another corn question

[Charlie MV]

I gotta say I agree Cynthia. Corn easily made up 15 to 20% of my compost pile this year. We had to cut doewn a chestnut tree and via the chipper/shredder, it filled 1/4 of one of our 4 bins. The corn crop filled the rest of that bin and part of another.

[rootsy]

That 300 acres of dent corn behind the sweet corn in my photo all gets chopped for silage to feed the girls...

I chop all of my stalks right in the field after all marketable ears are gone and then plowed under in the fall. What I don't chop I bundle in groups of 20 and sell with the pumpkins in the fall...

[Pebbles]

errrrr yes Cynthia, of course that is why I planted the corn..... - I think.

Thanks for the tips for the compost

[chefshelle]

I can't imagine farmers only get 2 ears per stalk. Hardly seems worth the while or a money maker. We grew corn last year and I'm sure we had at least 3 ears per stalk.

[Charlie MV]

I can't imagine farmers only get 2 ears per stalk. Hardly seems worth the while or a money maker. We grew corn last year and I'm sure we had at least 3 ears per stalk.

Michelle, if you're talking about sweet corn, please tell me how you do it. You're the only one so far on this thread to say you get 3 ears per stalk. I'm all ears.

[rootsy]

I can't imagine farmers only get 2 ears per stalk. Hardly seems worth the while or a money maker. We grew corn last year and I'm sure we had at least 3 ears per stalk.

well lets do some math quick... Just some quick economics of your statement...

22,000 population final stand after taking into account germination and other loss.... this is per acre... X say 1.5 ears / stalk average... thats... 33,000 ears in a 209ft x 209 ft space... or 2750 dozen / acre.... if 100% are marketable @ $4 / doz retail thats $11,000 per acre gross sales...

This is in a perfect world... In reality.. multiply that times about .8

Figure input cost... 25,000 seeds / acre planted... cost roughly $6 / 1000 seeds for what I put in the ground... so $150 for seed

Then you have starter fertilizer.. whether granulated or liquid.. I use granulated 11-52-0... Cost is about $15 / acre

Then I side dress with 150 lbs / acre of 28-0-0 liquid... Cost is about $18 / acre

I do no burndown and I do no post herbicide application... herbicide cost = $0

Late season I have to use a pyrethroid otherwise everyone will eat wormy corn... $4 / acre applied...

Coste me about $5 in fuel / acre to do soil prep...

Costs me about $1.50 for fuel / acre in the planting tractor

Costs me about $3/ acre each time I cultivate.. X 2 so $6 / acre

Then there is the hired help... $6 / hr to the local high school kids a day X 2... so $12 / hr can pick an acre of corn in a few hours. So figure $25 - $30 / acre

I sell from stand or at market so I will have some fuel costs... $5 / truck load or so...

Plus maintenance costs on equipment.. I figure $100 / acre / season... That's if nothing major breaks...

Adding it up.... Costs me about $350 / acre roughly to grow sweet corn... Not counting my time...

Produce, if managed correctly and grown on a decent scale can be quite a profitable venture... If you have the gumption, desire, work ethic and ambition to do it... Quite a bit different than cash crop production (soybeans, wheat, dent corn, cotton, etc). Much more labor intensive.. especially if you chose not to use modern chemistry.

You want something that REALLY has big profit margin potential? grow pumpkins...