bushel/acre of ear corn vs. shelled corn

LorenMN

Member
I've looked thru some old postings about this, but I'd like to find out if I'm looking at this correct. I planted 4 acres of corn and picked it on the ear. I filled filled my 15.5' diameter wire crib 6' high, and piled up a few feet high in the center, plus I have 1/2 a gravity flow wagon that didn't go in the crib. I estimate that there is about 1300 cubic ft of ear corn total. It's very dry, probably 14% or lower.

If ear corn weighs 28lbs/cu.ft, I should have 36400 lbs. 36400 lbs divided by 70 lbs/bushel, should mean I have 520 bushel of ear corn. I get the same number of bushels if I divide 1300 cu.ft by 2.5.

So... Is the amount of kernels in 520 bushels of ear corn equivalent to 520 bushels of shelled corn? Or, if I shelled out what's in the crib, it should be about the same as two wagon loads shelled? (250 bushel gravity flow.) 520bu. x 56 equals 29120 lbs shelled corn.

Last Fall I bought a wagon load of shelled corn from our renter and weight was 13500 lbs, or 240 bushel. That was enough for me to fatten my 5 steers, give a little to the mama cows, with some left over. So at that rate, my 520 bushels of ear corn should be enough to last me two years. If that's true, then I can plant my 4 acre field into alfalfa & oats next year, and plow down a 4 year old 5 acre alfalfa field next fall for picking corn two years from now.

For crop yield then, looks like I'm at 130 bu./acre. Now, I was losing some ears ahead of the gathering chains, and there was a fair amount of shelling too, so maybe the actual could have been closer to 10% higher, maybe 140 bu./acre? Not bad I guess considering it's conventional hybrid and I didn't spray, just cultivated every week. 36" rows, planted too thick, about 35000 population.

So our renter combined about half the farm two weeks ago, and told me, while we were discussing rent price, that they were getting 150 bu./acre. Narrow rows, Pioneer RR corn, fertilized heavy & sprayed, and soil mapped & fertilized last fall for about $350/acre to get the minerals & pH balanced. I think they're pulling my leg. If my field is around 140 bu., they gotta be well over 200, wouldn't they?
 
> Is the amount of kernels in 520 bushels of ear corn equivalent to 520 bushels of shelled corn?

Yes.

Now, the conversion isn't perfect, and bushels is supposed to be a volume measurement, but everyone does the weight & moisture adjustments and converts to an 'ideal bushel' from the weight, instead of the volume.

This year my corn is testing very heavy, was over 62 lbs a bu on much of it, so you probably have a few more bu that last year, in the same volume...

Sounds like you have a good plan.

Your 4 acres might have been the cow or hog yard, and is unnaturally high in P & K? Or you put manure on it from your livestock? Or the soil type is different and you have the good stuff?

I got over 200bu on a 5 acre patch, another 5 acre patch I got nothing at all, average is looking like 140 here too, but it was a tad too dry, if I had caught an inch more rain in August, oh my to the nmoon like folks an hour north of me...

--->Paul

--->Paul
 
I took back the 4 acres from the renter last Fall, so it was coming off of soybean rotation. I also spread a lot of cow and horse manure on it, had spread granulated fertilizer, and used starter fertilizer on the planter. Heavy black dirt, and a lot of rain in May and June. I think the cultivating helped hold moisture too. Sure made a nice looking field when it was coming up compared to the flat RR rows next to it.

I'll need to pull a soil test on it before next year, since I'm pretty sure it will need lime and I suppose P & K for the alfalfa, since they limed most of the farm last Fall from the soil mapping.
 
The manure did you a world of good, wish I could get some from the neighbors, but I'm always a 1/2 mile farther to drive than someone else.... The micro nutrients in it adds more than just regulare fertilizer.

Granular fertilizer, and manure too, often is kinda applied this year to be there for the future. It takes a while for it to break down - either way, manure or granular - into stuff the roots can take up.

So you probably only used 1/3 of the fert you put down on this year's crop, and this year's crop likely was using a lot of what was left from the renter.

Good of you to keep the soil fed and balanced, lot of hobby folks take on a little plot and say, well it grows so good, don't need to waste money on that fertilizer....

It shows up in a few years, and then takes a lot to bring things back up to where they should be.

Sounds like you are doing a real nice job.

--->Paul
 
What I've read is that ear corn is 70#/bu which is to say, you'll get a bushel if you shell out 70# of ear corn. My experience is corn takes up about twice the volume on the ear, so if you shell out 2 wagons of ear corn, you'll end up with one of shelled.

sound about right?
 
Not trying to do a bunch of math, but when I was a kid and planted my first crop of corn, IIRC, 5 bushels of ear corn equaled 3 bushels of shelled corn. And for some reason, I think there was 7 bushels to a barrel, but I'm not sure anymore. Anybody else remember that??
 
Ah, yes. Iforgot to add that my uncle, who bought the crop, thought it was apretty good year for me. I got about fifteen barrels per acre. That was 1961.
 

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