Corn Crib building

cumminspuller · Dec 31, 2015

I am thinking about building a corn crib. It will be a building by itself as I don't have room inside any barns now to build one. I've got about 5 acres or so that I will pick each year. I've looked around and found some pictures but still looking for ideas for one. If anyone has one that they use or don't use and wouldn't mind posting pictures of it I would appreciate it. Hope everyone has a happy new year! Thanks

L.Fure · Dec 31, 2015

What were you going to build the crib with? Are you going to set up a round type wire crib, or build a rectangle shaped one out of wood? There are two main things to keep in mind when you set one up. One being a good roof with plenty of overhang, and a floor that will drain out any moisture that may blow in through the slates. One other thing is to build it the proper size. A bushel of ear corn is 2.5 square feet. Equate the maximum yield you might encounter on good year and multiply that by the 2.5 square foot factor and that will give you the size your crib needs to be.

paul · Dec 31, 2015

So 1000 bu about covers it?

Lot of wire ring cribs sitting empty around these parts, some tear down and reassemble pretty easy just need a floor.

A few Behlen galvanized out there too.

Wooden, narrow can hold wetter corn.

Paul

notjustair · Dec 31, 2015

Our corncribs here are all wooden rectangles. None of them are in use anymore. They all resemble a barn. They have a drive alley through the center with doors on both ends. The corn is put on either side and those run the length of the building. The drive alley is cemented but the corn cribs are about 18 inches up off the ground. The floor in them is slatted like wood decking. Imagine a long narrow building with a covered deck on either side. There were doorways into the corn crib on both ends that you could fill up with cuts slats of wood as you used the corn. Most of them had guttering that ran into a cistern to water the animals. The water got away from the building that way. Also it was open under the corn crib sides so that the dogs could get any animals that ran in under. Air could move also.

David G · Dec 31, 2015

I would relocate a used wire crib, tons of them sitting around.

brutus49DC · Dec 31, 2015

An easier way is to figure earcorn is twice the volume of shelled corn so if the your corn yielded 150 bu/acre you need 300 bu of storage

David G · Dec 31, 2015

The good thing about ear corn is that city people will pay big bucks for a handful of ears for squirrels, bad thing is you will attract a lot of rodents.

tim s · Dec 31, 2015

I agree with the others a used wire crib works out well, be sure that you keep the floor raised above the surrounding area, and crown the cement in the center, also keep in mind that air will only move about 4 ft into a pile of ear corn, so a round air way should be figured into the crib.

David G · Dec 31, 2015

I remember seeing those, looked like a wooden chimney.

rrlund · Dec 31, 2015

I'll post a few pictures when the internet isn't so busy. The wife's watching a movie right now and it took me a minute or two to even see Jon's morning funny,so posting pictures ain't gonna work.
I've got two home made cribs. 6x6 poles,six feet apart. One's five and a half feet wide on the inside,the other is six feet. One is ten feet tall,the other one is twelve. I've got 2x4 welded wire held by 2x6's on the inside. Don't underestimate the tremendous weight and pressure of the corn. I've had a few poles break. I've got chains and cables across the inside between them now. It only took a year to learn the necessity of that.

tim s · Dec 31, 2015

Yes rrlund the pile up corn will push hard,, and I'm re-thinking that the air passage in ear corn to be closer to 3ft instead of 4ft, take in mind that as the corn settles it will try to break cross pieces, so be sure to brace for that. Growing up with ear corn I saw a lot of crib failures..My Dad was always big on putting up a few "temporary" cribs when a crop turned out good,,circles of wooden snow fence on old rail ties was his favorite,,and they did not work out well at all...

rrlund · Dec 31, 2015

I had a circle of snow fence stacked up three rolls high one time and it busted open. What a miserable mess that was! All that splintered fence and wire under all that corn. Anymore,if I have extra,I just pile it up on some sod somewhere and then load it back in to a wagon with the loader and grind it from there.
I've seen newbies try to build cribs out of 4x4 poles,eight feet apart. They might as well by trying to contain it with toilet paper.

RBoots · Dec 31, 2015

Dad and I gave ours away 2 years ago, we didn't use it and it was in the way. We put a free sign on it, and everyone wanted it. But, they also wanted us to move it or borrow our truck, trailer, equipment to move it. No way, if you want it, you move it. We had a bridge project going on down the road, so the neighbor paid them to bring their big loader down with forks and they lifted it and took it away. It was a "traditional" styled corncrib I guess you would call it. 5' wide at the bottom, tapered up to 8' at where it met the underside of the peaked roof. 18' long, and 12' from the floor to the peak of the roof. And very heavy.

Dick L · Dec 31, 2015

When I was in high school our corn cribs got full and we/ er Dad made a quick one out of wood picket snow fence. Set one roll in a circle and wired the ends fast. When that was full set another roll on top of the corn a bout a foot down inside the first roll and filled that. The same with the third roll but filled that with the elevator rather than shoveled over the side of the wagon.

jon f mn · Dec 31, 2015

Having to wait to see my funny is cruel and unusual

Dick L · Dec 31, 2015

We didn't have that problem but we emptied that crib first with a bushel basket for the most part. Dad laid boards down where he cut it open at the bottom to shovel it where it would run out. We did build a 20 foot crib with 2" X 6" upright studs on 24" centers slatted with bottom openings between every other stud spaces. It had a slant roof. I don't remember how tall but a 15 years old it was all I could do to shovel over the top slat standing on the wagon rack. By the time I was 17 Dad had bought an elevator and a gravity box wagon. Still used two flat rack wagons that had to be shoveled.

rrlund · Dec 31, 2015

.

Nick m · Dec 31, 2015

Here's mine. Ignore where I ran out of paint a couple summer's ago. Wish it were taller in the center. Can't drive through with a load of hay or gravity boxes unless they're small wagons and tractors.

tim s · Dec 31, 2015

Ooh yes I have seen them fall over too,,what a mess that is to deal with..We went away with ear corn in 1988..the last picker was a Deere #300 with a 3 row narrow head, pulled it with a 4630,,big difference from the old 60 and the 227..

ss55 · Dec 31, 2015

Look for a used wire crib to keep your costs down. Rodents will be a problem. Provide drag line tunnels to reduce scooping. The tunnels can double as air ducts. If you are building new you may want to consider building it so it can be converted to regular grain storage in the future.

What do you use the ear corn for: cattle feed or deer feed?

JimEvans · Dec 31, 2015

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005IR1NBA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00 Plans here.

JimEvans · Dec 31, 2015

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mwps_dis/mwps_web/hy_plans.html

Plans here. Ignore the last post.

Heat Houser · Dec 31, 2015

Poke the link for some Iowa State University Extension corn crib plans.
The Link

farmerjohn · Dec 31, 2015

Go to Google Images and enter corn crib, there are lots of photos to see.

cumminspuller · Jan 1, 2016

Thanks a lot for the comments everyone. I haven't been able to get back to the computer since I posted this. I think one of the wire cribs would be the best to get the most storage out of the space used since you could go up. I should've mentioned I'm in southern middle Tennessee. I know of only one wire crib that was left around here. Haven't been by there in several years. I was originally thinking of building it out of wood in a rectangular shape. I figured that would be the easiest.

cumminspuller · Jan 1, 2016

Rrlund, if I had though about this when I build my last barn and saw your pictures I would have done the barn differently.

cumminspuller · Jan 1, 2016

David G you are right about the city people. I could've sold ear corn if I had a storage place to keep it.

Corn Crib building

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