Questions re: Growing Field Corn for livestock

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We are wanting to grow some field corn this summer for our chickens, goats, etc. What kind is the best? I know that you have to have it planted away from your sweet corn. How much would be a good amount for 3-4 goats and a small flock of chickens? How long does it last? We are in zone 5. I was wanting a open-pollinated variety or Heirloom.

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 14, 2002

Answers

i get most of my good seed from the le jardin du gourmet seed catalog. Most of their seeds are 30 cents per package and they carry lots of stuff you cant find anywhere else.

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

We order our open pollinated field corn seed from Shumway. Properly dryed, it will last all winter. We built a small corn crib; picking before it get so dry that a wind will make it fall off and finish drying in the crib. Reid's Yellow Dent is a good variety for zone 5, which is what we are also. As too the amount, I would think at least an acre.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

Hybred corn in my area is planted 25-32,000 seeds per acre. Hybred is sold in a bag of 88,000 seeds (which is 40-48 lbs most often, can varry a lot). This is for corn that gets fertilized, is generally drilled in 30" rows.

How does that compare to open pollinated, or organic producers? I know in the 'old' days with little fertilizer & wider rows or hill dropped they ran about 19,000 seeds per acre, but they bought corn by 56 lbs per bag.

Just curious, & maybe my numbers can help the original poster get a handle on how much he needs.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002.


We only have dryland farming around us so does field corn have to be irrigated? If so would drip irrigation work? The orchardist around us do use drip for acres and acres of trees.

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 15, 2002.

Dent corn is used for feed grain (can also be used for corn meal). There are several kinds that will grow in zone 5 (any fast maturing dent corn (97-115 days) will easily grow in zone 5). If corn color doesn't matter (red, blue, white, yellow, or multi colored commenly called Indian corn but in dent form NOT flint corn), then Sand Hill Preservation Center has several verieties (developed by a Minnesota farmer named Stubbes that mature any where from 97-107 days). Stubbes developed different colors because he made corn kernel paintings. There are many veieties to choose from, that are open pollinated or Heirloom, if color didn't matter. (bear in mind that red, orange, & yellow colors have caritin (vitamin A) that many liveing creatures need) And I doubt that livestock care what the color of the corn is. Sand Hill doesn't carry a large amount of seed for some verities (some are limited to a packet, while others can be bought in 1-3 lbs in size). You can get several verities to get a large amount of seed, plant each verity buy itself, & feed some of each separatly to see if you prefer one or more over the others. Save seed for the ones you like the most (feeding the rest to get rid of it, after which you can mix seed if you want for next year). If you want more of a different color, you can always buy some more next year to add to the seed you would currently have by then. It wouldn't take long before you wouldn't need to buy any seed. (ie... keep almost all of what you grew the first year (except for what you would test feed for palitability) to use for seed the next year, & make due with bought feed corn for one more year, until your crop comes in with enough grain to keep your livestock fed until the next years crop + seed for next years plantings.) I also agree you would want at least 1 acre if not 2 (chickens eat a lot of grain compared to other livestock). You also might want to consider sunflowers for seed. All types of livestock seen to love them. They have more protien then corn. And they grow under the same conditions as corn.

PS. Where in zone 5 are you? I'm in central Indiana (also zone 5).

Sorry this was so long.

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), January 15, 2002.



Hi,

My family was in the seed business for just about a hundred years in North Dakota before the 3rd generation sold out. We grew many open pollenated varieties with relatively short seasons. I cannot help you with heirloom varieties although I have several in my posession still. In zone 5 with relatively high humidity, my varieties would be fungus food I think anyway.

There is much good info on corn in the answers so far. Dent corn is the way to go because the starch is stored in a fluffy matrix and is not as hard as the flints...whose modern ancester is most famous as popcorn.

With regard to yield think about this:

If you have deep prairie topsoil with average rainfall over 35 inches, good fertility and you invest in some inputs and cultivate using a modern high yield hybrid etc. you might get a grain yield of up to 250 bushels per acre...that is grain, off the cob. That's alot of corn, at around 56 pounds a bushel that's still a lot of corn.

If you get a nice healthy stand of a less high tech variety. If you do your best to grow it carefully and manage for reasonable production with early cultivation and some fertilizer at planting you can probably reasonably expect about half the high yield model's yield. So lets just say you get less than that at 100 bushels per acre. 5600 pounds of grain is a lot of grain.

you can model this for your area. Find out what farmers typically yield in your soil type. Figure 40% of that for you and you can get an idea. Also the goats will eat the stalks well into winter and actually get quite a bit of nutriton out of it. So there will be even less grain to feed.

One last thing. The dry land corn varieties that we grew in North Dakota...these so called heirlooms often yielded 60 Bushels per acre where the annual rainfall was often around 20 inches. My great grandfather received many of these as gifts from the Mandan and Arikira Indians around Bismarck.

Good Luck.

Oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), January 15, 2002.


Try approaching it a different way. Say you will feed an average of ten pounds of corn per day year-round. That's 3,650 pounds. Divide by 56 (the standard weight for a bushel of corn) gives 65 bushels. Using Oscar's 40% of commerical corn growers production, the average yield per acre would need to be 163 bushels per acre. If less, you need to plant more than one acre. If more, less than one acre.

Locally shelled corn is $3.50 for a 50-pound bag. 3,650 pounds would require 73 bags or $255.50. If you consider your time worth at least $7.00 per hour, that represents 36.5 hours. I suspect cultivating, planting, fertilization, weeding and harvesting even one acre of corn would require more hours than that. Plus there would be the cost of equipment (including wear and tear).

I would just buy what the feed store has.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 17, 2002.


Oscar it took me a couple of days to find out the average rainfall in our area, which is Central Washington. The last 100 years, according to the Extention Office is 11.2 per year. They mostly grow spring wheat around me at 30-40 bushels per acre. I have lots of acess to wheat and barley, but was wanting to add the field corn and maybe some oats? I was wanting to raise some grain to offset our feed cost and thought of corn because it could also be used for cornmeal for the family. Shumway's was suggested, does anyone have their phone number or address? Thanks!

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

Ken, thanks for the formula. I only wish that we could buy corn at the feedstore for $3.50 for 50lbs. I called today to get the current price and it is selling for $6.99 for 50lbs. You must live in corn country!! Interestingly enough, cracked corn was the same price.

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

I see why people think farmers are getting rich!!!! Wow, even in the good years I have only 2 or 3 times sold corn for over $3.50 a bushel.

I realize you are getting is sacked, individually sold so the price is more, but $6.99????? Wow.

I am holding last year's crop, desperately hoping I can get $1.80 per bushel (56lbs) for it.

Got any corn farmers near you? You could make their day walking in & offering $5 a bushel!!!!

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 17, 2002.



Paul: I wish I did have some corn farmers near us, because I would gladly give my $$$ directly to them. However that is one ($$$$) of the reasons I would like to try growing some.

-- (Mamafila@aol.com), January 17, 2002.

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