general feeling in the industry that if it can be seen, it was not used and therefore wasted. Producers may be surprised to discover that most research indicates there is little difference in the performance of cattle fed whole or rolled corn.
Whole or rolled corn: Which is better for cattle?

We used to run hogs in the feedlot behind the feeders. We ground ear corn for the feeders & provided all the alfalfa hay the feeders wanted. Even with all the roughage in the ground ear corn, you could spot yellow in the manure. So could the hogs & even though the self feeders had a high protein ration, the hogs re-processed a significant amount of the steer's unused feed. The hogs generally ended up at the hog processing plant @ 6-7 months of age.

I've always heard you can run a bunch of hogs for free behind a herd of cattle.

COrn right now is relatively expensive. Usually the idea behind the whole-corn diet Bruce used is during periods of low-priced corn. While things will vary throughout the country, if one had ample forage, they'd probably be better off feeding the forage plus some ground corn. If corn is plentiful and forage not, you'd probably be better off with the whole corn diet.

Either can work... do what makes sense to you.

You can run hogs behind cattle until the hogs figure out to bite the steer in the butt to get them up so they leave a fresh number 2 for the hogs to start on. Go to the feed store with the weight of the cattle and tell'em you want a ration using DDG's, rolled corn, and hay. The DDG's will replace a lot of this high priced cor and it's cheap.

Despite what some will tell you, whole corn does NOT just go through without being digested. Hundreds of studies have been done, the difference in digestion between cracked and whole is minuscule. Its so small that its not worth paying extra for cracked. If I recall, the kernals found in cow manure are are 90%-95% digested.
All that being said, I find that consumption is better with cracked when feeding feeder calves. For me the extra cost is very small since I never have many to feed.

I thought that's what I had read but I was afraid to say it.

When I was going to ag school after getting out of the navy, one of the instructors who was feeding his cows hmsc out of a harvestor had the same question. he took a bucket of manure and picked the corn kernnels out of the manure until he had enough to send in for testing. I believer the test came back about 85% tdn. Not much gone out of that corn. Secondly one year I put hmsc in a 12x35 stave silo using what was call the vicious circle. A section of blower pipe that had sickle sections welded into it to theorticaly crack the kernals as they were blown in the silo. made wonderful feed , the cows loved it. but the manure was just yellow with corn. When that ran out, the first grind of dry corn was cleaning out the bottom of a round crib . Was quite nasty, moldy corn. Really was worried if the cows would eat it. They did and most surprizing was that they came up on milk. thirdly many big dairys using tmr's have gone to grinding their corn fine like pig feed because they get more out of it. I know these are all in reference to dairy cows vs feeder cattle, but they both have the same digestive system.

The big dairies around here get rolled corn from some feed mills that are as fine as talc powder it blends better with the feed they mix up

Depends quite a bit on the combine operator. If the corn got damaged during harvest, the seed coat can be cracked enough for it to be digested.

Coming from a farm in Wisconsin that was in the business of dairy farming for over 70 years, I never heard of anyone feeding whole corn kernals to dairy cows. The dried corn (in our case, as with neighbors, this was always dried corn on the cob) was always run through a mill. Hammer mills almost exclusively. In those years a coarse grind was specified for cows but this pretty well pulverized the corn. Fine grind (achieved by simply changing screens in the mill) was reserved for pigs and chickens. But, nevertheless, the corn for dairy and beef cows was well pulverized for feeding. This was usually combined with oats and other additives to include wheat bran, miller's grains, soybean oil meal, minerals, etc. Somtimes feeds employing molasses and beet pulp were added. Most notably Purina Bulky Las. All of these thing were fed with good effect. Cows were healty, milk production was quite high (fot that day) and we were producing more milk than the country could use, resulting in a price of around $3.00 per hundred weight. That's why a lot of those farms went into the soil bank as the farmers got older and their sons went off to seek other employment.

I realize that in later years low moisture corn was put into silos which saw pretty much whole grain corn going into cows. No one around here does that anymore. Now, it's either grass silage being made or sudan grass silage. Still some traditional corn silage being put up, however. Other mixes such as peas and oats are put up but not very much.

We used to feed coarse ground ear corn to the fat cattle. The cob gave the rumen bulk and a little energy. The kernel had the feed value. The downside to ground corn is cattle don't like a 'mealy' powdered feed. Cracked corn is more coarse so cattle can swallow it easier. Cattle don't chew their food much so it goes down to the stomachs pretty much the same shape as it was when it went into the mouth.

Hogs behind cattle was on every little farm around here. And then chickens behind the hogs.

cracked corn is the best