Standing Corn
11-01-2002, 06:13 PM
#12
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Knox County IL USA
Posts: 90
RE: Standing Corn
If you really want to do it right, you need to setup a crop rotation. To have corn every year, you need to start with 3 plots. One plot will start as a cover plot, one as corn and the other as beans or other legume. The clover plot will stay the same for 3 seasons then rotate to a different field. The corn and beans alternate each year. Here is an example of an effecient rotation:
Clov-Bean-Corn
Clov-Corn-Bean
Clov-Bean-Corn>>Plant clover overseeded w/ wheat in fall in beans.
Corn-Clov-Bean
Bean-Clov-Corn
Corn-Clov-Bean>>Plant clover overseeded w/ wheat in fall in beans.
Bean-Corn-Clov
Corn-Bean-Clov
Bean-Corn-Clov>>Plant clover overseeded w/ wheat in fall in beans.
Etc.
Etc.
The benefit of doing this is the efficient use of soil nutrients. Corn and wheat are nitrogen users while beans and clover are nitrogen producers. Following the beans and clover with corn or wheat uses the nitrogen they produced and reduces the amount of N fertilizer you need to apply. This is why you will notice that farmers alternate corn and beans every year. Beans do well in the soil low in nitrogen, and corn uses up the nitrogen produced by the previous years beans. You will notice that when it's time to rotate the clover, you plant winter wheat into the bean ground. The wheat uses up the nitrogen from the beans to clear the way for the clover to take over the next spring.
If you feel you can get more than 3 good years out of a clover stand then you can extend the rotation to 5 years. Just add 2 more years of the corn-bean rotation per cycle.
Clov-Bean-Corn
Clov-Corn-Bean
Clov-Bean-Corn>>Plant clover overseeded w/ wheat in fall in beans.
Corn-Clov-Bean
Bean-Clov-Corn
Corn-Clov-Bean>>Plant clover overseeded w/ wheat in fall in beans.
Bean-Corn-Clov
Corn-Bean-Clov
Bean-Corn-Clov>>Plant clover overseeded w/ wheat in fall in beans.
Etc.
Etc.
The benefit of doing this is the efficient use of soil nutrients. Corn and wheat are nitrogen users while beans and clover are nitrogen producers. Following the beans and clover with corn or wheat uses the nitrogen they produced and reduces the amount of N fertilizer you need to apply. This is why you will notice that farmers alternate corn and beans every year. Beans do well in the soil low in nitrogen, and corn uses up the nitrogen produced by the previous years beans. You will notice that when it's time to rotate the clover, you plant winter wheat into the bean ground. The wheat uses up the nitrogen from the beans to clear the way for the clover to take over the next spring.
If you feel you can get more than 3 good years out of a clover stand then you can extend the rotation to 5 years. Just add 2 more years of the corn-bean rotation per cycle.
11-01-2002, 08:15 PM
#13
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ponce de Leon Florida USA
Posts: 10,079
RE: Standing Corn
One thing not covered that may be of help. Contact your local feed and seed and ask for a type of corn seed that stands well in the field with a strong stalk. Some will blow over with the first good wind.
11-12-2002, 11:03 AM
#14
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Pound WI USA
Posts: 429
RE: Standing Corn
I am leaving mine up, too. I stalked a doe in it on Friday night. What a RUSH! I got up within 15' of her, then when I clipped my release on my bowstring, it was as if all sound stopped. It went "click" and she blew out of there. I never got a shot. It was awesome!
11-21-2002, 01:59 PM
#16
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: northern USA
Posts: 274
RE: Standing Corn
I love standing corn(if I can hunt it)because the deer do to. The deer will stay in the corn pretty much full time here in Northern Wisconsin because it provides cover and feed at the same time. If they have a cedar swamp nearby all the better. I have stalked many deer in corn fields. The best time is after a fresh snow of about 2-3 inches. The deer are easy to track and see. I will walk across the corn field looking up and down each row until I see a deer, then I'll raise the binocs to get a good look. If it's not something I want to shoot I let it lay there. I would definitely leave it standing but if you plant corn on the same land every year you will soon find out that you can't raise very good corn there for long.
11-21-2002, 06:24 PM
#17
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: chewelah wa USA
Posts: 579
RE: Standing Corn
i am really wanting to get a food plot going on my property i plowed up about an 1/4 acre patch that i am going to plant with a clover alfalfa mix.. but anyways i live in eastern washington kinda up in the mountains the elevation here is 2700ft and we get about and we usaly have a bout 3 feet of snow on the ground.. anyways i was wondering what you guys though might be a good crop up here.. dont the deer eat the corn when it shoots up????
small but deadly
11-22-2002, 09:11 PM
#18
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: cazenovia, NY USA
Posts: 2,973
RE: Standing Corn
Thanks for all the advice guys. We decided to leave it standing, but the ice storm last weekend took most of the corn down to shoulder height or less. So.... We have alot on the ground now.
It still offers good cover however.
It still offers good cover however.
11-24-2002, 05:48 PM
#19
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 1969
Location: Townsend, DE US
Posts: 6,429
RE: Standing Corn
Farm hunter we too leave a few rows standing along the edge. We plant with a 16 row planter, and combine with two 8 row heads so we leave 4 rows in certain spots. We rent some Fish and Wildlife land and in our contract we have to leave 4 rows standing along the perimeter of the fields. On soybeans we also have to leave 4 rows plus a small strip in the middle for rabbits and birds as well. This has already been set up by the game biologists prior to the contracts being let...
