Blue Corn?

[bigredfeather]

I have an opportunity to buy some blue corn to use to make my next batch of chicken (and hog) feed. Is there any reason not to use it? Are there any benefits?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I read an article recently that said that blue corn has something like 200X the amount of certain phytonutriants as modern sweet corn. I would think it would be a huge benefit in animal feed. This is isn't the article I was refering to (can't find it) but it does talk about the healthy quality of blue corn.

http://livehealthy.chron.com/blue-corn-healthier-2206.html

 

[snowflake]

very interesting article, I didn't know you could eat the colorad corns. usually they are only used for decoration. How crazy is that??

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

very interesting article, I didn't know you could eat the colorad corns. usually they are only used for decoration. How crazy is that??

The blue corn or tri-colored corn (that we called Indian corn) is a more primitive corn variety but just packed with phytonutrients. Over the past 75+ years, the agricultural industry has worked very hard to make corn sweeter and softer and more able to keep its sweetness when shipped halfway across the country. However, the article I read is that in the process, no one has made any attempt to maintain the actual nutritional content. The article said the same thing about most of the "improved" produce varieties. They may be more drought tollerant or quicker from seed to market, but not as healthy as the heirloom varieties our parents and grandparents ate.

I think this is the article I read: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-the-nutrition-out-of-our-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

If not, it is at least similar in content. Sort of alarming...but it goes back to your original questions. If I had blue corn available, I'd jump on it.