Homegrown corn

[trainman]

Feed is rising in cost so I thought I'd like to supplement my commercial feed with some home grown corn and sunflower seeds. I have plenty of space to grow it so that's not an issue. My questions concern what and how to do it.

Once planted and it's producing where do I go from there? Do I let it mature on the plant and dry out or do I have to do something else? Leave it in the husk or peel it? Leave the sunflower heads whole or remove the seeds. What then? What's the right way to dry it without it getting moldy.

I have a coarse grinder which I believe will be good enough to break up the corn kernals enough for them to easily swallow. I think the sunflower seeds are good enough without any further grinding or anything.

I hope this is a feasible project and I can manage to save some feed money too.

Thanks.

 

[raingarden]

The only processing you will have to do is to knock the plants over and turn the chickens loose on them. If you want to preserve some for later then it will need to be harvested and dried.

 

[trainman]

The only processing you will have to do is to knock the plants over and turn the chickens loose on them. If you want to preserve some for later then it will need to be harvested and dried.

OK. I want to try to harvest the seeds for a feed supplement and not just an annual treat. So what method do you recommend to harvest, dry and store the seeds?

 

[SheaLoner]

I tried growing some field corn last year. The rains and squirrels ruined any harvest I got.
Basically you leave the ears on the plant as long as possible. Before it gets cold, you pull the ears, shuck them partly and hang to dry somewhere warm and dry until you cant make a mark in a kernel.

 

[saysfaa]

Start with field corn - not sweet corn.
Get a soil test done. Adjust the soil.

Around here, if it is a small plot, a deer/raccoon fence would be essential; sometimes it is anyway... the deer like to walk through the field taking a bite from each tassel as it begins to develop, they have destroyed enough of the crop that way to make it not worth harvesting, even in a pretty big field.

Plant when soil temperature is 50 at a depth of 1.5 to 2" and moisture is right... we have a narrow window between warm/dry enough and too late for the crop to mature before winter. You would have a much longer growing season but I don't know enough about southern corn crops to know what else you might need to consider.

Keep weeded and water as needed.
Harvest at the early dent stage or later.
Husk it.
Store in a very ventilated place so it can dry before it molds. It doesn't need to be warm, it does need to be protected from rain, raccoons, and rodents or losses from them accepted.
Shell it after it dries, if you want it shelled.

 

[glib]

wherever chickens have been for some time it will be well fertilized. if you can rotate them through different plots you will be all right.

 

[saysfaa]

wherever chickens have been for some time it will be well fertilized. if you can rotate them through different plots you will be all right.

That depends on where you live. Some places need lime to shift the pH, at least, regardless of how balanced the macro and micro nutrients are.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, and chicken manure is high in nitrogen…it’s a match made in heaven.

Circle of life.