Part 1... We're looking at having 1-2 acres of corn for our livestock. We plan on a family "pick and shuck party" which should get it out of the field fairly quickly. But, we would like to get the corn off the cob and into storage in short order since our "pickin' party" will have probably gotten tired and went home by then, leaving my wife and I to finish up ourselves. Preferably, we're looking for something that'll hook to the PTO on our little tractor, but a hand-operated sheller would be OK too, although it wouldn't be as quick as something hooked to the tractor. Has anyone seen or built a machine like this? Part 2... Would it be better to grind and store the corn in the fall, or store the whole kernels in a little silo and grind them at feed time (maybe with a grinder at the bottom of the silo)?

-- Campfool (campfool@yahoo.com), November 15, 2001

Answers

your looking for a corn sheller,, they have all sorts,, check LEhmans,, or Cumberland,, my mother has a hand crank,,works pretty good also. You want to store the whole kernals,, and grind as needed,, more nutrional that way,, and harder for mold to set, as long as the corn is good and dry

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 15, 2001.

I don't know about the corn sheller since we have yet to attempt field corn, however we do have a grain grinder that we picked up for our animals as we have access to free wheat and barley and have to buy the corn. We did come across our grinder easily by advertising for free in the local Nickel Want Ads, which is a weekly ad paper. The "Wanted to Buy" ads are free and we ended up buying the grinder from a FFA teacher in the nearest town, which is 45 miles away. The price we had established to buy was up to $100/without a motor, up to $200 with a motor. We were able to get it with a motor for $75.00! It runs great and that was the price that he was asking. If you are in any farming type of community usually an old timer may have one stashed away in one of his outbuildings. Best Wishes! Mary

-- Mary (Mary@home.com), November 15, 2001.

Corn shellers, at least the hand-operated ones, require the corn to be good and dry before it is shelled. We have a corn crib that we store the corn in and then shell it as we use it. You would, at least in most places, be better off to grind small amounts at a time. Shelled keeps much better than ground.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 15, 2001.

Dianne is right. Any grain stored without complete drying will spoil. Store your corn in the ear in a ventilated crib and shell or grind as much as you need at a time. I have kept ear corn over for the second year with no problems except rodents. Most animals do well on shelled corn without grinding and if you have free range chickens there will be no waste at all. Go to a farm auction. You can pick up a sheller or mill for a song sometimes. I got mine free.

-- Doc (come@rr1.net), November 15, 2001.

Hi, What Doc said is right; I have fed even my horses on whole corn, (as opposed to the commonly used rolled or flattened,) and find that they digest it well, it has better nutrients and I have much longer intervals between the times I have to get their teeth floated. I don't know if you have horses... Good l

-- Leslie Coray (leslie@webolium.com), November 15, 2001.

Hi Campfool. Good news! You already own a corn sheller! It's just that you've been calling it your 'lawnmower'. We had a welder friend cut a hole in the base of ours right over the blades. Then we made a plywood funnel to fit the hole and dropped in whole cobs. Wa - La! Shelled corn with corncob bits. We feed this to the chickens as is, and they do just fine. We grind about 3 feedbags full (300 pounds) in one session, this lasts them awhile.

Corn must be dry. Just leave it in the field on the stalk. Don't harvest until it is very dry. For corn storage, we made a circle with old fencing and covered it with a tarp.

We also use this machine as a shredder for prunings and garden waste. For this, I push it over to the compost pile (it has wheels!) and blow the shreds right onto the pile.

And I made a sheet metal cover for the hole, so I can still mow the lawn without having grass blown in my face.

The welder charged us five dollars to cut the hole, we used scrap plywood for the chute. I was pretty pleased to get a corn sheller/ shredder/lawnmower for that price!

-- Sandy in MN (onestonefarm@hotmail.com), November 16, 2001.

Ok, I am gleaming you all's information as I have been gleaming the farmers field of popcorn and am amased at the amount that the machines leave behind.

Now Diane does the fact that the farmer already harvested and shelled his corn( I know this as I can see his truckloads of shelled corn as they go by}, does this mean that it's Ok for me to shell and store also?

I have been looking for one of the little hand shellers as I have been doing it by hand, and I get a bit sore at times. I considered storing the corn unshelled outside in bins, but worry about attracting mice. And also is it better to store it with or without the husks on ?

Thanks guys.

-- tren (trendlespin@msn.com), November 16, 2001.

Tren, better to store it with the husks off so that it will dry. The farmer's big picker-sheller can do corn with a higher moisture content than what your little hand held one can do (at least easily). I have used the hand held ones for shelling seed corn and it is truly best if your corn is REAL dry. Then it actually shells pretty easily. I like to sit and do it by the fire for what I want to grind for corn meal. Remember that that farmer you see is most likely taking it back to the farm to put in the "dryer" before he stores it. Us little homesteaders can store it on the cob and dry it "free". :>)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 17, 2001.

oh, those little hand shellers can be ordered from Gurney Seed Co. the last I knew.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 17, 2001.

thanks for the info. Di, helps me much!

-- tren (trendlespin@msn.com), November 17, 2001.