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Standing Corn

Old 10-30-2002, 09:07 PM
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Nontypical Buck
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Default Standing Corn

Hey guys,

I just wanted to get your input on leaving corn for the winter.

I've read where people leave it standing, others, knock it down, still others brush-hog sections - so the deer will get on it.

Last year I left it standing, and while it wasn't a huge attractant during the hunting season (very mild winter - I'll add) it was HEAVILY used in Feb and March.

I like the idea of leaving it standing. We average 150" of snow here a year (only 80" last year), and 2 ft of snow on the ground is fairly normal after Jan 1. I also like the idea of having a 6 acre and 2 acre corn "thicket" for our deer to lay up in (2 separate fields)during the hunting season.

What are your guys' experiences? Do you leave it standing? Do you maybe knock some down or brush-hog some? Just Curious -
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Old 10-31-2002, 07:31 AM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

I leave it standing. Keeps the moisture down reducing mildew and rot, makes it more difficult for other critters to access and provides cover so the deer are more comfortable feeding in daylight. Mine is almost gone already, 6 rows around the perimeter and down the middle of a seven acre field. I've had 8 antlerless as regular users and saw 3 bucks including a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 year old 8 or 10 pointer as I drove out of the property this AM. He's a shooter in my book and will go 140-150 P&Y depending on the point count. Good luck.
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Old 10-31-2002, 09:05 AM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

Thanks for posting this topic, farmhunter. I was going to ask the same thing.
I think I'm going to leave mine standing. I have two 1 acre plots on opposite sides of a 10 acre field connected by a strip of winter wheat/rape. I want to see what hits it AFTER the late November gun season here in WI. It is also pretty close to a cedar swamp, so I think they would be in there all winter.
What do you do with it in the spring? Just disc it under? Plow it under? Brush hogg it?
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Old 10-31-2002, 12:23 PM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

I'm real interested in this. I planted 6 rows in the spring before the last frost. Then we had no rain. Its 2 or so ft.tall with no corn on it. Going to do better next year. What kind of corn do you plant? Soil ph? I have 3acres in clover,alfalfa that's not doing too bad. terry<img src=icon_smile_clown.gif border=0 align=middle>

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Old 10-31-2002, 04:36 PM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

It depends on what your goal is. You will SEE more action if it is down, but deer will actually bed down in standing corn. Standing corn does provide a good food source in areas that have a large amount of snowfall. If you can't decide, mow half and leave half. Patches of corn instead of strips probably would work best for this since strips may drift over.

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Old 10-31-2002, 07:18 PM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

farm hunter; I can't offer personal experience except what I've seen in the neighbours field. As Sven said the deer appear to use the standing corn more. Once it's bushhogged they only feed (usually around the edges) early and late in the day to clean up the chopped corn.

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Old 10-31-2002, 08:16 PM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

Lawnfarmer - In my book corn is the most fickle and difficult (read expensive) plot to do well. I've posted on the topic here alot as I was learning to get a good stand, and know where you are coming from. I'm sure we'll talk alot about it in the late winter on this board again, but a quick synopsis - corn will grow in soil as low as 5.5 Ph. The better the Ph, the better the crop (and the more weeds to deal with). My Ph was 5.1 - 6.2 in different sections of the field. The really acidic land, did not grow corn very well, it ears out but the are small, and the plants only get 4-5 ft tall. Int he better sections of the field, it gre to 8 ft tall. We try to get ours planted in Central NY by the 1st week in June, and after May 20th. This was our third year of planting corn (the first was a disaster - each year has gotten better as we learned more). If you cannot spray, you almost must cultivate two or three times before the corn gets to high to work. Corn requires good P&K levels - and HIGH amounts of Nitrogen to ear out. The more Nitrogen, the better the ear crop will be. At planting this year, we banded in 150 lb/acre 15-15-15 and hit the plot with 170 lb/acre of Urea (46-0-0) 2nd week of July.

We plant insulage corn becuase its cheaper ($45.00/bag - plants 2-3 acres), but it should be a cow corn. Picking corn is probably best though it doesn't grow as tall.

If your corn stopped at 2-3 ft, along with no rain, the primary problem was likely Nitrogen and/or Phosphorus was lacking. A soil test will tell you how much N to put down, put it down some at planting and the rest at 6 leaves (knee high). You put the majority of the N down later, because the corn cannot use it much until that point, and by delaying N application, the weeds do not get the benefit of it early on. If you can spray, its not as big a deal to not delay N application.

Good luck, lets discuss corn in detail in the late winter.


Edited by - farm hunter on 10/31/2002 21:37:22
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Old 10-31-2002, 08:25 PM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

Ostdc - I'll leave mine standing again this year I guess. We did last year, and the deer used it alot in the later part of winter. Its tough though to see deer feeding in the picked corn fields, on the neighbor's land - when we have 8 acres standing. I did brushhog one ten ft path doen the center of the 2 acre plot to see what will happen.

Last spring we brushhogged the remaining standing stalks, sprayed round-up, waited 2 weeks, plowed an disked before planting again. It worked fairly well, the stalks if not mowed down ten to clog up our little two bottom plow. Next year is a big planting year for us. We will plant corn in 5 acres of old clover, and try to establish a new clover plot on what is 4 acres of corn this year. For this reason, we did not have a local farmer spray atrazine on the corn (lasts up to 2 yrs in the soil) and only cultivated after the initial round up spraying. We have alot of weeds, mostly ragweed, even with the cultivation - but we still got a HUGE amount of ears (got to love that Nitrogen).

Yeoman - Sounds like you've got a good thing going. Hopefully the corn will hold up long enough to keep that good buck in your area a while.

Thanks everyone else. - Standing corn it will be. I know that if we have one of those years with 2 ft of snow on the ground in hunting season, every deer for miles will be in it, as all the farmers have finished chopping and picking theirs already in my area.


Edited by - farm hunter on 10/31/2002 21:33:00

Edited by - farm hunter on 10/31/2002 21:40:29
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Old 10-31-2002, 08:41 PM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

When you bushhog the corn stocks you're adding a large amount of high carbon matter to the soil. The stocks have about an 80:1 C:N ratio. They create a nitrogen debt for the next crop and can takes years to break down. For that reason you actually end up needing to add Nitrogen for the next crop as well as to decompose the last crop. They add a lot of organic matter and the nitrogen release is great when they do break down, but a lot of farmers follow a corn crop with soyabeans or legumes so they don't have to add too much nitrogen.

Dan O.
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Old 11-01-2002, 07:43 AM
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Default RE: Standing Corn

What do you think about rolling it down with a cultapacker? Is it better left as cover during the deer season?
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