Drying fields of corn

While corn is not mentioned in “America the Beautiful”, we have seen many yellow fields of corn drying in the sun. We thought that the corn had already been harvested and had turned brown, but we were driving along a gravel road with no-one else in sight, so we stopped and looked. Lo and behold, the corn cobs were still on the stocks.

It turns out that this is not sweet corn, people food. This is grain corn. Grain corn needs to be dried, and there are two ways of drying. The wet kernels can be taken to the silo, heated to dry, and then stored. But this cost money for the natural gas or propane. The other way is to let the corn dry in the field. This doesn’t cost anything but does run some risks, including winds blowing the stocks over, rain getting the crop wet and mold forming, harvesting when the price is lowest because everyone else is harvesting at the same time.

The dried corn is used for livestock feed, ethanol, plastics, starches, and many other products. Amazing stuff. Well, we were amazed. Kind of.Read more