@tralawar: starch in corn is fermented to propionic acid, which is more acidic (lower pH) than butyric acid produced from fibre (e.g. hay). So if you overload the stomach with starch, it becomes too acidic and that's when an inflammatory reaction can happen. By the way, this isn't humanity's fault: cows will naturally gorge themselves on corn if they can. It's just their behaviour. So it is entirely natural to feed them corn because they will eat it first chance they get (especially if it's on the other side of the fence!) So corn isn't "bad" per se. It's a great feed that'll provide much more energy than hay. The problems happen only when you feed too much, too fast.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from: