Do not plant sweet corn unless you personally want to harvest some of it for your own use. If you do, you better be prepare to electrical fence it off starting about 4" off the ground and up to 5' high. Field corn is the better option if your goal is to provide a winter food source. Coons bother it less, and generally it produces more.

If you had problems with it being "nibbled to the ground" before the ears were set, raccoons were not the likely culprets. More likely, crows, turkeys, and deer comsume the sprouting and growing corn at their preferred stages. How many acres did you plant? If you noticed, FarmHunter had fields of 5 acres or so if I can recall correctly. If you have only 1 acre or less and plant corn, the chances of getting that corn to maturity will probably be low in areas with a good deer, coon, and squirrel population unless it is somehow protected.

An alternate to corn, may be milo. There seem to be fewer animals that consume it in various growth stages and it still provides a good source of carbohydates for deer and game birds at maturity. In smaller foodplots, I seen individuals have better luck with it reaching maturity than corn in my neck of the woods. One down side is that it may not be as good in areas with deep snows.

greg