What Can U Do With Dead Corn Field
Today we have a guest post from Indiana farmer, blogger Brian Scott (Facebook, Twitter). Brian does a not bad job of explaining difficult questions nigh farming operations, how crops are grown, and the management decisions surrounding growing Genetically Modified crops. Brian blogs almost growing corn, soybeans, and popcorn at TheFarmersLife.com. Today he addresses dying corn left in farmer fields
I am always intrigued by the questions people inquire well-nigh agronomics. What might seem like a silly question to me at outset is actually a neat question from someone who has non been around a farm very much if at all. Apparently, people accept been asking Agriculture Proud why farmers leave their dying corn in the field. I imagine this question is spurred by the thought many people believe when they drive through areas of the country, like Indiana where I farm, they are looking at endless expanses of sugariness corn. This is non so.
The vast majority of corn spotted in rural America is not sugariness corn. And when I say majority I hateful like 99% of it is not sweetness corn. Not always merely more than likely the corn in question is yellow dent corn. Dent corn feeds livestock, fuels cars, and makes plastics, starches, adhesives, and a huge array of other products. Sugariness corn is harvested at what would exist considered very early in the season for a farmer like me. The establish is notwithstanding pretty green and the kernels are of course juicy and sweet. I do not want sweetness juicy corn on my subcontract. My corn goes through a juicy phase after pollination although the sugars are more starchy than sweetness.
Why leave dying corn?
Well to me information technology'due south not dying it'southward drying. Afterward pollination kernels appear. Sugariness corn is harvested before long afterward. When the kernels are formed and full of liquid it's called the milk stage considering if yous squeeze a kernel the stuff that squirts out has a milky consistency. Later on milk, we become to dough where the kernel gets a fleck more solid. Eventually, we hit black layer, which signifies physiological maturity. Blackness layer refers to a, you guessed it, a black layer at the tip of the corn kernel. Then now, the corn is physiologically mature and dent corn is maybe a month further along than harvested sweet corn. Time for harvest, right? Nope.
Corn drying process
Corn can be safely stored for long periods at 15% moisture. The black layer is around 35% moisture in the kernel. 15% is a level at which the risk for developing storage issues is very low, and it's no coincidence grain purchasers base their pay schedules on 15% wet. Higher than that number of corn delivered to the lift and I have part of my pay taken to cover the elevator'due south drying cost. But there'due south no premium for delivering nether 15% moisture. Fair enough. Non all farmers have dryers on their farms, but many do.
Dryers are generally powered by propane. Our dryer actually looks like a normal grain bin, but the top department has a floor to agree wet grain to be dried in batches. A big burner fan pumps air, sometimes over 200 degrees F, to dry the corn. Traps in the floor open up later on a specified period of time, and another batch enters.
Why corn needs to dry
And so if wet corn costs me coin to dry, whether doing it on-site or upon delivery, why not leave corn in the field until it dries all the way down to 15% moisture in the field? We tend to start harvest at just over 20%, perchance up to 25%, normally. We plant diverse maturities of corn and then the drying process is spread out. Sometimes farmers can become a break on drying costs. The local ethanol planted wanted corn early on in 2011. In early on September, they took corn deliveries for 1 week while covering the drying cost up to 25%. Nosotros harvested nearly 40 acres about xxx% and didn't harvest annihilation else until 3 weeks later. Corn starts to be ground upwards and damaged a bit when information technology'due south that wet running through the combine.
Nosotros dry out most of our corn ourselves because nosotros have the chapters to shop nearly of our own crop. During harvest, lines at the grain elevator are usually long, and I tin't keep the combine running if at that place isn't an empty truck waiting on the roadside. Since corn is in greatest affluence at harvest, the toll may be relatively low also. Storing means nosotros can hold on to grain while waiting for college prices. Pay or pricing tin exist held back upon delivery to an elevator too, simply you'll be charged a per bushel storage fee for the time between delivery and sale.
Why leave dying corn in fields?
2013 was a wet and absurd twelvemonth overall except for Baronial. Our average harvest moisture was 20% across the whole farm. If we let corn dry all the way to 15% (peradventure pushing into December with 2013 weather) in the field we would probable lose more money in grain loss than what we'd pay for drying. I believe this is where the idea of dead corn comes into play. Fields total of browning plants sitting in fields for weeks equally compared to green sugariness corn. I desire the corn to look dried upwardly, but when the fourth dimension is right, I want the corn out of the field equally fast equally we can harvest.
The establish is dying and drying right forth with the kernels. Stalks go difficult and breakable, and ears might start dropping on the basis. Once they hit the basis, my combine isn't going to pick them up. The last thing I want to encounter coming at dry out corn stalks is a strong windstorm. The wind is bad enough on light-green and growing corn then information technology won't have much trouble knocking down dead corn. The ground likewise needs to be dry out for harvest to limit the risk of soil compaction and for ease of operating equipment.
Now y'all volition know the adjacent fourth dimension yous come across acres of light-green corn that has turned like fall leaves on trees that in the farmer's eyes his corn is non dying simply drying!
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Source: https://beefrunner.com/2014/01/09/ask-a-farmer-why-do-farmers-leave-dying-corn-in-fields/
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