Mates,

Some call it 'corn', we call it 'Maize' was an ad compaign when I was a kid (Yes, electricity had been invented by then).  

Possibly some of you had your heart beat fast when you saw, 'Get your Maize off', but that's not what that means in this context.  When you grow corn you will talk about things like, "When are you going to get your corn off?" or "Did you get your corn off yet?"  and what they/we're talking about is harvesting your corn.   Up north, most of the corn grown isn't the sweet corn that we all like to eat, but it is instead 'field corn' or 'feed corn' which, as you would imagine, is used for feed and other mundane purposes.   

Let's assume you want to grow your corn the first place you start is planting, and up north that is usually somewhere between 5/5 and 5/25.  Some go earlier, and a couple of years ago because of the cold we were just after 5/25.  You want the ground to ideally be above 50 degrees.  If you plant when its too cold, the seed will just sit there and some will rot and never sprout.    Some folks will push that date earlier, but we have not.   Last summer the corn was planted on time and there was good moisture in the ground.   The corn 'canopied', meaning it sprouted and leafed enough to cover much of the surrounding dirt around each plant.  That became important because we then had a pretty dry June and July.  It was bad for lawns in the area, but it ended up being good for growing corn.  Once corn has sprouted it likes the warm weather - mind you, not the wilting uber-hot weather, but warm weather nevertheless.

Harvest season is usually in October- November, but this past year that proved to be difficult because of the weather and football.  You know that rain we didn't get in the summer?  Well, it came in October and November.  And then we had snow right on top of that.  Those factors make harvesting difficult for a couple of reasons.   First, in a perfect world you would harvest your corn at about 15% moisture.  It will dry itself out somewhat on the stalk as the fall progresses.  However, with big or constant rain at the end of the growing season that keeps the moisture percentage higher than you'd like.  If you harvest your corn with high moisture you need to 'dry' your corn out [image of a corn dryer] and that means time and the expense of propane to do so.   Ours was running in the high-teens.

Here is a homemade type of corn dryer.  Not pretty, but it gets the job done:

Second, with the moisture and particularly with the snow, that gums up the cutting heads - these things:

 The snow gets in the guides and you get ice build-ups.  You lose some corn and conceivably the cutting head could seize up or you start to bust parts.   I am fond of the old joke about a guy with a fancy $150k Lambourghini who only drives it once in a while, making fun of the farmer.  But the farmer retorts that he has a $500K harvester (we do NOT own one of those) that he only uses a few days a year.  Some of the equipment, especially for the bigger farms, is really expensive.   With the weather the way it was and with football for our house not ending until well into  November, that's when  I knew it was time to make a call to one of our farmer-neighbors.  In the big scheme of things our farm is more than a 'hobby farm', but microscopic compared to the outfits that derive 100% of their living from farming.  Living in a small community like this, you are embedded in ways you sometimes don't even realize.  Your kids are on teams with their kids.  Or their grandkids.  Your wife knows theirs.  Or you end up coaching their kids.  Or they need some advice and one of the other neighbors says to give you/me a call.  Or one of your good friends is good friends with another local you've not met, but you know who they are or vice-versa.  Yes, there can be some drama in small town living and not all of it is pretty, but when push comes to shove, I wouldn't have it any other way.

So I call one of our full-time farmer neighbors.  He has the big-boy equipment and will be working fields right near ours.  We have an easy talk.  We make a trade.  And he harvests the corn where I was not going to be able to do that.   A man has to know his limitations and mine are both significant and evident and I try not to stray beyond them.    And so that is how we got our maize off.  It was great.   We had subs. 

XM