Corn

A load of Manure

 I have a flat area on my property that is about a 1/10th of an acre that I have always envisioned as a corn field to raise corn to help supplement feed. Last year I tried but failed miserably. I planted it too late and didn't add any nutrients to the soil. Did I mention it failed miserably?

Piles of Poop

So last spring I brought in 8 yards of cow manure from my local landscape supply. The trailer can handle 4 yards, so it took two loads. The landscape supply is not two far away so it was much more economical to do it this way than to have them deliver in one big load.

I unloaded it with the Yanmar's loader, dropped it off in these piles, spread it out with the front blade on the Farmall Cub, and then tilled it in with the 4' rototiller I have for my Yanmar. A great day of hobby farming!

Baby Corn

That was in April. In mid-May we had a warm spell and I planted the corn with my earthway seeder.

When the plants were having just germinated I ran my 1970's horse rototiller down the rows. I did that one more time while the plants were small. and left them for quite a while. When they were hip high I side dressed with Urea (40-0-0) at the rate of 1 pound per 100 feet of row. I tilled it in with the cultivator attachment I have for my Stihl Kombi-System and irrigated.

I used the kombi-system because it is much more narrow. I have read that at certain heights you have to be careful of how close you cultivate to the roots as not to cut the ones near the top that keep the corn from lodging (falling over). I recently bought a cultivator for the Farmall Cub that I found on craigslist that I look forward to experimenting with next year.
I only irrigated two or three times. Several neighbors were quite concerned with how little I was watering.

The corn is an old open pollinated variety called Nothstine Dent that is supposed to be well suited to our short growing season, drought tolerant and is know for its use as feed and corn meal. I plan on saving seed.

Weeds in corn

Well... We did get weeds but they are only in the rows. From this angle they look out of control. When you look down the row, it doesn't look so bad.

Weeds like my hair in 1992

But when you pull the weeds back you see that they are a mop top and it is bare soil beneath them. I wonder if the mulching qualities it brings out-weighs the nutrients the weeds steel from the corn? The plan is to feed this is as ear corn to the pigs and use the stalks as bedding. My son and I fed them several ears yesterday and they really went after them. It will be interesting when it is all said and done to see how much this helps the feed bill. Of course there is the cost of growing it... 8 yards of manure, 1.5 pounds of corn seed, fossil fuels, Urea...Experience of growing it, priceless.