Dry Sorghum Fodder
Categories:
Feeding Farm Animals
Is Egyptian corn fodder good for cows? I have been told it would dry up
the milk. I have several acres and would like to feed it if it is not
harmful.
Dry sorghum fodder is counted about the poorest roughage that one would
think of harvesting. It is much less valuable than Indian corn fodder.
Egyptian corn is one of the non-saccharine sorghums which are valuable
both for grain or for green feeding. We nev
r heard of direct
milk-drying effect, though such a result might be expected from feeding
such innutritive material, which is also difficult of digestion. If fed
for roughness it should be in connection with concentrated foods like
bran or oil meal or with green alfalfa. No cow can give much milk when
the feed is hardly nutritive enough to keep her alive.
There seems to be, however, much difference in the dry fodders from
different varieties of sorghum. One grower writes: "Kaffir corn is the
only variety within our knowledge of which the fodder is of much value.
We consider the fodder much more preferable than that of the ordinary
Indian corn, and our stock eat it much more readily than the sweet
sorghum. However, it requires a much longer season in which to ripen
than does any of the other varieties, for which reason it is less
desirable to plant in midsummer."