FARM Crops in Fields

Ok, I'm immensely curious and hope someone might have an answer.

The last week or so I've been driving by local corn fields. At this point the corn is tasseled and the husks are drying on the stalk. Yet none of these large fields has been harvested. While we have had the high temps and dry weather, we are not in drought conditions. Is it normal to leave corn like this? I'm used to seeing it picked well before the husks are dried.

Heck, if I knew the farmer I'd offer to pay him if he'd let me harvest some.

Sweet corn is picked while the corn husk is still green and before the corn gets starchy. Sweet corn is what you would eat as corn on the cob or canned corn. Field corn (corn used for corn meal, animal feed, ethanol) is usually picked later after the stalks dry out.

sweet corn is picked when green, field corn is left on the stock until it is dry, the stock is withered and dry as well,

if it is field corn you would not want to eat now,

Field corn is all genetically modified. And even when it was not, just hybridized, it wasn't fit to eat. It's made into ethanol and corn syrup, etc.

It's sweet corn that most of us want to eat. It will be harvested beginning about now and be at the farmer's markets - depending on where you live. Where I live, it's bad drought and a lot of corn is dying, along with the trees. Much of the corn has no ears on the stalks.

I guess the local farmers must have rotated fields then. Or someone decided to switch to feed corn rather than sweet corn. Because in 5 years, this is the first time I've seen corn left in the field this long around here. Normally you drive by one day and see the tassels and full size husks, and the next day you come by and the corn is gone.

I'd love to buy the sweet corn from the local farmers for canning and freezing but none of them will/can tell me when they are going to be bringing it in fresh from the fields. I'd like to buy it as soon as I can after it comes out of the fields to preserve the sweetness. I know that at least two of the farmers don't use GMO, although they do use hybrids. Hybrids I can live with.

Thanks for the explanations. I was really confused as to why a local farmer wouldn't be harvesting his corn. Especially with the reports on corn crop losses. It just didn't make any sense. Now it does.

If those farmers are growing sweet corn, they may have contracts with corporations to process and can the corn, such as Green Giant. So, when it's ready, they'll harvest it all and ship it for canning. If you keep asking around or check at farmers markets, you'll probably find out.

What you are most likely used to seeing is when the farmers cut the corn to make silage. They use field corn for this and do it while its still green. They use it as feed for their cows in the winter. They use the entire plant for this.

Y2kO said:

Field corn is all genetically modified. And even when it was not, just hybridized, it wasn't fit to eat. It's made into ethanol and corn syrup, etc.

It's sweet corn that most of us want to eat. It will be harvested beginning about now and be at the farmer's markets - depending on where you live. Where I live, it's bad drought and a lot of corn is dying, along with the trees. Much of the corn has no ears on the stalks.

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You've obviously never had cornbread, that's made from field corn. So are corn nuts, corn tacos, corn flakes, etc. There is nothing wrong with a hybrid. (In fact I'm a hybrid and you probably are too.)

I am not sure where "here" is, but I will offer some insight to what has been said above.

Ditto on sweet corn v. field corn.

Now, field corn comes in 1,000 varieties and most is 105-118 day growing season (at least here in the midwest.)

Field corn is rated on moisture content. For the farmer to take it to the elevator, it must have at most 15% moisture content or the elevator will dock the price of the grain. Anything below 15% and the farmer loses money on weight.

For example, this is why you see corn in the fields until late fall. This is also why farmers that can afford them buy grain bins with dryers.



Having said the above, it costs money and time to dry grain. A good rule of thumb is for every percent of moisture per bushel it costs .02 gallons of lb, 2-5 cents of electricity, and handling and transportation to the elevator costs 5-8 cents a bushel. Basically it is 4-8 cents per water % per bushel to dry corn.

You have to figure what is is going to cost you to dry it and then find out what the docking fee is per percentage.

I doubt the corn is ready for harvest yet. If it is already brown, it is in poor shape, which in that case it might be used for silage.

The bottom line is that is why you see corn in the fields after it is ready to harvest. Sometimes LONG after it is ready to harvest. The farmers test the corn and it is cheaper to let nature dry it down to 15-15.5%.

Beans are another story. While moisture content is also a factor, the bean pod will lose the beans. If a farm has corn that is ready, and beans that are ready at the same time, he will leave the corn and harvest all the beans, and only then get back to harvesting corn.

Also, farmers mix 13% corn with corn that is higher than 15% to get the entire bin to the right level.

Palmetto

kyrsyan said:

Ok, I'm immensely curious and hope someone might have an answer.

The last week or so I've been driving by local corn fields. At this point the corn is tasseled and the husks are drying on the stalk. Yet none of these large fields has been harvested. While we have had the high temps and dry weather, we are not in drought conditions. Is it normal to leave corn like this? I'm used to seeing it picked well before the husks are dried.

Heck, if I knew the farmer I'd offer to pay him if he'd let me harvest some.

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WHERE IS HERE???

well, here in my part of michigan, the crops are toast, and the trees are starting to die off bad.