– Jerad Jaborek, Michigan State University Extension Beef Feedlot Systems Educator
Don’t let your eyes trick you into believing whole shelled corn digestion is inefficient.
Can cattle digest whole shelled corn? To answer this question, we must first have a basic understanding of corn kernel composition and how it travels through the ruminant digestive tract. Relative to other cereal grains, corn is made up of a greater percentage of starch, which is found in the endosperm. A corn kernel contains 60 to 90% starch depending on the variety of corn. During ruminant digestion, starch is fermented into volatile fatty acids (VFA) in the rumen, and to a lesser degree in the large intestine. Starch is digested into glucose in the small intestine to provide the animal with energy. The starch granules inside the corn kernels are protected by a protein matrix and further protected by a thick multi-layered fibrous shell, called the pericarp, that surrounds the entire corn kernel. In order to access and breakdown the starch from inside the corn kernel, the rumen microbes (i.e., bacteria, protozoa, and fungi) and other digestive enzymes must be able to penetrate the fibrous pericarp and protein matrix that protects the starch contained inside of the corn kernel. For ruminal digestion of the starch from an intact corn kernel to occur, the pericarp of the corn kernel must be damaged by either chewing or some type of grain processing, including grinding, rolling, steam-flaking, ensiling, or tempering.
Research from The Ohio State University set out to answer questions about the digestion of whole shelled corn when fed to beef cattle. Published in the 2005 article, “Effect of cattle age, forage level, and corn processing on diet digestibility and feedlot performance”, by the Journal of Animal Science, the study investigated factors such as animal age, forage level in the diet, time on feed, and grain processing on . . .
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