They can be rolled into bales, and used as either a fiber-heavy feedsource, or as bedding. You may have also heard of corn "stover" being used as a feedstock for the next generation of cellulose ethanol. Some people raise the concern that baling the cornstalk will cause erosion of the soil. As you can see here, even after the cornstalk residue is removed, there is still plenty left to keep the soil in place. Now, you may want to be careful in selecting fields that will have residue removed, but in most fairly flat to slightly rolling hill areas, it isn't an issue, especially with today's corn hybrids that give higher yields and therefore, there is a lot more stalk leftover than there was say 10 years ago.
And, I promise to get into more "cow stuff" (this blog is supposed to focus on cows and pigs), but fieldwork is going on right now, so it makes for easy inspiration!
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