Grinding Ear Corn w/ a Round Bale chopper

df · Aug 18, 2012

Has anyone attempted to grind ear corn with a round bale chopper. I have a friend that is thinking about doing this as he does not have a feed grinder. His bale chopper has flail knives and it blows (from the air and force of the flails) the chopped hay out the side and under the feeder chain that feeds the round bale to the flail knives. He wants to grind ear corn for cow feed. I think it may work if he adds a screen close to the flails. I know it will not grind it as fine as a reg. feed grinder. Any thoughts from anyone?

Anonymous-0 · Aug 18, 2012

Your friend will have an ear corn chucker. A true hammermill relies on a screen, about 1/4" thick, tightly held in place, and the edges of the holes in the screen, combined with hammers, about 1/2" apart, do the milling. Unless you can bend 1/4" steel, to a round shape, and affix the screen to the unit securely, you will likely ruin a good machine, instead of making a better one. Good luck.

RalphWD45 · Aug 18, 2012

I was told to use a brush chipper, a couple of yr's ago, when I wanted to grind ear corn, for my cows. I was lucky, and found a old Sears hammer mill, and bought it, instead. I still wonder if one of those wood chippers could have done double duty!

Allan in NE · Aug 18, 2012

It'll work just fine.

Allan

John A. · Aug 18, 2012

df, Try this....................................
When I was farming in the Okla Panhandle in the 80s, Our Farm-Hand tub grinder had a 4t tall steel rectangular chute that bolted to the floor of the tub, over the hammer unit. Tub left in Neutral "not spinning" Just auger loose corn into the chute and away you go!
Then a fine mess screen, holes about 1/2 inch in diameter, needed to be installed. We would grind about a Semi worth of corn for feeding in our yearling program every yr.
Part of the corn was coarse, a whole lot was as fine as any corn meal you would buy at the store! And just as nice!
Hope this helps!
Later,
John A.

JDseller · Aug 18, 2012

If it is the type that just throws the hay with the flails it will not work very well with ear corn. It is too wide and open to hold the corn inside to grind it. It will just throw the ears out whole. Some will be broken up but many will still be whole.

He needs some thing with an enclosed hammer mill. A cheap feed grinder would be the simpliest. I have used a regular tub grinder but you need a special pan to hold the ears in.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 2, 2012

We have a Gehl grinder that we wanted to use to grind whole ear corn for our cows. Are there any precautions that need to be taken when storing the ground up feed made from whole ears? This is our first go at this and we wanted to make sure we didn't ruin it!! We're letting the corn field dry to about 15% moisture content before harvesting. Any advice would be appreciated!! Thanks, Nadine

Grinding Ear Corn w/ a Round Bale chopper

df

Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

RalphWD45

Well-known Member

Allan in NE

Well-known Member

John A.

Well-known Member

JDseller

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

Similar threads