Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
For corn, harvest begins when the whole-plant moisture is at a suitable level, ideally a few days before it is ripe. For pasture-type crops, the grass is mown and allowed to wilt for a day or so until the moisture content drops to a suitable level.
Once cattle obtain an entry-level weight, about 650 pounds (290 kg), they are transferred from the range to a feedlot to be fed a specialized animal feed which consists of corn byproducts (derived from ethanol production), barley, and other grains as well as alfalfa and cottonseed meal.
Smithfield Foods hog CAFO, Unionville, Missouri, 2013. In animal husbandry, a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an intensive animal feeding operation (AFO) in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a year.
Used alone, the word feed more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input to animal agriculture , and is frequently the main cost of the raising or keeping of animals. Farms typically try to reduce cost for this food, by growing their own, grazing animals, or supplementing expensive feeds with substitutes, such as food waste like ...
The use of agricultural land to grow feed rather than human food can be controversial (see food vs. feed); some types of feed, such as corn , can also serve as human food; those that cannot, such as grassland grass, may be grown on land that can be used for crops consumed by humans. In many cases the production of grass for cattle fodder is a ...
Cattle feeding on a large scale was first introduced in the early 60's, when a demand for higher quality beef in large quantities emerged. [24] Farmers started becoming familiar with the finishing of beef, but also showed interest in various other aspects associated with the feedlot such as soil health , crop management, and how to manage ...
Whole ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs, sufficient for some livestock feeding uses. Today corn cribs with whole ears, and corn binders, are less common because most modern farms harvest the grain from the field with a combine harvester and store it in bins. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel ...
The adjacent western provinces and northern US states are similar, so the use of corn as cattle feed has been limited at these northern latitudes. As a result, few cattle are raised on corn as a feed. The majority are raised on grass and finished on cold-tolerant grains such as barley. [61] This has become a marketing feature of the beef. [9]