Storing Field Corn
 

Those of you that grow a few acre's of corn for your animals--That don't have a silo and do not rent storage---How do you store it?? I will have corn on the cob mainly. When my Grandfather was alive---I helped him break corn by hand for years and he just piled it into a wood floored room in his "pack house". Seemed to work fine. I was thinking of doing the same thing or something similiar. Any Suggestions?? Thanks Randy

My Grandpa had a corncrib.

Basicly, a peakedroofed structure, about 6' x 16', with open slatsforthe walls to allow for the corn to dry.

Was always a good place to go hunting for rats with our B.B. guns.

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The only thing that you need to worry about is geting it wet or damp. The best way to store corn on the cob is to pile it it in a dry place along with ventalionation.

Cob corn can be safely stored at 24% moisture if it is cool & air can curculate through it - the means the container would be 1x4 slats with an inch or 2 gap between them, and air currents can get to the container.

If you combine some as kernals, that needs to be dried down to 15% moisture or less or it will spoil.

--->Paul

Poorman's Corncrib - Buy a roll of welded wire with 2"X4" rectangles, 60" tall. Fashion this in a circle about 12 feet in diameter. If you can scare up some poles long enough, put a second ring above the first, making it 120" tall. Attach wire to poles( or T-Posts for a single ring height.) Put down discarded wooden shipping pallets for a floor, as air will circulate through them and they will keep corn off the ground. If you can find some perforated black plastic tiling pipe(about 4" in dia.), run this up the center of crib as you fill for additional airflow.
Fill crib with ears, forming a full cone above top ring. Then cover corncrib and cobcorn by fashioning a roof out of a good quality heavy tarp, securing it to the welded wire ring.
Locate your corncrib under a yardlight near your buildings or where your dog spends his nights, unless you like corn-fed venison :rolleyes: .

It will take 2.5 cubic feet for one bushel of ear corn. Do you have any thoughts about how many acres you will plant to field corn? If you have room under a roof for your crib, it is ideal. Be sure you put boards or such under the corn. Shoveling off the ground is the pits, and the ears will spoil if they are on the ground.

We always used to store excess outdoors in a silo made of wooden stake snow fencing. Never used a roof at all. This got ground up first and was usually gone by March.

I am planning to plant one bag of seed----Around 3 acre's. I was thinking of making open slat wooden boxes some where around 4ft x 8ft x 3ft high, and build them where I can stack them 2 or 3 high with the front-end loader(pallet forks) inside a shed that is open on the front and a little on the sides. I can sit these boxes on a flat trailer to pull behind the picker, then change them out as needed. I am not sure about weight so the above size could vary. I will be bagging alot of the corn as I pick it to sell, but I don't want to sell all of it. I want to keep some for the chickens and the pigs I would like to get and my GF wants some for the horses---I Know---Might better plant more than 3 acre's. If I get everything set-up this year, I might plant 8 or 10 acre's next year and rent storage on most of it.

Keep in mind that I have a sawmill and I have Alot of lumber already dried to build boxes or something else if someone has a better Idea to keep the corn in. I just want to set-up so I don't have to do alot of corn moving by hand---that is why I was thinking of using the wooden boxes with the front-end loader. Thanks!! Randy

Corncrib.

You can even put one in your barn. Solid floor, slatted walls (for ventilation) and a door or a gate. We've always dried in the shuck, and not taken the shuck off until we wanted to use them.

A nice thing to have is a corn sheller...the old-timey crank kind. You see them at flea markets and junk shops, from time to time...

I thought of storing mine on flat bed wagons with well reinforced 2X4 welded wire sides. Got wagons that aren't used, wouldn't take much to "Fence" them in. Leave it there til grinding time. Either pull into barn or tarp. Any obvious flaws in this plan?

Poorer mans corn crib
 

I made mine one tier high outa pallts that had their slats around 2in apart. I just put down 4 concrete blocks spaced around 8ft apart square and 2 RR ties on them. Then I laid 4 3 X 4 timbers crossways of the RR ties. Then I laid old roofing tin on top the 3 X 4s. Around the edges I put up pallets on edge and wired together. I left space for a door by wiring the one on one edge with another wire to allow for the space for a door, wired on the bottom only. On the front part I put up 2 X 4s against the 2 X 4s in the pallet, which were stood upright and wired to the pallets. I put 3 X 4s across the back, middle and front., and wired them together. Then I laid 2 layers of particle board on top the 3 X 4s. Bottom layer first, top layer on top of that so that rain would run off the top layers of plywood which was laped over the ones beside it. 3X 4s was laid crossways of the plywood at the top, middle, bottom. on top the plywood, and hanging out at the sides of the plywood, and I wired the 3 X 4s on the bottom of the plywood with the top of the plywood, and it has held for 1/2 yr

Just remember everyone, the corn needs _airflow_ to keep it from spoiling. It needs the winds to hit it for weeks or months to ultimately get the grain moisture down to 15%. So you can't put it in a slatted tub, but then lock the tub inside a closed buliding. It needs air curculation from the winds crossing through it.

Otherwise, some real good ideas here, depending on the volume of gran you are getting.

--->Paul

Rat Proof
 

If you have any corn that you want to grind into corn meal for cooking make sure it is in something rat proof. If you don't the smell of rat urine will ruin it. My 2¢.

Yep, we did this too. I suggested the welded wire cuz I didn't think FireMan would find snow fencing for sale in South Carolina. But the wood slat snow fencing definately works.

Right on Rambler!...it's better off outside...sure beats the cost of propane drying, eh?...LOL.

Each storage unit would be portable, so that's a plus. A shed the wind could blow thru or just outside would work best for a place to park it- as Rambler says you have to get the wind blowing through it for dry-down. if a fellow had a basket wagon they use with thrower balers, then line that with snowfence or welded wire, that might work slick too.

Fire Man <> The 4x8 slatted boxes you discribed should work well. Being only 4" wide should give the earsv enough air to dry well. Each box should hold around 40 bushels, and weigh in the 3000lb range. Just leave 2 inch cracks between every board. The boards on the sides would be better and lighten the box if they aren't over 4 inches wide. Don't pick the corn unless it is dry.

Pardon my ignorance
 

I have seen and read many descriptions of corn cribs, and they make a lot of sense. I think it's a good way to go for the small farmer/homesteader wanting to store corn for his animals.

Having gotten that out of the way - please take pity on a girl that wasn't brought up in the country. I have one question.. do you store the ears with the shucks still closed around the ear, or do you shuck the corn before you store it on the cob?

Logic tells me that the corn would have to be shucked to allow moisture to evaporate. Am I correct?

Thanks!

Thanks Everyone-----I think I will build by "Boxes" described above, but I have two open sheds---no sides---just tops to put the corn under. I was thinking---to keep the corn out the weather by putting it inside a partial closed shed. If a open shed will work better---I have a 40ft square one and one smaller----So I will be "Good to Go". Thanks!! Randy

The old time corn pickers where supposed to shuck the corn while it was being picked but in truth they didnt do such a great job specially after a little wear. Your right with the shocks off it will evaporate faster but how much speed do you need? Just let it dry BEFORE picking and its a moot point right?

HIP-SHOT_ Back around Cival War days when the corn was mostly raised in patches, they did indeed harvest it shucks and all. Later in the season they had shucking bees. (partys) where the neighbors all showed up and shucked the shucks off the ears. When anyone found an ear with red kernals they had their choice of whoever they wanted to kiss. Good times were had by all.
As the fields got larger the farmers used a little metal hook that strapped around their glove called a shucking hook. They used it to rip the shucks to one side of the ear where they grabbed them with the other hand. Then the hand with the hook grabbed the naked ear, break it loose at the end of the ear and toss it into the horse drawn wagon that came throught the field right beside the cornhusker. Later when cornpickers were invented (After WW 1) the pickers were made to remove the shucks. These are nearly a thing of the past since combines take in the ears and give you back shelled corn.

We used a crib, and it worked fine. The structure has a good foundation that keeps the framing/flooring well off the ground, and it has a tin roof. It is still standing strong, and it has to be well over 100 years old.

I'm still picking 2-4000 bu of corn a year, that's what my crib holds. I combine the rest as kernals.

For those of us who grind feed for our own big livestock, it's a good way to go.

--->Paul

There are a lot of insect issues with stored corn in the South. Humidity is high also. Corn lost from the combine/picker during the Fall harvest will soon be sprouting in the fields. What advice does Fire-Man need to cope with these? The reason that moonshine got started in NC was that there was no good way to store corn other than liquid!

Like eveyone else has said be sure the corn is dry! I pick my corn and leave the shuck on and put it in the barn if I can get that far ahead. Most of the time I leave it in field and pick it as I need it, carry it stright to the mill, grind shuck and all cows and pigs love it. This has worked well for me past couple years.

build you a crib..... just do it like you would a house start with the floor use 2 x 8's floor it with sawed lumber then stud it up with 2x 4's and box the sides with 1 x 3 strips. leaving about 1 1/2 inchs between them. you can use either a frame roof or a shed roof works just fine. just build it to the size you will need by figuring the cubic feet you will need.

My two coppers !! My crib is 4'wide x7.5'tall x 16 feet long. It is made of 1x4inch slats with an inch and a half of space between the slats. It has a metal roof to keep the snow and rain off. The old timers say don't build over 4 feet of width cause the air can't get through.

I planted one bag of seed just as you did. Our growing season was one of the wettest on record, but my yeild was 119 bushles per acre. It filled my crib right to the top.

One more thing. To know when field corn is dry enough to "keep" without spoiling, take 4 or 5 ears from around the field. Put the corn in a tub of water. If the corn floats it will be dry enough to keep.

Again, I'm talking about field corn stored whole on the cob with the husks removed. I pick like the old timers...by hand with a "husking peg" and a team or horses walking along the row pulling a wagon.

Hope I helped out a bit............I forgot to say that my corn crib is the back wall of a lean-to on the back of my barn. I'd send a couple pics to anyone wishing .. just PM me with your e-mail address.

I still got my husking hook dad bought new for me and one for my bro. Neither of use used them. I never saw a picker do a clean job of husking. and you had pickers, and huskers way back. Rabbets LOVE the shucks, and so, when I run corn for the chickens through the sheller, Ill throw some clean cobs with shucks on along with an ear or 2 with kernals on for the rabbets to eat. All my rabbets eat corn on the cob with pellets as dessert lol. I save the cobs for fire starters, and so I get them cleaned off from the rabbits, before or after shelling for the chickens. no wastage.

We use the cobs for firestarters, but we soak them in diesel...

I'm not going to be any help with that, living where we often finish harvest with snow on the ground, and the crib of corn maintains it's below-freezing temp well through March. :)

I am sure to feed out the wet areas (I've picked ear corn as high as 35% moisture in a bad year & came through ok - because of the cold temps here) and the areas where all the kernals drop - they pack in the air spaces & will mold first.

In such a warm area, the corn will likely need to be quite dry to pick; but then you likely also have all winter to get around to it, you won't get 3 feet of snow in the field.... ;)

--->Paul

The French do corncribs.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a10.../Photo4336.jpg

What does one do with the stalks after picking the dry corn? you cetainly dont jerk them up one at a time?

Lonely farm girl ... I turn my animals in to graze on the fodder (the standing dry corn stalks) all winter. They all like them cows, sheep goats and even the horses. They just eat them as a treat, not for a main diet. They eat much of them and knock the majority over by spring making soil prep for oat planting a bit easier. I follow corn with oats in my crop rotation.

A dumptruck load of corncobs will sure fix a mudhole.

Hope this isn't thread theft......But what's the protein level on ear corn? Shelled on modern varieties is 9%, correct?

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Escape
Dry TDN, NEm, NEg, Protein,
Corn Type Matter % Mcal/lb Mcal/lb CP, % % of CP
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Dry Rolled Corn 86 90 1.02 0.70 9.8 60
Ear Corn 87 83 0.92 0.62 9.0 60
Steam Flaked Corn 82 94 1.06 0.73 10.0 45
High Moisture Corn 75 90 1.02 0.70 10.0 40
High Moisture Ear Corn 75 83 0.92 0.62 8.7 40
High Moisture Snapped Corn 74 81 0.90 0.59 8.8 40
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table adapted from Stock, R., R. Grant, and T. Klopfenstein. 1995.
Average composition of feeds used in Nebraska. G91-1048-A. University of
Nebraska.

Well that didn't come out very well. 9.8% for corn, 9.0% for ear corn.

--->Paul

One of the beautiful things about being down south is the length of the growing season. I grow 100 day corn and get it in as early as possible. Two reasons: 1. the Corn grows before the Japanese beetles can affect it much, and 2. It dries on the stalk. I'll plant the end of march and 100 days will come along around july sometime, but I harvest in spetember. The corn is pretty well dried out by then. I do use an open pollenated corn so I can keep seed costs down.

Do you have info on the protein content of sprouted field corn? I've heard it's higher, but I can't find any hard numbers.

-rj