The above freezing temperatures has melted most of the snow off the trees. And some farmers were able to combine corn today which has previous been ice and snow covered, but there are still fields with standing corn waiting to be harvested.
Corn Harvest Continues
The cool, wet fall did not help the crops to dry down and during this corn harvest season, there are long lines at the corn drying facilities and even causing some propane shortages. Some farmers who can feed ground cob corn to livestock may pick the ears and crib it to allow the moisture content to lower for storage.
Harvest Time – Corn Picking
Watch the corn being harvested and stored in a corn crib.
The brief thunderstorm yesterday may have stopped the combine harvesting corn next to me, but I’m sure the harvesting equipment will be rolling again soon as there is still a lot of acres to get in before the snow flies. This field has a double workout with both the harvest of the corn and then the corn stalks are baled for cattle feed and bedding.
Corn Stalk Round Bales
If the weather forecast is right, we will have three warmer and most sunny days so I’m sure the farmers will be trying to get their crops in. The non-raining days are probably appreciated by those who don’t have a nice warm and dry tractor cab like this farmer picking corn with horses.
Picking Corn by Horse Power
On the weekend, I saw a lot of big equipment harvesting corn and it seems like the machinery gets bigger and bigger each year. But here and there, you can see some corn harvesting methods like what my mom would have done when she was young. By taking bundle of cornstalks, and stacking in a teepee-style pile, the corn shocks allow the ears of corn to dry more until it can be stored without spoiling.
Rows of Corn Shocks
The farm fields have been busy with activity the last few weeks with harvest but the harvest method varied greatly from the super huge combines, to older smaller combines and corn pickers, and even cut by hand and shocked into bundles to let the corn dry down like my grandparents did.
Corn Shocks
Corn might not remind me of summer, unless it sweet corn on the cob drenched in butter, but it might represent a warm fall day in the sun. But at least the corn is shelled with equipment and not hand-shelled or you might get warmed with sweat shelling this truck load of corn instead of being warmed by the sun.
Load of Shelled Corn
Ever since the movie Fields of Dreams came out, it is hard not to look at a corn field waiting for baseball players to come out from the field. And while the movie had the line “If you build it, he will come.”, in this case it is, “If you plant it, it will come.” And the ‘it’ was the combine on the far end that came in a few minutes making these rows vanish, like the baseball players vanishing in the field.
Vanishing Corn Field
The leaves rustling in the wind, a flock of geese hooking overhead and machinery hard at work were all heard when I stepped outside this morning. The combines and tractors were busy bringing in the soybeans and corn before the snow.
Busy Picking Corn
