On Saturday, April 25 we planted about 3 acres of corn. My grandfather (he's 81) used his Ford 3610 to pull the Covington planter. We planted in 5' rows, because that's the narrowest we could plant with this setup. If the corn does well I'll be looking for a "corn" planter for next year that plants on 30" or 36" centers.
This land hadn't been tilled in 5 or 6 years. I turned it in February and then disk it several times. I bought Roundup Ready corn and plan to spray it. The last terrace (where all the pictures were taken) wasn't turned, just disked. The planter did well, but peeled up a pretty good furrow. I hope to have a planter by next year that is designed for corn with minimal tillage.
Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. The last picture is of Grandad, me, and my two kids (Abby and Garret).
one of the farm magazines had an article on guys using super wide rows and they got decent yeilds. But they were trying to get patents ont he row widths too. but would be great in a hay field or someplce you plan to pasture or intersed with another crop.
That's why we planted 3 acres. I have about 20 Boer Goats and when they have kids the numbers are about 40-50. I plan to use the corn to feed the goats, chickens, and feed out a couple hogs and a steer.
The corn is up and I have a pretty good stand. I just want to go with a planter with narrower rows next year. More corn per acre and it should help with controlling weeds.
I wasn't planning on cultivating. The guy at Southern States has me talked into spraying the corn with Roundup and not cultivating. What do you guys think. I have always cultivated corn. Of course I've never planted Roundup Ready corn before.
You spent extra money on the roundup corn just so you do not have to cultivate it. So unless you need something to do I would not! But again that is another toy or fun job!
Yeah, I probably will just Roundup it. Problem is the corn patch is right beside my pumpkin patch. I'll have to make sure I do it on a day the wind is blowing the other way.
At what stage (height) do you guys usually round up the corn???? It's about 6-8" high now.
Well, here's an update. I did end up spraying the corn with roundup. It did really well.
I ended up pulling most of the 3 acres and selling it at the farmer's market for Rosen Ears (to eat). I pulled 200 bushels (60 ears to the bushel) in 6 days by myself. I got $15.00 a bushel for the corn. I only pulled the "good" ears. The rest I left to run over the field with the picker.
There is about 1/2 an acre left that I didn't pull at all.
Well after pulling the corn I had a couple "curb" markets come to me wanting corn stalks. So we spent the past two weekends with a machete chopping the stalks and bundling them in bundles of ten and tying with hay strings. $3.00 a bundle. We cut 500 bundles and have them air drying.
Next year I'm going to plant a field of corn to pull and sell and another field to pick with the picker.
Here are some pictures of the corn and my 2 acres of pumpkins.
-- Edited by firefighter9208 on Thursday 20th of August 2009 09:40:40 AM
