Enhancing the feeding value of corn crop residues to improve beef cattle production
type: CreativeWork
description: Corn has been used in cattle diets for more the 50 years in the United States. However, since 2005 when the “Ethanol Era” started, the demand for corn to be converted in to ethanol has been increasing. The increased demand for corn to be converted into ethanol, led to increased corn prices. When corn prices peaked, alternative feeds for beef cattle become more popular, particularly co-products from corn industry. For many years, distillers grains and solubles (DGS) were used in order to replace corn in cattle diet. However, DGS prices followed corn prices, and soon became an expensive energy source in cattle diets as well. Another byproduct that can be included in cattle diets is corn stover. Corn stover is one of the most abundant crop residues in the United States. Corn stover is the material (husk, leaf, and stem) left on the field following a combine, after traditional corn harvest. However, corn stover is a poor quality forage, limiting energy and protein, and has functioned mainly as a source of bedding or as a fiber source in cattle diets. In recent years, more research has been conducted in order to increase the inclusion of corn stover in growing cattle diets. Most of that research has been focused on treating corn stover chemically or physically in order to improve the feeding value by breaking lignin-hemicellulose bonds to increase digestibility. However, there are extra costs and hazards to manage when chemically treating corn stover. These costs and hazards, in addition to the extra labor involved in both physical and chemical processing, create challenges when applying these techniques in small scale operations. Harvesting less mature plants yields a material that has less lignin, thus, less bonding with hemicellulose, and tends to improve digestibility and cattle feedlot performance. However, feeding immature corn crop residues to cattle has not been heavily investigated. Feeding immature residues lends itself to harvesting these residues wet and stor…
abstract: Corn has been used in cattle diets for more the 50 years in the United States. However, since 2005 when the “Ethanol Era” started, the demand for corn to be converted in to ethanol has been increasing. The increased demand for corn to be converted into ethanol, led to increased corn prices. When corn prices peaked, alternative feeds for beef cattle become more popular, particularly co-products from corn industry. For many years, distillers grains and solubles (DGS) were used in order to replace corn in cattle diet. However, DGS prices followed corn prices, and soon became an expensive energy source in cattle diets as well. Another byproduct that can be included in cattle diets is corn stover. Corn stover is one of the most abundant crop residues in the United States. Corn stover is the material (husk, leaf, and stem) left on the field following a combine, after traditional corn harvest. However, corn stover is a poor quality forage, limiting energy and protein, and has functioned mainly as a source of bedding or as a fiber source in cattle diets. In recent years, more research has been conducted in order to increase the inclusion of corn stover in growing cattle diets. Most of that research has been focused on treating corn stover chemically or physically in order to improve the feeding value by breaking lignin-hemicellulose bonds to increase digestibility. However, there are extra costs and hazards to manage when chemically treating corn stover. These costs and hazards, in addition to the extra labor involved in both physical and chemical processing, create challenges when applying these techniques in small scale operations. Harvesting less mature plants yields a material that has less lignin, thus, less bonding with hemicellulose, and tends to improve digestibility and cattle feedlot performance. However, feeding immature corn crop residues to cattle has not been heavily investigated. Feeding immature residues lends itself to harvesting these residues wet and stor…
author: Vilela Carvalho, Pedro Henrique
language: en
keywords: Corn stover, Stalklage, Feedlot cattle
date published: 2017-03-01T15:49:23Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:37Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/95382