Hello Bill,  That is an interesting article. Thank you. I have never heard of BMR corn.

A couple comments from my ongoing experiment:

One big cost of raising corn, harvesting trucking it that you did not mention is the drying. It would not have been a problem in 2010 with the weather and extended fall, however drying costs (if the elevator would even take it to dry) where a huge problem in 2008 & 2009. Basically the problem of moisture was what got me started in this to begin with.

What do you do with 200 bu but 32-35% moisture corn in the north in November when you have no combine, no dryer, no storage...?  That's what got me started in this in 2008.

As good as the BMR corn sounds, and as Ben commented on, a key to making this work is to raise the corn at low cost.  In my experience it is hard to beat continuous spring strip tilled RR corn on corn for low cost production.  However in order for this to work year after year I have been using a triple stack corn.  The particular hybrid I am planting I have used in the same strips for 3 years straight now and a related hybrid for 2 or 3 years prior to that at the recommendation of the seed company's agronomist and breeder. This stalk will also stand through the winter, hold it's ears and appears fairly palatable.

It does not seem like these traits are likely to be available in a BMR corn.  Maybe I could work around it but it looks like cost of production would go up. I am on clay rolling hillsides so do not want to try find a cultivator.

I would caution folks (Ben) against trying to graze ANY corn while it is still green - there is a real danger of nitrate poisoning.  Grazing green standing corn is NOT the same as feeding green silage. Something about the nitrogen in the plant changes.  I almost killed a couple cows in the process of discovering this. Fortunately they came back ok when I put them on straight hay.  Calves also may get huge if any pregnant females spend significant time grazing unharvested standing corn. Harvested stalks are ok but the grain is just too rich and calving problems are likely.

As discussed here before, DeKalb has a good brochure on grazing corn in Canada over the winter. But that is a whole different ballgame than grazing US cornbelt corn.

I like what I see of the grazing corn however when it comes to finishing steers.  I have a group in cornstalks as I type this.  I finally got my fences and watering points setup so I can run a number of separate groups and manage each separately.

Here is a picture of a March 2010 born steer, weaned 11/15 on hay only until 12/20 when I opened the first corn and left access to good hay.  They appear to be internally transitioning over to eating more corn and less hay. I may not put any more hay out for them at all and just leave them on standing corn and mineralyx.  No sign of any problems so far.

I am not pushing them to eat the stalks. My plan is to open a section to the cows after the steers eat most of the grain...

Here's a picture of a steer in standing corn I took the other day, 2-1/2 weeks on corn, 12 weeks to go to processing. I hope to get him to 1050 or 1100 lb by then and marbled. This steer was born 3/25/10 and had an actual weight of 728 lb on 11/15 with an ADG of 2.72 lb/day his last 30 days prior to weaning. 

With 110 days on corn at about a 2.3 lb/day gain he will weigh a bit over 1000 lb on April 15th. With a little luck he will get to 1050 or so when I need to get them off of corn, to the processor and strip till starting the process over again. My scale is under ice and snow now so it will be some time before I get an accurate weight on him again.

This BMR corn if it would work in this growing system, might be useful in providing more grazing for the cows after the grain is gone. Thanks for the article.

Jim at Dawn

edit: as you can see in the photo, there are a lot of stalks still standing in this patch but not too many ears still on the stalks.  They will go over whatever area I leave open to them eating ears before they start on husks, leaves and then stalks.

(IMG_2881_steer after 2.5 weeks gazing corn 010611_4_1.jpg)

IMG_2881_steer after 2.5 weeks gazing corn 010611_4_1.jpg (72KB - 220 downloads)