Hello Ben,

I am not at all sure what the yield would be across the field. I did plant 32,000/a and in august I had ears generally 16 around x 37-39 long. However the outside few rows really get thinned out by the turkeys, pheasant etc and the deer get their fill  in the fall.  Overall average in the grazing corn would by Jan 1 turn in somewhere in the 170-180 bu/a range?

Below I will post afew pictures of the outside row I took in August 2011. Again outside rows shown are not representative of the population and spacing of the whole field. I have also not been real fussy about weeds. One good shot of RU when the corn is about a foot tall and that's enough to get the corn a head start. The only thing that is a weed is something the cattle will not eat. And fortunately there are darn few things Herefords wont eat in a rotational grazing system. It's not all as weedy as the edges though.

The past 5 years or so i have been using a Kaltenberg corn. Unfortunately they shut down.  The corn shown is Legacy 3077VT3. It is supposedly similar to the Kaltenberg I have had good luck with. They have a different number for me to try this year.  However this one stood well, I think it yielded well and best of all seems to be very palatable for a RR Triple stack Bt corn.

How much grazing you can get out of standing corn varies widely. In DeKalb's brochure for W Canada they use 180 Cow Days/acre.  In my early experiments I have gotten close to 500 CD/a if I really push them to clean their plate but I have learned that is not the way to do this in my case.

In your experience last year, I am not at all sure how 2nd crop corn behind wheat (planted in July?) yields in MO but I suspect it is not really comparable to spring planted corn. 

But with turning 100 cows with calves loose on 12 acres of any corn is not a good idea.  As you found out, they will trample the whole 12 acres until they eat every last ear before they touch anything else. and most of everything else will be trampled and soiled by the time they give up looking for ears.

If you planted a palatable variety in the spring, let it mature fully then graze it in the fall i suspect you would get about 400 CD of grazing per acre. However the only way you will get this is if you open it to them very gradually. this will also help avoid acidosis which can be a problem from too much corn.

As I described earlier, I have found the best layout to be a long narrow strip of corn with access to hay and water behind them. For 100 cows with calves I would expose only one acre of the corn at a time (drive the 4 wheeler across (if you have CV joint shields!) to push down a path for a cross wire.  100 cows will quickly eat every ear then go back as mine are and eat husks, leaves then the upper stalks.

I would NOT EVER do this with pregnant cows on high yiled corn unless you want 150 lb calves. But fall grazing enough cattle per acre you should be ok.  So if we guesstimate you will have 400 CD corn (don't force them to eat the lower stalk) then your 100 cows should be on that 1 acre for 4 days. Then expose another 1 acre by moving the lead wire.  Do this 1 acre at a time down your 12 acres and you should get 400 CD/a x 12 a = 4800 CD /100 cows = 48 days of good grazing from this 12 acres for your 100 cows. Depends how big the calves are but you may need to count them ass part of a cow if they are large enough to graze the corn too.

You may be better off grazing fall calvers right after calving than pregnant spring calvers.  The key point is to limit the area open to them at any given time to both limit the amount of corn they eat (minimize chance of acidosis) and take advantage of the mob grazing psychology and get them to eat more of the husks leaves and upper stalks.  Milo may work but I don't think you will get near the CD/a from milo as from good corn. But it may be safer for cows. I don't know.

In any case be careful and watch them close at first, also have good hay available behind them along with water as you know.

I will add a couple pictures of what the spring strip tilled corn on corn they are grazing looked like in August. I hope this answers yours and sodbusters questions.  I always appreciate your pictures, posts and different perspective with your mob grazing.

Jim at Dawn

(IMG_0925_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.JPG)

(IMG_0927_16 x 39 spring strip tilled following Aerway 081211.JPG)

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IMG_0925_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.JPG (95KB - 218 downloads)

IMG_0927_16 x 39 spring strip tilled following Aerway 081211.JPG (62KB - 221 downloads)

IMG_0929_Spring Striptilled Grazing Corn on Corn following Aerway thinned outside rows near lanes 081211.jpg (80KB - 240 downloads)