A question about corn

Hi everyone. I know there are a lot of farmers on this forum, so I figured this would be a good place to ask this question.
I'm in the parking lot for my work looking at an adjacent cornfield. The corn grew very well this year here in Indiana and the corn I'm looking at is probably 8 or 9 feet tall. Lots of corn cobs you can see still on the corn. It was never harvested.
It's just sitting here gradually drying out. Why do you think the farmer never bothered to harvest the corn? Do you think it is due to high supply so not worth the effort to harvest? Seems odd to me. Any ideas?

Feed corn, probably.

I took a pic but don't see how to attach using the forum app on my android phone...

This sounds like my usual question "why won't they harvest that corn so I could launch there!"

What I understand is that feed corn (which is probably what this is) has to be almost completely dry before harvesting, otherwise it will rot in the silos and storage and cause all sorts of issues. If they harvest while wet, then they have to pay extra money to have it dried, so it's better to delay harvesting until it's ready. They probably will harvest it, but just later than you would expect.

Note- around here (Northern IL) I haven't seen any corn harvested yet either.

Makes sense. Must be feed corn then. I learned something today.

I found out this week that for every pound of "sweet corn" (the kind we eat) that is planted, 250 pounds of "feed corn" are planted. Thank you NPR.

I almost wonder where all our grocery store corn comes from. I haven't seen a single field harvested near me. They ALL must be feed corn.

This is an interesting map at least at a high level on this subject.. not just corn, but all food that is being grown:
https://i.imgur.com/xRTR2RG.png

note- can't verify accuracy, and i'm betting some of the blank/grey areas are also producing crops

djs said:

This sounds like my usual question "why won't they harvest that corn so I could launch there!"

What I understand is that feed corn (which is probably what this is) has to be almost completely dry before harvesting, otherwise it will rot in the silos and storage and cause all sorts of issues. If they harvest while wet, then they have to pay extra money to have it dried, so it's better to delay harvesting until it's ready. They probably will harvest it, but just later than you would expect.

Note- around here (Northern IL) I haven't seen any corn harvested yet either.

Click to expand...

They've started here in Iowa. But still delayed at least a week or two


Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

Sent from my iPad Air using Rocketry Forum.

:wave:
Checked the corn fields this last weekend. All but a few acres were cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its flying time again!!!

Once the corn "looks" dry, then the farmers will often go out every week or two and take samples to check for dryness. If it isn't dry enough, it has to be run through a corn dryer before they can put it into storage (usually in a silo of some kind, most often at the local grain elevator). If they dry it at home, they have to pay for the fuel, if the elevator has to dry it (their dryers are bigger and faster) then they have to pay for every percentage point of moisture that has to be removed. It's a lot cheaper to leave it in the field until it's dry. I've had friends whose fields were low lying and prone to holding (ponding) water so in wet and rainy years they were too muddy to get the big harvesters into without getting stuck so they waited until January when the ground was frozen solid.

Marc_G said:

Hi everyone. I know there are a lot of farmers on this forum, so I figured this would be a good place to ask this question.
I'm in the parking lot for my work looking at an adjacent cornfield. The corn grew very well this year here in Indiana and the corn I'm looking at is probably 8 or 9 feet tall. Lots of corn cobs you can see still on the corn. It was never harvested.
It's just sitting here gradually drying out. Why do you think the farmer never bothered to harvest the corn? Do you think it is due to high supply so not worth the effort to harvest? Seems odd to me. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Probably not dry enough yet... I came up from Texas to Rochester, Indiana, to help my BIL harvest his corn and soybeans... it's VERY wet and the grain moisture is still running about 25%... We're picking some now and putting it in a drying bin, but that burns a LOT of propane to dry the grain down... The other thing is, it's been raining a lot and we're running through mud in places the combine is sinking nearly a foot deep... quite a mess. We hauled some to town today but I think we're taking a day or two off to let things dry out a bit and the corn dry down some before we harvest more...

Just been that kind of a year...

Later! OL JR

Field corn must be at 15.5% moisture or lower to store without molding or spoiling. Soybeans must be below 13%. As was said earlier, any percentage higher than that and it costs to dry it down. As high moisture corn is dried, (say from 25%) the kernels shrink quite a bit. So that's why most smaller farms prefer to let the corn dry down as much as possible naturally. We usually start at around 19%. My brother forward contracts his LP to get the best price, to help offset the cost of drying the corn.
Oddly enough, once field corn (feed corn or food grade corn) dries down enough that the ears hang pointy end down, it will stay dry even when raining. The husks keep the moisture off the ears. Soybeans aren't as lucky. Any rain and the pods suck up the moisture and the beans inside swell and get soft. It's very hard to shuck the beans out of the pods when they're wet, and the beans split easily (split beans are frowned upon). Corn, you can combine even while it's raining out, but it still gets wet in the bin of the combine, and the grain cart.

Sweet corn is harvested during the milk stage (when the kernel is the juiciest). The husks are pulled off during harvest, and the whole ear is taken to the processing plant. There, the tips and base of the ears are cut off, then the ears are blanched (quick steamed) then the kernels are cut off the cob, processed how ever needed and caned or bagged.

All you ever wanted to know, right? :eyeroll:

Adrian ( who actually used to get peas fresh from the blancher. Good stuff)

Also, field corn is generally used/stored in one of three ways. If cut for insilage, it is chopped when the ears are fully developed but stalks and leaves are still green and all is blown in to a silo. This can then be fed out of the silo to cattle. If left till dry, it may be picked and the ears stored with the corn still on the cobb in a corn crib, and the stalks, leaves and hopefully husks are discarded. Or it can be picked, husked and shelled, so that only the kernals are left, and these would be stored in a grain silo. Different implements are generally used depending on which of the three end results you are looking for.

djs said:

This is an interesting map at least at a high level on this subject.. not just corn, but all food that is being grown:
https://i.imgur.com/xRTR2RG.png

note- can't verify accuracy, and i'm betting some of the blank/grey areas are also producing crops

Click to expand...

Man, that map could practically substitute for wealth/poverty diagram. Guess it really is true that more affluent areas eat meat and burn fuel much more so than poorer areas, though I never really doubted that anyway.

luke strawwalker said:

Probably not dry enough yet... I came up from Texas to Rochester, Indiana, to help my BIL harvest his corn and soybeans... it's VERY wet and the grain moisture is still running about 25%... We're picking some now and putting it in a drying bin, but that burns a LOT of propane to dry the grain down... The other thing is, it's been raining a lot and we're running through mud in places the combine is sinking nearly a foot deep... quite a mess. We hauled some to town today but I think we're taking a day or two off to let things dry out a bit and the corn dry down some before we harvest more...

Click to expand...

Rain - the curse and blessing of the farmer!

A few years ago, a lot of farmers in northwestern Iowa were unable to get all their corn harvested until the spring. By the time it had dried enough, they had too much snow and couldn't finish harvesting. It was interesting to drive through areas with half-harvest fields covered in snow.

I'm betting the deer enjoyed all the extra food in the fields, though.

-Kevin

Corn is grass when all said and done