seed corn for feed???

[slimngrizzly]

Im just curious... i have some bags of Rd-up Ready seed corn which are a few years old now... i dont plan on using it anymore because it may not germinate well or whatever.... anyway is it even safe or ok to use "seed corn" or seed sorhgum to feed to deer or pheasants?

[mwal]

Read the bag to see if it is pre treated with fertilizer or pesticide. I bet it is and would not put it out for feed.

MWal

[tfran123]

Read the bag to see if it is pre treated with fertilizer or pesticide. I bet it is and would not put it out for feed.

MWal

Really? Isn't round up ready stuff genetically modified to be resistant from round up? It's not actually sprayed with a chemical. Pretty sure it's not toxic and shouldn't present a problem for wildlife. I hope some Ag expert (which I'm not) chimes in.

[hockeybc69]

Test the seed. Corn can last for a number of years.

Take about 20 seeds from each bag(if you have more than one bag), wet a paper towel and ring it out pretty good.

put the seeds in the wet paper towel, fold it up, put it in a ziploc but dont seal it fully shut.

Put on top of the fridge and check the seeds in about 10-14 days.

[hockeybc69]

All the round up ready corn I use is treated with something. I dont recall what it is offhand.

I wouldnt feed it to wildlife other than coons.

[B. Amish]

fungicides and insecticides and who knows what else.

[slimngrizzly]

so what are you supposed to do with it? bring it to a landfill? I just dont want it in my garage anymore... but i hate to dump it out back if its gonna hurt the birds and deer if they eat it...

[sticknstring]

Did you do a germ test yet? You may be surprised! I planted a 2008 bag this spring and had 100% germ w/ the method hockey described. Of course when I disced it in, I got the seed too deep and got spotty results.

[B. Amish]

seed it. if the germ test is low, seed it at a higher rate or mix it in with an annual mix.

[hockeybc69]

How much do you have total?

If you can test it as I state above and its still viable seed, someone will take it off your hands if you dont want to put it in the ground. I know plenty of guys that would be all over free corn seed.

[slimngrizzly]

ya your probably right... i will hang onto it. Its just a few bags and i suppose it is expensive stuff.

still curious if its safe as feed though???

[hockeybc69]

Do the germination test. If its no good, then just dump it in the trash can.

I would not feed it to anything.....

[bobbymalone]

almost all commercial corn seed has had some sort of treatment.

i wouldn't feed it to anything.

[BuckSutherland]

It is not safe for the animals to eat it although if they ingest a couple kernal it would probably not be fatal.

Most corn now is treated with Pocho, votivo, acceleron, cruiser, cruisermax, gaucho, trilex, optimize, avicta, apronmax, etc, etc, etc.

The seed treatment is poison to keep harmful critters such as nematodes, cutworms, wireworms, aphids, etc from damaging early developing seed and root systems. As the critters keep evolving to get around the technology so do the treatments to kill them. The new fancy one for this year is Poncho/votivo 500.

If you really dont want it put it on kregslist for free and someone might take it off your hands and plant it for silage corn or something.

[sportfish]

Plant it , it will be just fine for deer plots . we plated some 4 year old corn and had great luck !!

[hockeybc69]

I sure wouldnt spend the time, money and effort just tossing 4 year old seed in the ground without testing its viability first....

[jabug]

if you want to get rid of it i will take it off your hands.

[InTheNorthwoods]

I'd trade you field corn for your seed corn.

As to whether you can feed it, I'm sure the critters would eat it - its just treated corn, and deer, pheasants, turkeys, etc. eat the seed often times after its been planted in the field. So I'm sure the treatment is atleast safe for some level of wildlife consumption or we'd see massive die offs every spring. As to concentrated feeding, however, I'm guessing it is probably not the best to ingest concentrated treated seed. Plus, RR corn seed is spendy stuff.

[certified jumbo]

I agree with "inthewoods". The corn planted around here gets pounded by the pheasants, geese, sandhills, etc after it is in the ground. So it must not kill them. However, i probably wouldn't flat out feed it to wildlife.

[hockeybc69]

Yea I think we have all said that....

Feeding it to wildlife...noooo.....

Guess we should have put the caveat that incidental digestion wont cause mass death for the region.

[fasternu]

If it has a seed treatment, then it almost always has a colored coating on it. If it looks regular, then I am pretty sure it should be good for wildlife. If it has a coloring (usually red coating) then I wouldn't feed it to animals.