Waste on the Farm

[Nyboy]

For some reason none of the small farms on my road harvested their corn this year. I passed 5 different fields all with standing corn stalks. Looked like the first 5 rows by road where cut, the rest just left standing. I always thought of the family farmer as someone not wasteful, big corporate farms as being wasteful. Sad part a few miles away friends church had to close their food bank, because of money. Could there be something wrong with the corn crops, thats why not harvested?

 

[Smart Red]

The ground my be too wet for the machines to get in. They may still manage to get into their fields once the ground freezes. Those heavy machines can easily get stuck.

One year, we had drought followed by a lot of fall rain. It caused something that poisoned the corn. That year the wet conditions kept a lot of farmers from taking down the corn and we had many deer dead in the cornfields from eating the corn.

 

[journey11]

I think @seedcorn mentioned this before awhile back, that they are paid to not harvest it, something about commodities prices or something?

 

[Smart Red]

They would still need to get the corn out of the fields, but would harvest it to burn or bury or grind it back into the soil.

 

[digitS']

Crop insurance.

Value of harvest may not pay for the harvesting.

We have farmers who play the insurance game. I swear, it reminds me of gambling! However, farming reminds me a little of gambling. The losers have outnumbered the winners and you don't have to go all that many years back to see the poor odds.

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

We did have drought followed by heavy rains.

 

[Nyboy]

I just remembered I have a email address for a local farmer. Going to ask him why. He has the largest farm in town

 

[Smart Red]

"Inquiring minds" and all that. . . let us know.

 

[Carol Dee]

The ground my be too wet for the machines to get in. They may still manage to get into their fields once the ground freezes. Those heavy machines can easily get stuck.

One year, we had drought followed by a lot of fall rain. It caused something that poisoned the corn. That year the wet conditions kept a lot of farmers from taking down the corn and we had many deer dead in the cornfields from eating the corn.

Aflatoxin

 

[so lucky]

@Nyboy, I doubt if the corn you saw left standing in the field was for human consumption as corn, anyway. Maybe for animal feed, maybe for corn oil, maybe for ethanol, maybe for high fructose corn syrup, in which case it is better left in the field to rot, IMO.