Shocking Corn....

Rustaholic · #21 07/01/11, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

If you got a cow, run them through a shredder and feed them to the cow. One thing you might try is, if you can find one of those 2 wheeled saws. The kind where the saw will tilt to where the blade is straight up and down, or where it lays close to the ground, and push it between 2 rows. Should cut the corn pretty easily. That would be alot faster than swinging a corn knife.

My step-father and I (when I was 8 to 15 years old) could cut and shock a LOT of corn very quickly. By the time I was 9 years old I could cut faster than he could. It was very fun work especially when you were hustling.

BTW, I own one of those saws.
It was built by Ottawa.
I have a 6HP American Ace Ottawa Log Saw and just the engine from a 4HP Ottawa hit-n-miss log saw.
Then I also have a much older 4HP Ottawa hit-n-miss Footed Base farm engine.

The problem with using that saw to cut corn is how to safely catch all those flying corn stalks.
Hand me a sharp corn knife any day.
I like the ones that have the leather wrist strap too.

Rustaholic · #22 07/01/11, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aseries

I never heard the term shock corn before, but if you want to dry corn, let it dry in the husk in the field till late fall just before snow falls. Then pick all the corn off the stalks, pile in trunk of your car bring them home, then husk them all, if you dont know how to braid corn, then just peel all the husks off and toss them into baskets or well ventilated boxes on the cob.

The corn at the end of the season wont be fully dry, it usually takes till about Jan or Feb to air dry corn till its dry enough to store either in a container or some place else.
SNIP
thanks

We left the corn in the shocks for at least two weeks then husked it out on our Husking Table.
We tied the stalks in smaller bundles and all of the corn was fairly dry but it was all stored in the corn crib so it did not have to be as dry and it would have to be if we were storing it inside totes, barrels or bins inside.

FarmboyBill · #23 07/01/11, 10:03 PM

Uncie, I dont have any bang bords, and never have had. Ive got the Binder with the wwagon elev ator, and a IHC picker. Heck, with my ankles, Id be good to make it once across a 5 acre field.

fantasymaker · #24 07/02/11, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle Will in In.

DO NOT CUT THE CORN BEFORE IT HAS FROSTED. If it is still green, and you bundle it up, it will mold and be of little value as feed.

I thought the whole point was to dry the stalks with the green still in them? Corn HAY if you will?

FarmboyBill · #25 07/02/11, 06:42 PM

Youve got 3 choices with corn. You can cut it green for ensilage. You can cut it 1/2 and 1/2 to feed livestock from the bundle, called stover, or fodder corn. you can cut it dry as a bone. Run it through a husker shredder, which I have, fresh from the bundle. It whill shred the stalk and leaves, and husk out the corn and put it in a wagon to put in a crib. The cows will not eat a stalk whole, just the leaves on it. BUTT, they WILL eat a dryed stalk if it has been shredded.