Corn Cobs? Is there any nutritional value to a spent corn cob?

Question

Could they be ground up for animal feed or something?

Answer 1

Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869. Corncobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home-heating furnaces have been developed which use maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper which feeds the uniformly sized corn kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire. Hope this helps! ~Giselle~

Answer 2

Corn cob meal, which was the whole cob with the corn still on it ground up together, was the best feed available for cattle. You know the way we used to pick corn?  When the new picker-shellers came along and we lost corn cobs to the trash in the field, we lost a good feed.  Corn cobs are mostly cellulose and are a great feed additive for cattle.  Much the same feed value as hay.

They also made a good fuel to burn in the fireplace.  We burned mostly coal in those days and the cobs did just as well as coal.  There was always a good supply because the corn we shelled from the cob for several reasons.  It had to be shelled for pigs or else fed to them on the cob whole and they shelled it themselves.  Either way there was a lot of cobs around all of the time that could be gathered and burned. They were always good ammunition for corncob fights, which we had plenty of with three brothers and an older sister around.  So as you can see there are and have always has been a lot of good uses for corn cobs.  It's just that the cobs are broken up in little pieces and left in the field where they make good organic matter.  I'm glad to see that someone is still thinking about corn cobs.

Answer 3

Yes they are used in feed mainly and would add fiber to the ration.

Answer 4

CORN COBS WHICH HAVE BEEN GROUND ARE ADDED TO ANIMAL FEEDS AS BULK SIMILAR TO HUMAN BULK ADDITIVES.