As I explained in an earlier post... Corn likes nitrogen, too much nitrogen kills cows. Therefore, these bales better have acceptable nitrogen content or else all that hard work will go to waste in possibly the world's largest bonfire.
No fires at Green Acres!
My Uncle played the guinea pig and fed 5 bales to his cattle over a period of 2 weeks. To anyone with cows and giant corn bales, I would not recommend doing this. This method could have easily killed off his whole heard in a matter of 24 hours. But he was out of hay and... what the heck, why not.
Even after 5 nonlethal bales, my dad and I were still sceptical and wanted to have a few bales sampled and tested. That whole premise fell apart however when we attempted to unload a full rack wagon.
Three bales busted. Right in the middle of our pasture where any cow could easily run up to them in a frenzied rush and feast away. My dad burned one and was going to burn the others (side note: a burning corn bale smells horrible) when I talked him into just letting the cows have it their way. With 5 successfully fed bales, I was sure that these bales would also be OK.
Well they were. And now we have this mess.
The cows love, love, love the corn bales. Seriously, my dad put out an oat bale and they haven't even glanced at it. It's like the lima beans on the edge of the plate no one really wants to eat, but sooner or later will have to.
So all that hard work did pay off. And we are lots of corn bales richer!
Now we've just got to keep an eye on the heard to make sure the herd stays well fed. The corn bales serve as an apparently delicious filler, but do not have any real nutritional value. As long as the grass stays somewhat green (we've thankfully had a few inches of rain in the past weeks) the cows should stay plump. But if the grass stops growing, we may have to start supplementing grain.
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