[Jacob-list] Hay

[Neal and Louise Grose]

Gleaning the cornfields is a good traditional way to utilize waste corn grain and stover. I would be surprised if sheep are able to get much from the stalks. Baled stalks would have a lot of waste. Beef and dairy farmers are using baled corn stover by grinding it to 1-2 inch lengths and mixing it with grain. Wet Brewers and distillers grain works great for this.

I have to say that I don't blame ethanol use so much as I do urbanization in this area. Small plots that would be mowed for hay in years past are now growing zero-turn lawn mowers and septic tanks. Maybe we are going about this wrong: Start hauling your sheep to town and offer to mow lawns "organically".

Neal Grose
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mary Spahr 
  To: Jacob List 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 10:55 AM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] Hay


  It seems like the hay shortage is widely spread.  We have a local lead that may work out for our estimated 500-600 bales.  We will know in a day or two.  Our county extension office was not the answer, because everyone in this area is hording hay for their own use.  I have some other sources to try if this one doesn't work out and would be glad to share them if/when we have what we need to feed our flock, one cow, and a llama through the winter. 
  We spoke recently with a Horned Dorset breeder not far from us who is wondering how to feed his 250 head flock.  Has anyone has success feeding cornstalks to sheep?  We have several hundred acres of corn, but nothing fenced in.  The first year we raised Jacobs back in 1988, they escaped into a harvested cornfield.  A yearling ewe found a little pile of corn and succumbed to acidosis.  There is no way to avoid some spillage of grain when harvesting, so turning sheep into cornstalks is risky.   
  Luckily, we still have grass.  The first cutting here was terrible, second was better, and the third cutting wasn't what it should have been.  We usually buy square bales out of the field.  It's funny what simple things we take for granted.  I feel like the grasshopper in the ant/grasshopper fable.  We should have prepared for this earlier in the summer.

  Mary Spahr


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