Corn?

Bubbas Boys · #1 11/08/14, 07:30 PM

I know a lot of folks will think we are crazy for even thinking about it but, we are possibly wanting to plant one of our acres in corn next yearto use for feed. How crazy would it be to try to harvest it by hand? I know it will be lots of work but we are kicking around the idea. How much seed does it take to the acre and what is the possible harvest amount? This ground was in corn and beans rotation just last year. Farmer said it was good producing ground then. Thoughts??

Dixie Bee Acres · #2 11/08/14, 07:42 PM

Could be worth a try. Figure 18000 seeds per acre, I have no idea how many bu that is.

How are you going to harvest? Pick by hand, then manually feed through a sheller? My gr. Grandpa did that on his farm. He never owned a combine. Just a 1 row New Idea Picker.

FarmboyBill · #3 11/08/14, 07:59 PM

To make it easier, youll need a wagon and somebody driving the tractor. On the wagon, on the R side, put up a homemade bang board. It could be made out of a piece of 4 X 8 plywood as thick as the side of your wagon is. Nail or bolt 4 legs to come down, 2 on the inside and 2 on the outside of your wagon. This will stop flung ears, and the huskers wont have to devote any attention to ears possibly going over the other side of the wagon.
IF you have or can get an old time wood box wagon around 3ft wide thereabouts. Try to find a scoop board for the rear. IF you cant find one, you can make one. I made mine. It when up, slips through 2 straps, one on each side of the box high up near the top. 2 rods with a ring on one end, and a hook on the other slips through a hole each on the straps behind the scoop board thereby holding it in place. When the scoop board is let down, it is pushed forward against the corn and then the rods are slid out so that the board can slip past the straps and on down to the rings, which hold the board at near the level of the bed. THIS makes it easier to scoop the corn, and you have something to stand on after getting the scoop board cleared off and am starting to work into the wagon. IF there isn't a chain with a hook midway up the upper tier box, make sure to put one there so that the sides don't bow outward with the weight and jostling. You can release it when you have scooped the corn out at that point.
You will need to bolt a 1in hollow square tube to the back underneath of the bed. When you make, assuming you do, your scoop board, put sides on it that slip over the outside of the bed, and make those sides hang down around 4in past the rest of the boards on the scoop board. This will have a hinge effect when you let the scoop board down, and will keep the bottom of the board from slipping out under load.

Betcha don't understand 1/2 of this lol.

kycrawler · #4 11/08/14, 08:09 PM

1 50 lb Bag will plant 3 acres of corn I plant about 10 acres a year and harvest with a new idea no 10 single row picker and run through a old JD hammer mill some of the Amish I deal with pick 5-10 acres by hand some times they just let it stand in the fields and pick a load as they need it

sammyd · #5 11/09/14, 02:44 AM

This year I planted 2.3 acres(according to the sprayer bill) which took a whole bag of seed and I should get 3 of my gravity box loads heaping full.
A few years ago I planted the same and ended up picking it by hand when the old picker crapped out big time 20 feet into the first row.
We picked into 5 gallon buckets and dumped them into garbage cans in the back of the pickup and on a trailer. We also picked and pitched into the gravity box. Took a while since most of the time it was just me. Did a bunch in the fall and left some till the spring.
We would hand shell 4 bushel every couple of weeks just sitting around the living room in the evenings and have it cracked and added to our goat grain mix at the mill.
The stuff I picked in the spring went in the gravity box and I hauled it in to get ground instead of cracked and we fed out some pigs with it.
2 years ago I bought a 2 row picker and planted 4 acres. Ended up selling the cob corn that spring instead of using it myself. Stored it in snow fence cribs in the shed.

http://sefsufficient.com/drill/Oct3/corn8.JPG
http://sefsufficient.com/drill/Oct3/corn10.jpg

idigbeets · #6 11/09/14, 05:36 AM

Ya'll plant corn far apart... bushel to the acre for us...

New idea one row picker works well.. picking by hand will take you a LOT of time, and if the weather isn't cooperating you could be spending a lot of time bending over to pick it up off the ground. I used to pick sweet corn by hand, and it is no fun by the end of the first week. A corn picker can be had for 2k.. maybe 3k if its in really good shape. Heck, ask around I bet an older farm has one still in the shed you could get even cheaper.

Yield should be at least 100BU to the acre... (that's 5000lbs ya'll). then you gotta shell it all...

How are you going to feed the corn? Cracked (need a roller mill), ground.. (need a hammer mill or grinder/mixer) .... just going to soak the whole kernels? (our chickens aren't big fans of that..)..

I'm just saying ther'es a lot of labor in one acre when doing it all by hand.. add in the feed processing end of things and you're spending a lot of time and money (in labor) for that feed. Time and money that could be spent on more important projects or purchasing equipment that will allow you to do 5 acres next year.... just sayin.

7thswan · #7 11/09/14, 05:47 AM

We planted corn once (we have it all in alfala now) I don't know anything about the specks, but I loved it to burn in my wood cookstove. Dh said last week he should put an ad in the paper asking to buy a gravity wagon full of corn on the cob.

Bubbas Boys · #8 11/09/14, 06:07 AM

You are wrong Bill, I didn't understand ANY of that. haha. Pics?

Bubbas Boys · #9 11/09/14, 06:10 AM

Glad to hear some of you have done it and don't think I am that crazy. We have a family of 7 and a couple family members that would help. We have an old burr mill that we got fired up and going to grind and then mix with other stuff to feed hogs. I guessI never figure our time is worth that much money. We love spending the time together even if it is hard work. Thanks!

DaleK · #10 11/09/14, 06:19 AM

I plant 32,000 seeds on most of my ground. Would probably go with a lower population, say 20-25,000, if I was hand-picking. Forget about bushels per acre and just consider that you're going to have 25,000 ears of corn to pick, husk and shell

1shotwade · #11 11/09/14, 06:39 AM

Sorry,but I only glanced over the replies. I just wanted to say picking the corn is not a big deal.There's a few methods you could use. Some people still"Shock" their corn and leave it in the field until needed. Some cut it by the pick-up load and feed it as is in the field. Hand picking is the way most go to "put up" corn.You can add a "bang-board to anything you have,even a pickup.I'm sure your spouse could drive and with you and the boys taking 2 rows each you'll knock out an acre in no time.After you have picked a row or to you'll find your rhythm and be able to hit the bang-board without even looking.And as was said,leave it in the field until needed if you want. It's not a pressured harvest.
Just go for it,you'll do fine.

Wade

Rustaholic · #12 11/09/14, 06:42 AM

I grew up doing 3/4 acre all by hand. It was 30 inches between rows and thirty inches apart in the row. Two stalks per hill. We never counted bushels but it always filled our corn crib.
We cut and shocked it by hand when it turned brown then it stayed in the field in shocks until the corn was hard.
As a kid I loved cutting and shocking corn.
We also had 3/4 acre of potatoes.
I had two acres to hoe and pick by myself from age 8 to 15. I skipped age 14 because I went to Missouri that summer.

Rustaholic · #13 11/09/14, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1shotwade

Sorry,but I only glanced over the replies. I just wanted to say picking the corn is not a big deal.There's a few methods you could use. Some people still"Shock" their corn and leave it in the field until needed. Some cut it by the pick-up load and feed it as is in the field. Hand picking is the way most go to "put up" corn.You can add a "bang-board to anything you have,even a pickup.I'm sure your spouse could drive and with you and the boys taking 2 rows each you'll knock out an acre in no time.After you have picked a row or to you'll find your rhythm and be able to hit the bang-board without even looking.And as was said,leave it in the field until needed if you want. It's not a pressured harvest.
Just go for it,you'll do fine.

Wade

Leaving it in the field here it will be deer feed

Dixie Bee Acres · #14 11/09/14, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustaholic

Leaving it in the field here it will be deer feed

Or bait

Bubbas Boys · #15 11/09/14, 06:53 AM

Thank you Wade! That's what I wanted to hear. haha
Deer are a concern here, not sure yet what to do about that.

Rustaholic · #16 11/09/14, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbas Boys

Thank you Wade! That's what I wanted to hear. haha
Deer are a concern here, not sure yet what to do about that.

Eat them.
I have a friend that has a 100 acre farm plus they lease another 250 acres.
Out behind their house they plant 5 acres of field corn each year and between the family members they put five to seven deer in freezers each year.

sammyd · #17 11/09/14, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Yield should be at least 100BU to the acre... (that's 5000lbs ya'll)

that's 7000 pounds of cob corn or 5600 pounds shelled

geo in mi · #18 11/09/14, 08:09 AM

This will give you an idea of husking/shucking using a wagon with a bang board--it's so you don't waste motion by having to look up and aim.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=vuDqtof2SpQ

This is an example of a shucking peg---one of many styles, it is used to cut/split the shuck so you can remove the ear cleanly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=89UpnFNGqUA

Your yield per acre will depend on how thick you plant it and how much nitrogen you use to grow it, and of course, water. I would think planting that much by hand would be a pretty big job. Cultivating would also be a lot of labor, by hoe. Then you have to shell it.....

Last time I shucked corn by hand was the afternoon after I got my polio shot...............did that ever hurt!

geo

JoePa · #19 11/09/14, 08:40 AM

I hope the OP doesn't mind - but while we are talking about corn - I've tried growing some in the past but always ended up with so much weeds - what is the process of planting corn and not getting so many weeds growing along with the corn - thanks

AmericanStand · #20 11/09/14, 10:19 AM

You spray to kill weeds.
If you don't wanna spray you cultivate.
Of course you can do both.
We are planting about 34,000 seeds per acre, Hybrid commercial seed is sold in bags of 80,000 seeds now a days. You might be able to get the about a third of a bag of seed you need by cleaning out a planter for someone but that puts you planting at the tail end of the season.
Im not sure where you are at but if you are in the good black dirt of central Il you might get 250 bushels in a acre. , You will probably feed it through the fall and winter say Nov.dec.Jan. feb.march. 5 months or about 150days so it amounts to picking less than two bushels a day or about 10 Bu a week. Not a real Bad problem. A hour a week would cover it easy.