most of the corn fields around here look like this in february...
however this one, about a mile down the road, has a crop over-wintering which is something i have not seen in a while...usually the field corn is all in by early december at the latest...there are nay number of reason why this corn is still in the field and there are pros and cons ( just like the rest of life )...it might just be that the farmer didn't get to it before the weather tuned wet and precluded harvesting...field corn is 35 to 40% moisture in the autumn...leaving it out to over-winter naturally reduces the moisture content obviating the need to use ( and pay for ) a grain dryer...
it sems clear that the corn in this field is drying...i found more than these husks splitting open and revealing the kernels...
the cold would kill off pests and diseases...and, i am told, the roots releases nutrients beck into the soil...my figures are about twelve pounds of nitrogen per ton of corn cobs and i wonder how much the roots might contain...needs more research... and that is about the limit of pros i can find...on the downside the weather can be deleterious...specifically freezing rain...i've seen tree limbs and tree tops broken off by a coating of ice and corn stalks are not nearly as strong as wood...additionally, the cold is not the only thing opening the husks..
it seem sreasonable to assume that deer have been at work here...eating the corn off the stalk...
and leaving them , fully or partially consumed, on the ground...hungry critters in february...and that is what i could see from the roadside ( i did not wade out into the field...that would be bad manners...and trespassing )... when will this field be harvested? and how close to planting will that be? this will be a bean field next season and those usually don't plant until june...that doesn't mean a late ( or early? ) harvest won't interfere with planting some other crop in some other field...i believe farmers have more than enough to worry about in good times and that leaving a crop out in winter would simply add to that burden...than again i am not a farmer...just someone interested in the overall impact of the neolithic revolution.
