PLEASE - NEED EVIDENCE IF CORN IS BAD ON HOT DAYS!!!!

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Corn is highly digestible and a very good source of calories for livestock. The Old Wives Tales about not feeding corn in the summer are incorrect and don't have a base in scientific facts.

When feeding heat stressed animals you should provide a diet with greater caloric and nutrient density due to the heat induces feed intake despression. You should also NOT provide high fiber feed ingredients since they dilute the nutrients in feed.

Jim

 

[smom1976]

Even after all the posts about it not being an issue.. If you think that you are still concerned do what I hear about all the others doing and give them a big block of ice to cuddle up to or cold watermelon.. a cold treat to go with the "hot treat"

 

[gamebirdsonly]

my free range only get fed corn and chicken scratch and are doing fine. it's in the 90's to 100 plus here during the summer.

 

[al6517]

When we who have livestock refer to feed as hot we mean very high in calories, and does not refer to the animals body temp, just a high energy feed. for instance if cows and horses are fed fresh really green alphalfa we call that a really hot feed or as being to hot for them. we always feed corn rations as a finisher in preperation for slaughter to fatten them up. corn in the summer for your chickens does not pose any problems at all.

 

[jjthink]

This has been most interesting everybody and I really thank you for weighing in. I've lost track of the number of posts over the course of years now that warned heavily against corn in hot weather - countless posts - and cannot remember any countering this (there may have been, I just don't remember seeing any). Edited to add that just as many posts have said to feed corn on really cold days to warm them up...early morn, right before bed, etc. So if corn doesn't make them feel hotter/drive their body temp up in the summer does it stand to reason that it also doesn't in the winter and that therefore this isn't true either?.....(other than adding calories so they have more to work with to keep warm)

JJ

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
Corn provides calories, pure and simple, it has a lower Heat Increment than high fiber ingredients like whole oats, wheat, and alfalfa. Chickens and pigs have an innate ability to consume enough feed to meet their energy needs, except in very hot weather where they limit their feed intake, this allows us to provide ad libitum access (free choice) to feed. The Old Wives Tale that corn increases heat stems from the high caloric content of corn that gives the chicken energy to combat cold weather, it is not from being a heat generating feed.

To really help monogastrics (chickens and pigs) in the summer you should be feeding a feed with a higher concentration of amino acids and energy. These feeds should contain higher levels of fat and will help meet the energy needs of heat stressed animals.

Too many times this board we fall into the trap of trying to reinvent the wheel and grasp at unfounded, so called hollistic approaches to feed or raise livestock that eschew methods of livestock productioon that have been proven both effective and economical.

Jim

 

[jjthink]

Thanks for your insights Jim!
JJ

 

[al6517]

I could not have said it better ( Jim ) is right, hit the nail on the head, I just wish more folks could understand the whole corn issue, it could only help.
Thanks for the clear thought Jim.

AL