Growing Corn

[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!