So who is my nemesis?

Dave H (MI) · Nov 23, 2016

Excessive crop damage from wildlife.

Small corn is grazed down, medium corn the tops are eaten. This would be deer obviously. Hit and miss. Can occur anywhere in the field.

Small corn pulled out of ground and left laying to wilt. Areas of severe soil disturbance wiping out section of rows. Turkeys. Also can occur anywhere in the field.

Corn ears removed from plant. Cobs found with no corn on them at the base of trees. Several cobs present. Thinking this is raccoons.

Near zero corn present along woodlot. Extends about 30-50' from lane along woods. Not root competition. Plants are just not there. Like the treated seed was removed from the ground. No idea what is doing this. Doesn't seem to happen with soy.

And last, this one really has me scratching my head. As I drive the combine along I am seeing a lot of empty cobs on the plants. I would guess as much as 5-10%. Cobs are pointed up, so corn was immature when eaten. Husk open and pretty much every kernel gone. Very puzzling with the ear still on the plant. Happens all over the field, not just near the woods.

Options that I know of? Mice, chipmunks, squirrels, woodchuck, deer, turkey, cranes, assorted small birds. Any ideas what is doing those last two?

notjustair · Nov 23, 2016

At the trees it is rats eating the seed. They do that to my sweet corn - acres at a time if I'm not careful about placement. They dig only where the seed is and eat the kernel leaving the outer edge with the seed treatment. They can smell that kernel - they never miss or dig where the old planter skipped a drop. I replanted twice this year and still got none. It was a field too close to the catch pen and the rats live under the bunks. I planted that 10 acres to milo and they never bothered that planting. They are nuts for corn.

Mike M · Nov 23, 2016

Big foot ?

VADAVE · Nov 23, 2016

You need to invite the neighbors to go hunting. Or/And offer a bounty for the little stuff.

rrlund · Nov 23, 2016

When it comes to thin corn,sandhill cranes and geese are my biggest problem. I use Avipel seed treatment. It does a good job with the cranes and turkeys,but doesn't phase the geese. They'll eat it off as fast as it comes up. The turkeys and cranes take the whole seed if it isn't treated.

Donald Lehman · Nov 23, 2016

I was sitting on watch along one of my corn fields last year and watched a pair of Downy woodpeckers literally strip an ear in about an hour. They had a hole in a tree about 30 yards behind me they were storing the corn in. Blue Jays will strip lot of corn, too.

Billy NY · Nov 23, 2016

Squirrels will pick the outside rows clean, the longer its out there, the worse it gets.
Common grackle flocks will also take significant amounts of grain and the same rule applies, the longer its out there, the more is taken. I've seen both first hand around here, lots of fields are surrounded by woods. Squirrels go into haul mode in the fall, and they take a lot more than deer from what I have seen. Back when the surrounding lands were either clear or not forest like it is now, grain losses were not nearly as much. Going back to the 50's around here, the land was open and clear for the most part, its nothing like that now, hence the vast variety of wildlife.

dhermesc · Nov 23, 2016

And last, this one really has me scratching my head. As I drive the combine along I am seeing a lot of empty cobs on the plants. I would guess as much as 5-10%. Cobs are pointed up, so corn was immature when eaten. Husk open and pretty much every kernel gone. Very puzzling with the ear still on the plant. Happens all over the field, not just near the woods.

Sounds like coons - they love "sweet" corn, regular field corn plants are usually a lot stronger than garden sweet corn plants and are not pulled down to ground like you would normally expect.

Brown Swiss · Nov 23, 2016

squirrels

Smalltowner · Nov 23, 2016

That is one reason to NOT shoot and kill coyotes...they are excellent rodent controllers. I tell these young killer hunters around here to go shoot the feral hogs and leave the coyotes be. A kid down the street came in with a coyote he shot....I said cut his belly open and see what he has been eating....the punk was too squeamish to do it so I did and found nothing but rats and mice....and a bit of something that looked like part of a yellow cat.
coyote eating rats

coonie minnie · Nov 23, 2016

I would guess birds of some sort. Someone mentioned coons... it is not coons. Then the plants are pulled down, usually in a big circle, and only a bit or two taken from each ear.

Deer can shell an ear pretty effectively, too... the husk will be open, the cob intact, and all the kernels gone.

Dave H (MI) · Nov 23, 2016

I have seen woodpeckers do this also. Fill tree holes full of corn. Downy and Red Belly are two here I have seen in the field. Have to be a lot of them to take this many ears. Given the quantity, I wonder if the deer are shelling this on the stalk while it is still wet?

Dave H (MI) · Nov 23, 2016

I'll look into that. I chase those fool cranes off every morning and afternoon. If the DNR ever gets off their arse and gets me a permit I think I will start shooting them. There are more and more every year.

Dave H (MI) · Nov 23, 2016

It is NOT rats. I know you are going to argue with me about this, but I can promise you...there is not a single rat on my place. We store no grain, it's banked at the elevator. I meticulously clean everything...yes, even the combine. There are no piles of scrap metal, junk piles, etc. No suspicious holes. No dark corners with piles of "stuff". The place was an empty field 2 years ago when I put up the barn and I have kept it clean since. I will swear on the bible...NO RATS. More than a few mice...

Sorry...I have a thing about rats.

Dave H (MI) · Nov 23, 2016

Last Sunday a local couple brought their son and two grandsons out to the farm to talk to me. They want to hunt the farm. Deer and turkeys. One year renewable lease for hunting privileges only. I have not allowed anyone on the place since last year when hunters stole my tree stand and camera. These folks have some money and don't need to steal my stuff. Plus I have known them for over 20 years. They offered more than half of what my former tenant paid to farm the place. I think three guys hunting in the back half of the place ought to help with the deer and turkeys plus the money is good. I like the idea. Keep the poachers off too.

rrlund · Nov 23, 2016

I had a permit to kill 10 a year. If memory serves me right,I had to get it through the Feds,not the DNR. They're migratory so that's why it was Federal I believe. From what the guy told me,if you need one bad enough to apply and pay the $100 fee,nobody gets turned down. We just never could kill enough to do any good though.
I just hope they reissue the exemption so we can keep using the Avipel. They did last time it expired.

GordoSD · Nov 23, 2016

Cobs at base of tree is squirrels

bass · Nov 23, 2016

this aint political correct, but what about a 12 gauge with maybe #2 shot?

bass

paul · Nov 23, 2016

Squirrels make a regular trek from my grove to the corn field across the driveway. See thrm most days racing back to the grove, go up the tree and she'll it clean, drop the cob to the base of the tree. I'd think thrm more than raccoons for that behavior.

Not sure what is shelling immature kernels in the field.

One of our mother cats would bring milk ears home for her kittens. Caught her going through the hay field with an ear in her mouth, when she say me she through the ear off to the side in the grass, ran to the shed door where her kittens were, and meowed at me.

Looked just like catching a kid red handed, I laughed and laughed.

The cobs kept piling up in the shed, she was a great mouser too, but seemed to like to add some starch to the kids diet......

Paul

Paul

Josh in Pa · Nov 23, 2016

Dave,
Have you thought about a shorter season corn for next year? I always have some wildlife damage, but it seems like if the corn is out fairly early it's not nearly as bad. I think hunting would help. Your probably loosing seeds and young plants to turkeys, and corn to deer. Glad to hear things are going good with harvest.
Josh

C. Amick · Nov 23, 2016

Sounds like raccoons to me. They climb up the corn stalks, sometimes the stalks fall over and the raccoon eats it off the cob on the ground and sometimes the stalks hold the weight of the raccoon and they clean the ears off while hanging on the stalk. The raccoons when to the middle of my little corn patch to eat the corn. I got rid of two of them.

RalphWD45 · Nov 24, 2016

Dave! my vote on the stripped ears, still on the stalk, would be birds. every year just before the sweet corn in my garden is ready, I get a swarm of red wing black birds, or something that looks similar, and they strip the kernels off the cob. The shuck, has verticle slashes in them, and then peeled down. After a week of this, my corn is ruined, and the birds are gone.

3000OH · Nov 24, 2016

+1 Coyotes have taken geese around here and deer, in addition to all the small stuff they usually eat.

So who is my nemesis?

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