any one grow open pollinated corn??

herk · Apr 1, 2022

Hello dose any one grow OP corn for feed or silage , I have heard it has good feed value, if so where is a good place to buy it , I live in central Minnesota Thanks Bryan

560Dennis · Apr 1, 2022

Smokey Dent
Hog s pre fer the high breed s for some reason , what I observed when I gave them ear corn Dont have any hogs to repeat the test .

Bret4207 · Apr 1, 2022

Just do a search for OP corn. Lots of options and some people report great results. It's no expensive compared to hybrids and you can save your own seed.

Jim in NC · Apr 1, 2022

A popular variety locally years ago was called little cob corn, or pencil cob corn, or little cob white prolific corn. I believe all 3 names referred to the same variety. It was grown for animal feed and often human consumption, especially before the sweet corn varieties were developed.

Chester5731 · Apr 1, 2022

I have made several attempts with a couple varieties. Same thing every year, almost time to harvest and the wind knocks it over. It does make great feed. I would pick it, put it in a crib and grind the entire ear. Feeders grew well and didn't feed much hay.

redforlife · Apr 1, 2022

With open pollinated, you can save back your own seed. You can probably buy some from any farmer that plants it, and has extra. Due to shipping cost (weight on any substantial amount), you might want to ask around local. Farmers that are big into the, do it your selfer category, would be a good place to start. I know of a guy or two. Probably won't do you much good (I live several states away).

I have also heard of the good feed value.

big jt · Apr 1, 2022

Don't grow it personally but I think Albert Lee seed house has seed stock. At least they used to.

jt

tomNE · Apr 1, 2022

do your research! not all milk and honey; it has its share of problems!

herk · Apr 1, 2022

Yes OP corn is 3 to 4 points higher in protein and the stalks are more digestible

herk · Apr 1, 2022

A good friend of mine grew some and experimented fed out 6 pens of hogs 2 pens got fed OP corn the other 4 conventional , OP pens finished 2 weeks earlier and looked nicer, He feed out pigs from a 60 sow head for years and kept very good records.

paul · Apr 1, 2022

Albert Lea Seeds is a great place to get such type of thing. Located in the obvious place in Minnesota......

I hear it makes economical silage. Many of the common types have a lot of leaf and stalk. Just understand you are getting less kernels per ton, the feed value is a bit different.

For grain it just hasnt had the breeding and effort to keep up with other corn types over the last 75 years. So.....

It kind of maxes out at 125 -150 bu yields in a perfect world. Less in an imperfect world.

It tends to lodge pretty easy, if you try to plant it thick like we do these days to try to get yield.

Insects kind of like it, so you might have more that average insect concerns.

But for fun, or if your yield or forage goals fit, nothing wrong at all to grow it.

The advantage would be you are able to save your own seed, so next year a bag of seed would only cost $5-7 for the bushel, plus cleaning cost, plus grading cost. If you have a finger or vacuum planter not so much a deal, but if you have a plate planter you -need- to figure out how to grade, or size, the seeds.....

Paul

JK-NY · Apr 1, 2022

A friend of mine (long since passed away now) who I occaisonally helped used to grow some o-p corn for silage. It grew very tall and was very easily blown over once it had the ears filled out. Ne always felt it was the greatest corn of all time , and never really beleieved me when I would mention that the higher amount of stalk and leaves in the silage compared to corn cob was adding volume but not necesarilly higher feed value. It was a little more inconsistent in maturing compared to more modern hybrid corn, but it did make a pretty decent silage. I fed his beef cows parts of 2 different winters so I got to pitch out and feed a good deal of the corn. Look up openpollinated.com .

560Dennis · Apr 1, 2022

Interesting , and very valuable information on your friends part ,recorded data means money
Was it a Dent ? flint ?
Sad part was we had Smoky Dent ,which was white dent red kernel mix in with the HB in corn crib, (yellow dent). So these hogs would go for the HB ?
Maybe Smokey dent wasnt for that purpose as hog feed ,Ill never know .
Also interesting if they did a taste test of the flavor of the O P pork. Being on the farm , I cant p ick out out the flavor garbage fed pork cause we never had it , but my dad could.

BarnyardEngineering · Apr 1, 2022

(quoted from post at 07:17:59 04/01/22) do your research! not all milk and honey; it has its share of problems!

If it were all milk and honey, we wouldn't have hybrids or GMO.

I have to imagine open pollinated corn is susceptible to pretty much everything and resistant to jack-squat...

rlp in Co. · Apr 1, 2022

If you have any other corn fields near you, it's going to cross with the GMO corn.

560Dennis · Apr 2, 2022

Interesting subject . I went to the Traditional Farming Techniques I have and copied these pages since they tell what going on In 1915 with corn varieties. I assumed all were OP being grown in the country .

Photo shows the potential blow down of taller varieties mentioned,not to clear but it is there

Bret4207 · Apr 3, 2022

(quoted from post at 15:34:49 04/01/22)

(quoted from post at 07:17:59 04/01/22) do your research! not all milk and honey; it has its share of problems!

Click to expand...

If it were all milk and honey, we wouldn't have hybrids or GMO.

I have to imagine open pollinated corn is susceptible to pretty much everything and resistant to jack-squat...

That's where picking the best and tailoring it to your conditions is involved. Some of each crop will give the results more like what you want. You work off that and it improves over time.

herk · Apr 3, 2022

Years ago 20 + we grew a conventional corn I believe it was a( Payco) brand variety it was a red colored kernel and white cob ( I think) I believe it was some how related to Bloody Butcher. Years ago about 35 years ago I sold seed corn, if I remember right at that time I think I was told that back then all varieties could be traced back to 3 parent lines . Long before GMO corn . Bryan

Chester5731 · Apr 3, 2022

I wish I could figure out the standability thing. Is sure made better feed. The critters got more pounds on less feed and seemed to be healthier.

any one grow open pollinated corn??

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