Growing Corn

[lrunge]

My brother and I have decided to grow 2 acres of feed corn. The use is to burn in a couple of corn stoves. I know it is probably cheaper to just go buy the corn. However, we just want to try this. My brother has a Kubota 2910 and about 70 acres. It is in northern Kentucky (Cincinnati metro)
The two acres we want to use has had corn and pumpkins grown on it about 5-6 years ago and nothing since. It's all fescue now.
We have grown vegetables but never feed corn. He has had sheep, cattle, hogs, horses, etc in the past so he knows what farm type work requires.

We know we need to plow and disc. We have a 2 row planter.
What else do we need or need to do.
Some questions:
1. what is a good feed corn? Needs to dry good as need 12 to 15% max moisture.
2. What is a good fertilizer, how often etc.
3. Should we use a hybrid roundup resistance corn to help in weed control
I am sure there are more questions.

I know we will have to address how to harvest, dry if needed, and shell somehow.
What else do we need to know? (besides being told we don't want to do this).

 

[Robert_in_NY]

First thing is you need to find someone who will be willing to harvest a 2 acre field and how much they will charge. Generally it is around $35 an acre to harvest only but that is when you have a good size field. A 2 acre field is not going to be worth it for most guys to come in and put the head on the combine, turn around a couple times and have to take the head back off to go down the road. They will nail you with a minimum charge and will easily make it much more expensive then to buy your own.

If you can find a guy with an older, smaller combine he might be willing to do this size job but I would be looking for a guy to harvest it before I worried about anything else.

Once you find someone willing to harvest a small patch then go talk to your seed dealer and take a soil sample to him to send out. When the results come back he will be able to tell you what to do for your area, the type of seed you choose (he will help you choose), and what fertilizer/lime you will need to apply, when and how.

 

[Ford850]

The harvester will also want some input on how you plant it. Row spacing, etc.

 

[schmism]

how about a single or 2 row picker, tow behind the tractor.

seems perfect for the hobby farm 2 acer size

 

[RobJ]

One thing you can't control unless you irrigate. Corn does need water. 90-120 day crop but you have to have rain.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

how about a single or 2 row picker, tow behind the tractor.

seems perfect for the hobby farm 2 acer size

These pickers are getting hard to find in good shape and the guys looking for them want them as collectables which is keeping the price up. You then need a sheller and a tractor powerful enough to run it and pull it and a wagon thru mud if you are in a rainy spell.

You can also find older combines for around $1k or so that will do a good job in corn.

 

[Luremaker]

Irunge, take a look at these 2 links from the ibruncorn.com (corn stove owner's web forum). Lots of good info. Most guys think it is not worth the effort while others love the fact that they can grow an acre or two of corn.

forum.iburncorn.com :: View topic - Economics of growing your own corn?

http://forum.iburncorn.com/wiki/index.php/Grow_my_Own

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

My brother and I have decided to grow 2 acres of feed corn. The use is to burn in a couple of corn stoves. I know it is probably cheaper to just go buy the corn. However, we just want to try this. My brother has a Kubota 2910 and about 70 acres. It is in northern Kentucky (Cincinnati metro)
The two acres we want to use has had corn and pumpkins grown on it about 5-6 years ago and nothing since. It's all fescue now.
We have grown vegetables but never feed corn. He has had sheep, cattle, hogs, horses, etc in the past so he knows what farm type work requires.

We know we need to plow and disc. We have a 2 row planter.
What else do we need or need to do.
Some questions:
1. what is a good feed corn? Needs to dry good as need 12 to 15% max moisture.
2. What is a good fertilizer, how often etc.
3. Should we use a hybrid roundup resistance corn to help in weed control
I am sure there are more questions.

I know we will have to address how to harvest, dry if needed, and shell somehow.
What else do we need to know? (besides being told we don't want to do this).

I have planted 3 acres of corn the last few years. I plant for the wildlife (mostly deer) so I don't have to worry about harvesting. I just leave some standing and bushog some. I would definitely plant roundup ready corn so you can fight the weeds with a sprayer. Also, it takes a lot of lime and fertilizer to get a decent yield, and as mentioned earlier, without enough rain, the yield can be from poor to nonexitent.

With all that said, it is quite satisfying to watch your corn field grow to maturity. You are like me, not so much doing it for the economics but rather for the fun of it. Hey, golf, fishing, hunting, etc. aren't cost effective but are relaxing. I say if you want to try it, go for it. You'll have fun, learn a lot, and get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

 

[schmism]

These pickers are getting hard to find in good shape and the guys looking for them want them as collectables which is keeping the price up. You then need a sheller and a tractor powerful enough to run it and pull it and a wagon thru mud if you are in a rainy spell.

You can also find older combines for around $1k or so that will do a good job in corn.

This is true... a trip around the county in my area will net about 3 said combines siting out front... some with corn and bean heads.

My friend bought a 4 row head JD for about that. takes a bunch of fiddlin, but once it's set, works really well.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have planted 3 acres of corn the last few years. I plant for the wildlife (mostly deer) so I don't have to worry about harvesting. I just leave some standing and bushog some. I would definitely plant roundup ready corn so you can fight the weeds with a sprayer. Also, it takes a lot of lime and fertilizer to get a decent yield, and as mentioned earlier, without enough rain, the yield can be from poor to nonexitent.

With all that said, it is quite satisfying to watch your corn field grow to maturity. You are like me, not so much doing it for the economics but rather for the fun of it. Hey, golf, fishing, hunting, etc. aren't cost effective but are relaxing. I say if you want to try it, go for it. You'll have fun, learn a lot, and get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

On the flip side, it is quite disappointing to watch your corn wither from lack of rain and you get no yield at all. Recently it seems like feast or famine when it comes to farming. Two years ago I had so much rain I couldn't get a second cutting of hay because the fields were saturated. They didn't dry down till September and by then the days were too short up here to dry the hay. Last year there was no rain at all and there was a very poor first cutting and no second cutting. My corn fields did ok as they were on ground that holds moisture and were planted into sod. My grass and alfalfa fields I planted grew a great crop of weeds as that is the only thing that wants to grow with no water

For the OP, if you do plant corn get it in the ground as soon as the ground is ready to take advantage of the early rains. If you wait because you don't have the time and miss the main rains you will be praying for rain all year.

Good luck.

 

[AGRIMAN]

Irunge,

It sound like this corn crop may be as much about having fun/something to do as the corn. If this is the case then you may not be looking to get to scientific or be concern about the cost, but I will tell you the price of fertilizer is out the roof, but with only 2 acres it might not seem to bad.

Aside from the regular soil preparation you need to apply your starter fertilizer at planting then follow that up with another application for nitrogen. If you have the proper equipment you can do both of these yourself and save some money or you can check with your local farm supply store to see if they offer any of these services for only 2 acres. Be careful.. they may try to hit you with a low acre charge.

Are your planters set up to apply fertilizer?

You really should pull a soil sample to find out what your current soil fertility and PH levels are. This will give you a better understanding of your minimum fertilizer/lime requirements. If you are just looking to plant without getting that deep you could just go with a good common blend of fertilizer like a 5-10-15 at or before planting and you will probably be fine of what you are doing.

I'm not that familiar with the recommendations for KY, but for my dry land corn I usually put 250 to 300 lbs of a custom blend (by soil test) under the row at planting with a 8 to 12 inch seed spacing and then follow up 4 to 6 weeks later with about 100 units of nitrogen and I try to keep my PH 6.2 to 6.5.

On corn I would go Round Up Ready. You can also talk to your local farm supply store about which RR varieties are recommended for you area. You shouldn't need but about a half bag so you may want to just price it from the Garden seed center or maybe you to can find a farmer who has some extra.

Robert has a good point about finding someone to pull (southern term) your corn. I often have people ask me about pulling 2 or 3 acres and I will if it's close, but it's just not worth it (time or money) if I have to drive my combine 10 miles.

Robert.... can you really get a combine in NY for $35.00 a acre?
What's nitrogen a ton in your area?

I don't know anything about a corn stove. Will it burn the cob to?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

The $35/acre was from a couple years ago. I didn't ask my friend what he paid this year to have his rye harvested. I would assume the price went up with everything else. What is it in your area currently?

I bought a nice John Deere 3300 with grain and corn heads for $1k two years ago because I couldn't get anyone to harvest my small fields. I had 22 acres of oats the one guy would be willing to do but he didn't really want to and he had a 2366 which would have chewed the straw up too much at the time because they couldn't dial it in perfectly to leave some decent straw. He did my friends rye and turned it to powder. Last year he did a much better job on it and I was able to bale the straw a lot easier. I was able to double up the amount of bales off the same size field and had to put the tension to them because I was running out of wagons. Anyway, my 3300 has paid for itself easily and is a great size for my fields and operation. I only wish I could have found this size machine with RWA

I am not positive because I don't buy pure nitrogen (it is blended in with my mix) but I think it was north of $400/ton. But this was from last summer and my memory is terrible. I never was able to apply any fertilizer or lime this fall as I was injured. I fear my fertilizer bill this spring as the price isn't going down since I last talked to my fertilizer dealer.

 

[lrunge]

Thanks for all the input. You hit my 2 big concerns and that is how to harvest and how to shell it. I don't think our little antique hand sheller will work. Last year there was a drought through most of summer and corn didn't do to well here. However, the 2 acres are at the base of a small creek that we could irrigate from, although it went dry last year.
I have been on iburncorn forum before but didn't think to check it for growing corn. Thanks for the link.
This is more of an experiment that I can afford while I am still working but may be my corn source after retirement (in 1 or 2 years).
I will have a soil sample analyzed and see what it needs.
I need to go to the county extension office with the soil samples and will see if they have any info on anyone who might harvest it for us and any other recommndations they have.
I also will have to start looking for some used smaller equipment. I drove past a JD 4 row pull planter on sunday that had a $250 sign on it. Maybe I can get find something I need.

 

[MossRoad]

Go Amish! Pick it by hand.

 

[charlz]

Thanks for all the input. You hit my 2 big concerns and that is how to harvest and how to shell it. I don't think our little antique hand sheller will work.

I would definitely look at mechanizing the picking part. If you have a protected area to store/dry it you could look at the hand sheller as being akin to chopping wood... do it a little at a time as you need it.

My pellet stove can burn corn along with the wood pellets... or 100% corn if you never turn it off (can't auto start with corn). I kind of toyed with the idea of growing some corn for burning.

One of the tricks seems to be getting the corn down to 15% moisture or lower. Corn cribs with blower fans at the bottom, a system that burns stalks/cobs to produce heat to dry the shelled corn and the use of propane/natural gas are some of the methods I saw when I researched. Depending on your humidity etc. you might be able to air dry on the cob in a corn crib. You would need to buy a moisture meter to really know what is going on.... wouldn't want to lose all your corn to mold/rot.

Charles

 

[schmism]

I am not positive because I don't buy pure nitrogen (it is blended in with my mix) but I think it was north of $400/ton. But this was from last summer and my memory is terrible. I never was able to apply any fertilizer or lime this fall as I was injured. I fear my fertilizer bill this spring as the price isn't going down since I last talked to my fertilizer dealer.

Not that i have anything to do with it, but last i heard the farm boys talkin about it, they were complaining that it had gone from like 200 a ton a few years ago to like 300-350 and were expected to be above $400 like you say.

 

[AGRIMAN]

I haven't done any custom work in a few years but, they are getting $50.00 a acre down here.

With the current price on Soybeans and Wheat now I was thinking of renting more land this year, but with the new Pine tree program all the good land is being set out. I just don't understand it.

We can eat a pine tree! Our wonderful government is basically paying the whole bill now in the name of wild live conservation.

I guess when we all run out of food maybe they will pay us to push them things up.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I haven't done any custom work in a few years but, they are getting $50.00 a acre down here.

With the current price on Soybeans and Wheat now I was thinking of renting more land this year, but with the new Pine tree program all the good land is being set out. I just don't understand it.

We can eat a pine tree! Our wonderful government is basically paying the whole bill now in the name of wild live conservation.

I guess when we all run out of food maybe they will pay us to push them things up.

Oh nonsense. We can just get our food from Brazil

 

[CATMAN]

The only thing I would add is to maintain good weed control, so if a farmer was to combine your little two acre plot, he wouldn't be getting a bunch of weed seeds inside his combine that he would be getting a "free ride" back to his farm. I know this may not be as much of an issue as it was in the past(before Round-up). Years ago, my Dad would decline any custom combine work, if he felt that person's fields were too weedy(didn't want to infest his own fields). Anyone remember "walking" soybean fields?

 

[AGRIMAN]

OOOOOOOOO YEA!