"Cattle, Corn, and Alternative Feeds" and "Coping with High-Priced Corn" are two publications from South Dakota State University Extension specialists designed to help cow-calf producers deal with the surging price of grain. Both are available free of charge and online.

"Cattle, Corn, and Alternative Feeds," available at agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/ExEx4036.pdf is written by Rebecca Schafer and Alvaro Garcia. The paper (SDSU Extension Extra 4036) discusses feedstuffs such as sugar beet byproducts, corn silage, corn stover, distillers grains, turnips, grazed corn stalks and wheat middlings as possible alternative feed sources for producers facing high corn costs. The paper covers factors to consider when shopping for alternative feeds, and calculating their relative feed value to that of corn.

Meanwhile, "Coping with High-Priced Corn" (Extension Extra 2060) is written by Cody Wright, Ken Olson, Julie Walker, Erik Loe, Alvaro Garcia, Bob Thaler and Jeff Held. It's available online at agbiopubs.sdstate.edu/articles/ExEx2060.pdf.

For more on alternative feeds, visit the feed-value tables available at beef-mag.com/mag/beef_feed_composition_tables_2/. The annual listing -- the latest version of which will debut in the March issue of BEEF magazine -- includes the typical composition for more than 300 feeds typically fed to cattle and sheep. Compiled by Texas Tech emeritus professor Rod Preston, the tables have been exclusively published in BEEF magazine for the past 11 years.
-- Joe Roybal