When Hay Supply Got Low – Time for Corn Tops!

I was about nine years old at the time. In the winter one of the main chores for my brother, George, Jr. and me was to feed our herd of cattle in the open pasture. Usually we had baled hay in the barn but when the hay supply got low, we alternated by feeding the cows some corn tops. Corn tops consisted of the top part of the corn stalk that was cut right above the ear of corn while the stalk was still green and standing in the field.

Cutting off that top part did not hurt the plant any and this was done after the ear of corn was already fully developed. We usually took two rows at a time and after cutting and grasping as many tops in our hand that we could hold, we would deposit that hand full across the row on the ground. After cutting thousands of these stalks with a butcher knife, one can imagine the soreness in one’s hand.

I had short stubby fingers, therefore I couldn’t hold but six to eight stalks at one time. Usually early in the morning we would go and tie these bundles that lay on the ground and make the bundles ready for stacking. The reason we did this in the morning was because the dew on the bundles made the green stalks soft and limber. I would take one stalk and slide it around the bundle and proceed to make a knot in it. I then pressed the end of the stalk with my thumb into itself completing the knot.

After a week or so the whole bundle got really dry and there was no way that knot could get untied. Then came the chore of going down these rows and picking up as many bundles as we could carry. We would stack them in piles or “chocks” about every 50 feet or so. Then we’d drive a wagon alongside these chocks and load them up into as large of a load as the wagon would hold. This was usually done after the rows of corn were picked clean of the ears.

Dad had a tall slender tree trunk or pole in the ground next to our barn and we would unload these tops around this pole with the cut ends pointing toward the pole. The bottom would be about 14 to 16 feet in diameter and as the stack got taller, it would taper down to where it wouldn’t be but about four or five feet in diameter at the top.

Since we wouldn’t use this feed until winter time, dad cut some weeds such as broom weeds and packed them on top of this hay stack. This kept the tops dry during wet weather. Being tapered, the water also ran down the sides of this stack and the feed was in pretty good shape when feeding time came along.

Now these dried corn stalks didn’t have much food value as far as protein and nutrition goes. I guess it’s the same as you and I eating saw dust or dried bread all winter long. Not much food value but it kept the stomachs full as filler. Now days, we supplement the herd with “lick tubs” and mineral blocks. Back then all dad did was to put out a few salt blocks and those Brahmas had to do the best they could with what they got.