Monday, August 19, 2013

Counting corn kernels


I mentioned a couple of posts ago that our corn had been growing quickly and had reached over twelve feet (close to 4 metres). 

M picked these ears of corn the other day to do a kernel count and was pretty pleased with the yield indications.

He doesn't count each kernel on the ear, the easy way to do it is to count the number of rows (always an even number - in this case 16) and the number of kernels in any row (from bottom to top - in this case an average of 38) giving 608 kernel per ear.
With a 30,000 plant population in our corn field the easy method is to divide 608 by three to get a yield estimate- in this case 203 bushels per acre.
Got it?
2013 Corn

Even a novice like me can see that it is better than last years crop.
2012  Corn- disaster
 On Saturday a car load of 7 farmers from NE Iowa driving through western Illinois, stopped at our farm for lunch and to view our corn on their way to join the Pro Farmer crop tour.
They commented that our corn had the highest yield check they had seen so far.

Farmers on tour



All this talk of corn is telling me I must make roasted sweetcorn risotto this week!

1 comment:

  1. Kyle dropped off a couple racks of ribs he had smoked the prior day. We thawed out a rack last night and I can report it was one of the best rack of ribs I have sampled. More of a rub and smoke with minimal sauce and the just the right amount of doneness. Seriously great ribs.

    We are blessed to have friends drop off great food-Nicole has yet to post on a blackberry cobbler that became breakfast after the WFO chicken Caesar and after dinner limoncello superceded having dessert.

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