Never heard of this. I will be interested to see other responses.

I believe, that most of the food value in corn in the kernals, The stock is just forage to fill the gut. Especially if they are no longer green. Locally they produce a lot of Corn Silage. The whole stalk is chopped while green packed in a silage pit. It ferments and is feed to the dairy cattle. The fermented silage is NOT good for horses.

Dry stalks probably have about the same food value as straw. They would be awful course wouldn't they.

Deranger;  I've never heard of feeding corn stalk bales to horses............That would scare me to no end.  I'm going to have to research that.............Boy, I learn something new everyday.....

You need to know that I grew up on a farm in NC and we weren't poor, but we didn't waste anything. I'm dating myself, but we used mules and horses on the farm and they didn't get special treatment. They basically ate what was available and sometimes shared the barnyard with the cows.

I talked to my vet about it and I didn't get any real heavy cautions concerning the corn stalk bales. My horses are not finicky eaters and they are not pampered. They are well taken care of and I'm always asking the farrier how they look as I trust his judgement as a second opinion.

The first time I fed the corn stalk bales was sort of opportunistic. I needed a round bale, it was snowing, the weather was getting worse, I didn't want to feed a lot of my square bales and the neighbor had one on his skid steer loader. Dropped it in the round bale feeder and kept an eye on the horses and feeder for the next couple of days. The corn stalk round bale slowly disappeared, the horses seemed happy and life was good.

As I said in my earlier post, they get bored with it on a regular diet and I don't give it to them as a staple. I don't think there are a lot of calories in it and if it keeps their gut moving and keeps them from getting bored, I'm happy.  Like last year, they only got one corn stalk bale all winter since I had 2 really good sources for round bales of hay and a liberal supply of square bales. Plus the fact they are fed twice a day when the weather is cold or the grass isn't sustaining them. *my wife has a phobia about skinny horses* ;-) 

Let me know if you find out anything to the contrary on corn stalk bales. I'm always open for more information on taking care of my babies. Happy trails.

Deranger.......as you were typing your post, I did a quick research.  Seems it can be fed, but has little or no nutrional value.  Like you said, it could be used for between feedings or as a "treat" thing, maybe.

Oh, by the way Jack,,,,,,,,you took my post too personally...............I just never heard of cornstalk bales..........and if I really wanted to insult you I'd call you an Eastoner Do-gooder........(is that really an insulting comment? I'm not sure)

I didn't take it too personally! You're just being too sensitive..........you Easterner do-gooder you!

Some day I'll tell you the difference between a redneck, a hillbilly and a good ole boy.

Happy trails.

I love it when you call me that!

Back in the good ol days on the farm in Minnesota we fed the cornstalk bales to our cows to help stretch the hay and silage through the winter.  My horses would eat it but only if they had too.  Cows are better at digesting this because of their many stomachs.

There is only fiber left in the dried up corn stalk, no nutritional value even worth mentioning.  A horse would literaly starve it'self to death on this diet alone.  Also the horse would burn more calories trying to digest this fiber then it would get out of the food itself.....so you are looking at a negtive calorie balance right from the start.  I believe that you could get by feeding it on rare occassions but the food value is so bad it is not even worth buying or baling the stuff for horses.  You would be far better off just feeding less hay if you had too.

Almost everything organic has some percentage of protein in it.  Even ground up chicken feathers have protein in them.....that doesn't mean I would feed it to my horses.  It is not always about the percent of protein that is in something that counts, the more important question is whether that protein is availale to be digested by my horse.  If I was in a pinch and had nothing else to feed my horses I would give them cornstalks but not without high quality supplemental grain. 

Another thought to consider:  The expense of baling and/or grinding up cornstalks (time, labor, diesel fuel,machinery up-keep, baling twine) just doesn't seem to me to justify feeding such a low quality feed source.  I guess I would feed beet pulp instead.  Just my 2 cents worth.

Hi Deranger,....Your farmer friend has some good points too, I know all about milking and feeding those dairy cows....been there and done that.  There was nothing better than getting on my horse after milking all those cows and going for a nice ride!! 

Almost all of our corn back then went into silage, which is the most efficient use of the whole plant.  We let our cows out onto the other fields too for "cleanup"....they are pretty efficent at it.  After that we would plow the field and turn the stalks and the barn manure under to add organic matter to the soil.  The idea of "no-till fields" was unheard of then, I know that it is becoming more popular now but I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that even "no-till" fields have to be plowed every couple of years too. 

But anyway....back to the subject.  Feeding dried up cornstalks to horses is a very poor choice of forage in my humble opinion. 

Beth, as I said in previous posts:

1. it doesn't have a lot of nutrional value

2. I never fed it on a regular basis

3. the horses will get bored with it after a while

4. I was graining/feeding twice a day while feeding corn stalks

5. it's sole purpose was to keep their gut moving and keep them from getting bored.

6. it was opportunistic to feed baled corn stalks, not a necessity.

7. I would never depend on "fodder" to maintain my horses.

I think you are correct about plowing the "no till" fields and I think it's every other year, or every third year to conincide/compliment rotational planting.

Happy trails.

I don't know what the cost on the corn stalk bales are but since you have considered this why not buy straw and alfalfa and throw 50/50 or buy hay cubes and straw.  When we go camping with stalls (Fairhill) we bed with straw and my horses eat straw almost all weekend.  When I questioned this I found out that when hay is tight some equestrains feed straw and alfalfa 50/50. Alfalfa for the protien and straw for boredom and filler.