Standing corn

[First-light]

So my farmer we lease to is behind on his schedule. There was a death in the family. We have about 125 acres of standing corn. I'm sure its not getting shelled this week. Thoughts on how this will effect opening week? I have a neighbor that wants it cut but I told him to back off, not the time to pressure them. 

[airedale]

Corn is one of the best things to attract and draw deer, having it standing would be a positive in my opinion.

Al

[suburbanfarmer]

It is also there favorite spot to bed in and never leave. Perfect sanctuary day n night so it can slow down the sightings or movement.

[dmandoes]

It will save some deer.

[wolc123]

The deer will move into the corn as soon as they smell human scent or hear a gun shot.  They will not come out until dark or the corn is cut.   Ive been dealing with that situation for many years.  The only way I can hold any deer on my place, during daylight hours in gun season, is to have some standing corn myself.  
 

Im screwed on that at home this year, because my RR corn seed got too old and mostly failed to germinate.  I also planted quite a bit of sweetcorn this year, and left a little unpicked, but they finished the last of that a week and a half ago.  
 

My neighbors still have standing corn, so that’s where all the deer are by day now.  Nothing else matters to them.  Corn is king around here and has been for as long I can remember.  I have yet to harvest a deer during gun season, that did not have a belly full of corn .    
 

Fortunately, all of the neighbors, near my parents place on the opposite diagonal corner of wmu 9F, have harvested their corn.  That’s where I’ll be spending as much of my gun season hunting time as I can.  

The reason standing corn trumps everything else during gun season is because it provides the two vital ingredients that they need for survival at that time: cover and carbs.  Nothing else has that unique combination.  
 

No tool that I own had put more “free” meat in our  freezer thru the years than this one:

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by wolc123

[New York Hillbilly]

I got lucky this year with my corn, at least as far as food goes. The down side was one of our dogs ate a piece of corn cob, got violently ill and almost died when it got stuck in her small intestine. It cost us 2K in vet bills and many sleepless nights, but she beat the odds and is back to normal.

We canned and froze a ton of it and left a lot still out there. There are acres and acres of corn standing in our are adjacent to my property that has not been harvested so the animals have not wiped mine out yet. My guess is once they harvest their corn mine will get more attention.

[wolc123]

I grew more sweetcorn than I ever did this year (mostly because my RR field corn seed went bad).  Most of that, I planted real late (end of June or early July). It was great having fresh sweetcorn into October.  Global warming has really pushed back the early frosts we used to get.
 

It was a big hit at out Octoberfest party at church, as well as a big harvest party that my neighbor had.  Were it not for all that I picked for those two big bashes, I’d have probably had enough left to feed the deer for a week or so into gun season.  
 

My brother in law brought me a bunch more “fresh” leftover RR fieldcorn seed in mid July from one of his farmer buddies.  I should be good for 3-4 more years with that supply.  
 

On a normal year, 4-5 acres of RR corn will last me thru the winter and hold deer the whole time, as long as I keep the coons trapped out of it.  Deer are extremely efficient users of corn.  Coons are on the opposite extreme.  We have lots of wild turkeys around here, but they are too lazy to bother with the corn, unless the coons knock it down for them first.  
 
The local coyotes have been a big help in keeping the coons out of my corn the last few years.  They usually take out all of the juvenile and female coons.  Most that I have caught in traps are large males.  I bury them shallow and the coyotes exhume them in a couple days.  They must get addicted to that coon flesh because after getting the taste of a few, they hang around and take out all the female and young coons, before they can even get to the traps.   

 

[First-light]

Thanks guys. Yeah kind of figured they are going to take shelter there. One good thing is the last time this happened we saw more bear at gun season by my place. Bear season was not open then. 

[wolc123]

As far as personal use of the sweetcorn, this year we ate it on the cob, fresh from the “garden”, from mid-July until early October.  I like it cooked in the air fryer the best as it seems to retain more sweetness that way.  The later varieties -silver queen, are my favorites.  
 

We don’t can any but freeze a lot.  We also give it away fresh to neighbors on both sides, as well as my sister and brothers families and my parents, mostly for them to freeze.  I had about (2) acres of sweetcorn this year, which is roughly 4x what I usually plant. 
 

The seed for that costs infinitely more than the free RR fieldcorn seed that I usually plant for the deer.  That’s why I didn’t leave much of it for them.  I’ll just harvest most of my meat this year at my parents place, where I can take full advantage of the neighbors cut corn.  

Edited November 15, 2023 by wolc123

[chrisw]

Cutting the corn really doesn't pressure the deer hardly at all, it just slightly shifts patterns sometimes. Last year I was in my stand 30 yds from the corn while they cut it. You'd think with all of that racket the deer would be in the next county. I watched a few does run out of the corn, 50 yds into the woods and watch the combine then start milling around, they never left. 1 hour after the combine left, there were multiple bucks and does chasing and feeding in the field, literally 1 hour after it was cut. If it's normal then deer aren't too alarmed. My buddy shot a buck chasing a doe IN the corn 50 yds from an active combine, he had to stop the combine to go find his buck before it got ran over.

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