There are concerns for cows grazing cornstalk residue when the amount of down corn is in the range of 5 to 8 bushel per acre. Experienced cornstalk grazing cows will work the field and find the corn grain first. High corn intake can cause cows to founder if the rumen is not use to a high starch diet. Cows can be fed some corn grain prior to grazing fields with excess down corn to help reduce the risk of founder.

Consider grazing fields with excess corn with cull cows or weaned calves or both before allowing your brood cows to graze the field. Again, consider feeding the cull cows some grain before turning them out to graze. Calves are not experienced stalk grazers and they will slowly adapt themselves to the grain remaining in the field.

Other way to limit the amount of corn consumed, consider increasingthe stocking rate or cross- fence the field. These two practices would limit the corn intake.

Sodium Bicarbonate can be used to buffer the rumen if they over-consume corn. If you can control where cattle get water, then this can help avoid acidosis. Remember, in the winter when there is snow available, cattle can get much of their water from snow. If you use bicarb, the information that I have is 2.5 lb of bicarb per 100 gallons of water.