Corn Fields

[mlvaj]

Is it just me or what? I finally get to go this past weekend and to my amazement, the corn are still up. Makes it harder for me to hunt the woods with the corn being up. Is it just the area I'm hunting or is it everywhere else that the farmers are waiting longer this year to cut down the corn? Normally, they're down by now. I hope they'll be down by next weekend so it'll be easier to hunt.

[BLACKJACK]

Its still September, they're right on schedule. We've had some rain lately which has slowed down the harvest. Don't worry, with the big equipment that they have nowadays it will go fast. Personally I hope it keeps raining so that there is more corn and beans in the field on pheasant opener, so it doesn't get to be a slaughter, and it leaves more pheasants for late season.

[harvey lee]

In most areas the corn harvest has started but its stil very early for the corn. I have seen may years when I have gun hunted in Nov. with some corn still standing.

[LABS4ME]

I agree, if anything the corn harvest is ahead of schedule this year. Rarely is more than 50% harvested by pheasant opener. That's still 2 weeks away. And I also agree with BlackJack! Keep the corn up till the 3rd weekend of October! Selfish aren't we!!!

Good Luck!

Ken

[96trigger]

In SEMN I think the corn harvest is ahead of schedule. This is the first year in many that I have seen them harvesting corn before beans. A good checkpoint for people is MEA weekend if you have kids in school or are a teacher, this is the 3rd Weekend in October. Usually the last of the corn is leaving that weekend. Its still a month away. I have also firearmed where there has been lots of standing corn in Novemeber.

Hunt the field edges, the deer will be there.

[Eric Wettschreck]

SW MN harvest is WAY ahead of schedule.

[SnoManX]

The corn is definitely ahead of schedule in central Mn. Normally, corn doesn't start till after beans and usually not until the middle of Oct. I actually prefer the corn up during bow hunting as it makes it easier for me to sneak out to the stand instead of walking across 40 acres in the open and causes the deer to walk along the edges between my stands and the corn.

[Big Pine Walleye]

I think that what is happening is that because of the dry weather many of the farmers had to chop their corn for silage instead of leaving it for ear corn. I know that our corn that was under irragation is still at least three weeks away from harvest.

[chucker34]

I think corn can actually be a great thing if you have a small patch next to your woods. I am in this situation and the deer seem to follow a regular routines of traveling through the woods into and out of the corn during the afternoon and evening hours. Now if I could just get some more time to hunt. Try telling your wife when you come home from work that you're going to hunt and leave her with two kids under the age of three to feed ang get ready for bed.

[lcornice]

Quote:

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Is it just me or what? I finally get to go this past weekend and to my amazement, the corn are still up. Makes it harder for me to hunt the woods with the corn being up. Is it just the area I'm hunting or is it everywhere else that the farmers are waiting longer this year to cut down the corn? Normally, they're down by now. I hope they'll be down by next weekend so it'll be easier to hunt.

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A good place to find crop statistics is here: MN Crop Progress Reports. Just click the crop progress link for recent information or one of the reports for previous stuff. I haven't looked for a county-level page but I'd bet it's out there somewhere.

[BLACKJACK]

I was thinking about this as I was out for my noon walk (what a beautiful day!!!). Two more thoughts:

1) My old man has a saying that applies here - "Thats why they call it hunting".

2) I hope the guys that are always (Contact Us Please) that hunting over food plots and even crop fields "is baiting" read the original post.

[rippinlips]

Corn harvest is at least 3 weeks ahead of schedule sooner it comes off the field the better that is my opinion get those deer out of the corn and in to the woods yee haa

[lawdog]

Where do you hunt that corn is normally gone by now? Good grief...

I think the harvest here is on or ahead of schedule although they have been shut down the last two days which is fine with me. Keep them crops in until after MEA so some pheasants survive for the rest of the season!!!

[Mark Christianson]

Most years a lot of corn is standing the week before rifle season in our area(Fergus Falls).

Maybe the area you hunt is cut into silage every year, that is out by now usually.

[96trigger]

I guess that he could be thinking of Sweetcorn, thats pretty much gone by now also.

[bigbucks]

I thought I was misreading the post at first. Other than the corn that's chopped for sileage most of it normally comes out in the the 7-10 days before gun season in our area (Central MN). I think it will be ahead of schedule because of the drought in our area. There's more being chopped because it barely had ears & what has ears was hard & dented before bow opener.

In my experience the deer are normally hitting the corn moderately until around the first week in October, before that becomes virtually the only thing they're going to. This year they were already hitting it almost exclusively on opener.

[smnduck]

South central Mn. Corn is typicaly out by gun opener. The deer seem to hide in the corn more than use it for food source until it gets cold. If you gut a deer from this area corn is only about 10-20 percent of whats in the stomach. They know not to eat to much or they get that gas thing like a cow does. Most of the contents are browse and greens.

The corn is ahead of schedule because of fears that some may rot on the ground and smaller than normal ears. The dought made the corn caniblize itself to make ears and the stalk was what it used to make the ear bigger causing the plants to break over easy. The smaller ears means that they are getting less per acre and do not need to load unload as often. Much of the corn is near dry enough and dry time is shortened making harvest quicker. Barring any wet weather a bunch of the corn could be out by pheasant opener and should all be out by deer gun season. That time frame when the fields are going out fast makes the deer hard to pattern.