Do cows eat corn?

Question

well i read a research by this lady and she said that cows do eat corn but they arent fed corn...do they eat corn?

Answer 1

Yes.  In fact so much corn is used to feed cattle, the recent trend in corn based ethanol is driving up beef prices.  Less corn for feed, means higher prices.  Hence, the end product goes up.

Answer 2

Yes, cows do eat corn and many of them are fed corn.  Haven't you heard of "corn fed beef".  It gives the meat a better flavor.

Answer 3

yes

Answer 4

Yes they do and it's the most used grain in the world to feed cattle when confined.

Answer 5

yep, and cattle that are raised to butcher ARE fed corn

for the later part of their days on earth for taste and marbling

Answer 6

yes

they love it

Answer 7

They can ofcourse eat but never give it 2 them, since it causes loss of milk production of a cow

Take care

bye

Answer 8

In the UK we call it maize -- we use corn to mean any kind of grain.  I'll assume you mean maize.

Cattle can be fed maize as silage -- this is what most maize is grown for in the UK.  It's mown when still green (leaves, stems, ears and all), chopped into little bits, piled up, sheeted over, then fermented without air to preserve it until the winter (grass is used this way too).  In summer most cattle here graze in grass fields.

In drier and warmer parts of Europe, maize is stored for winter as dried cobs, often stacked up in mesh cages.  I believe these are fed to cattle too.

Alternatively, cattle can be fed maize meal as a supplement to their bulk diet.  This is rarely done in the UK, as barley or other grain is cheaper here, but I believe it's done in the US and elsewhere.  Many cattle in the US (and sometimes now in Europe too) are kept indoors all the time, and fed cut grass or silage with a lot of extra grain.  They grow fast, are killed young, and taste of not much.  Or if kept for milk, they are pushed to produce enormous amounts.  And are they happy?

Cattle can live very happily "extensively", ranging outside and grazing grass and other green forage, then eating hay or silage in the winter.  My own beef cattle graze grass in summer and heather in winter.  They grow slowly, use land which could not be used for anything else -- and taste fantastic!

Edit -

Disco Legend -- I'm pretty sure that rhyme is an English one, and if so the corn in it will be in the UK sense of barley, oats, rye or wheat.  Anyway, didn't that cow steal the corn, rather than being fed it...?

Big Bear -  Feeding dog food, to cattle!  Madness!  Surely you are not truly serious?

Feeding meat to cattle is where BSE came from -- it has taken the best part of twenty years to get rid of (almost all of) it from Europe, and I can tell you, you really really don't want it in the US (if that's where you are).  It killed hundreds of thousands of cattle in Europe, and has led to the most awkward and expensive precautions for all cattle farmers.  Nor do you want the human disease it leads to, which has killed many people too.  Feeding meat to cattle is rightly illegal in Europe, and if it isn't already in the US it really is about time it was.

I'm astonished that anyone should even think of it nowadays.  Anyone feeding meat to cattle would be putting all cattle farming at serious risk.

Answer 9

"little boy blue

come blow your horn.

the sheep's in the meadow

the cow's in the corn."

cows love corn so much they will even break through barbed wire to get to a corn field.

In feedlots, corn is fed to cattle to fatten them up, the sugars in the corn are so bad for them that they are also dosed with antibiotics to keep them alive.

this is one of the reasons there are antibiotic resistant strains of many bacteria.

Also, the added fat in the meat contributes to heart disease, making the cow the most deadly animal on earth to humans.

Answer 10

yes, have two typ corn :1.sweet corn(man eat this) , 2.corn fed beef(cow eat this).

Answer 11

Yes. They sure do. We planted some corn earlier and our cows got right out there and ate the first row.

Answer 12

Yes indeed cows do eat corn. I know this because I have had cows my whole life. You feed cows you want to butcher, corn. Which is what I have done. Another little trick is you can throw a can dog food in there as well for a little bit of extra protein.

Answer 13

Mine are mostly fed corn along with a supplement that I guess just adds other needed nutrients to their diet.

Answer 14

yes most feedlots feed corn in a ration to fatten the cattle for slaughter - beef for the table.  It is a source of protein and readily sweetens the meat!

Answer 15

cows do eat corn, its called silage, most of the corn fields that you see are around dairy farms are cow corn, it will be chopped up and stored in silos, then feed to the cows everyday along with hay and plenty of water

Answer 16

Cattle not only eat corn but will eat the corn stalk and leaves too. Sometimes the whole plant is chopped up and fed to cattle as silage. Cattle *are* fed corn - it increases the fat (marbling) in the meat. If you look at cuts of meat you'll see the flecks of fat throughout the meat and sometimes "veins" of fat running through it. What usually isn't seen is the amount of fat trimmed off on the outside.

And there are other ways to feed cattle - and other demands for corn than ethanol. In most cases I've heard it's actually different types of corn targeted for ethanol than for livestock feed and that's different from the sweet corn and corn for cornmeal.

Answer 17

Yes, they do.