# To grow 100 bushels of corn...



## LincTex

Very interesting!

I found this article first -
http://centerforhistory.org/learn-history/oliver-history/the-oliver-corporation

Which states:


> In a U.S. Senate report to Congress it was stated that if, for a single year, all the farmers in the United States would use the Oliver Chilled Plow instead of regular steel or iron plows, the savings in labor would have totaled the sum of $45,000,000 (and this was the early 1900s)!
> 
> In 1910 it required 135 man-hours to produce 100 bushels of corn. Through the innovations of James Oliver, that amount of time had decreased to 23 man-hours by 1960.


135/23 = 5.87 people saved (by farm mechanization) to make the same amount of grain. Very interesting to put a number to it!

Then I found this:
http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farm_tech.htm


> Year 1830
> About 250-300 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (5 acres) of wheat with walking plow, brush harrow, hand broadcast of seed, sickle, and flail 9to thresh)


WOW! That's a lot of effort!

The same source of info states: 


> Year 1850
> About 75-90 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (2 ½ acres) of corn with walking plow, harrow, and hand planting.
> 
> Year 1890
> 40-50 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (5 acres) of wheat with gang plow, seeder, harrow, binder, thresher, wagons, and horses;
> 
> 35-40 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (2 1/2 acres) of corn with 2-bottom gang plow, disk and peg-tooth harrow, and 2-row planter


Ok, so there's some dispute there - probably in the way the grain is handled at harvest, stored, and then processed.

Started doing more searching for the amount of labor required for certain farm operations, plenty of really neat articles here: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/300069.html


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## JayJay

Did you know only a few corn stalks have a 'more than one ear' yield?
Think of that next time you buy a can of corn.
I thank our Creator every evening meal for farmers.


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## weedygarden

*If we had no fuel, it could be us*

I wonder about the possibility of us planting and harvesting by hand and what it would take? Lots of work for sure.

250 hours @ 40 hours a week is almost 6 weeks of labor. Of course if you have ever lived and worked on the farm, you know there is no such thing as an 8 hour day or 40 hour week. However, with this kind of work, it would be exhausting.


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## dutch9mm

Yea but that's planting, tending, and picking rite? Not just picking (harvesting) that doesn't seem so bad if that's from beginning to end. 2.5 acres is quite a bit of land tho. You do it one year and you'd have plenty to put away or sell I guess. The 5 acres of wheat seems rough but again ya just do it 1 year you'd have yer buckets full


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## smaj100

but in a post shtf world, you wouldnt be able to to just plow plant maintain and harvest your crops, theres security or you end up dead while out in the open of a field! other work that needs to be done. eating is a priority but if you dont have a good group of people this could be a huge challenge for 1 or 2 or the average folk who can garden but have never farmed!


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## Wellrounded

IF we ever have to grow all our grains we'll be growing enough for the house plus seed and very little else. We won't be feeding the live stock grain. I've spent the last few years researching and growing alternative stock feeds.... Things like mangelwurzels and stock carrots. Yep you have to till and plant but the stock will graze/root it up themselves. We don't have super cold winters so the stock stays outside. Grain only became affordable to use as a stock feed when it became mechanized before that it was far too labour intensive.


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## LincTex

weedygarden said:


> If we had no fuel, it could be us. I wonder about the possibility of us planting and harvesting by hand and what it would take? Lots of work for sure.... it would be exhausting.


No kidding. There is "maintaining" (food for one year, plus seed for the next) and then there is "prospering" (having any excess to trade, sell, barter other things for).

I don't want to just "survive" at bare minimum levels, I am looking at ways that can let us have at least some excess in everything we do!


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## cowboyhermit

The least labour intensive crop in most areas is grass, it also happens to improve the soil if done right. So that is why today my main crop is cattle (that need no grain) and in a shtf situation that wouldn't likely change.

Harvesting and threshing grain by hand is brutal and slow. Some equipment can make it a whole lot easier.


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## LincTex

cowboyhermit said:


> So that is why today my main crop is cattle (that need no grain) and in a shtf situation that wouldn't likely change.


Yes, but: "Man cannot live on beef alone"


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## smaj100

Come on Linc, you could give it heck of a try.

beef bacon, beef sausage, roast, stir fry, kabobs, burger, chicken fried steak, steak, ribs n ribs, tongue I mean the list goes on. hehehehehe 

I know i know gotta have some ruffage, vitamins and minerals not just the fat and protein.


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## cowboyhermit

While you can survive very well on beef and dairy I love food and eat a huge variety, I would never want to give that up. But as a basis for survival and "sustainable" food production, grass based livestock are hard to beat.

smaj100, you really can get all your vitamins and minerals from "meat" and dairy but you have to eat animals the way we used to; not just the t-bone.
http://chriskresser.com/natures-most-potent-superfood


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## LincTex

I like cornbread and fresh-baked whole wheat bread too much to not consider keeping a crop each year


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## cowboyhermit

If I couldn't have Kutia it would be a sad day, my long gone ancestors might come after me if I didn't at least have it at holidays Grain and corn are great for their ability to store so easily from one year to the next that is why they have been so successful. Other traditional staples like potatoes might require less labour and land but you have to dehydrate or find other ways to build up a surplus. A somewhat interesting note is that crops domesticated in the new world typically require less labour than old world crops, especially at harvest. This may be due to lack of animal power or other reasons but it is something to think about. Even the grains and oilseeds like amaranth, quinoa and sunflowers are easier to harvest without mechanization.


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## LincTex

cowboyhermit said:


> A somewhat interesting note is that crops domesticated in the new world typically require less labour than old world crops, especially at harvest.


I would be curious which "new world domesticated" crops are being compared against which "old world crops"



cowboyhermit said:


> ....are easier to harvest without mechanization.


Yes, but I am like Ron White's "remain silent" statement.... "I have the right to not use mechanized equipment.... but not the ability! (to not use)


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## cowboyhermit

LincTex said:


> I would be curious which "new world domesticated" crops are being compared against which "old world crops"


Basically across categories, if you look at the staples they had such as corn or potatoes, versus old world staples like wheat and other grains or rice.

Another example is oilseeds, sunflowers are about as easy as it gets to grow and harvest, especially for a source of plant based fats.

Squash is incredibly easy to harvest (and grow for the most part), they don't have an exact equivalent in the old world but compared to root crops they tend to require significantly less labour.


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## Meerkat

I would want enough corn for cornbread. Also like corn but it would be hard to grow for both veggy and meal.


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## LincTex

Meerkat said:


> Also like corn but it would be hard to grow for both veggies and meal.


It needs a lot of fertilizer. Go to google and paste this: " youtube fertilizer corn "


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## crabapple

Maybe it is different in other parts of the country.
But in my corn field the row is where the corn grows, not between the corn.
The center between the rows is a furrow, where the plow cuts the weeds under.
The fertilizer should be deposited in the furrow, then turned out as the soil is mounted up on the corn row.
This is called side dressing the row, not the furrow.
If you are using an organic N fertilizer then you can broad cast, turn it under the day before you plant the seeds.
It will not hurt the seed or small plants, you can find 100 site that say no to this.
Not raw manure, but well composted OM or one of the high N meals.
My sister mix bloodmeal into her seed starter, when she grew 300 tomatoes & 200 pepper seedling for me.
This was for five families at the BOL, so that is not a lot of plants, did not lose one of them as a seedling or trans plant. Had more tomatoes then we could put up, gave basket full away so they would not soil.
I would not believed it myself, but I saw it & picked more peppers that year then any time in my life.


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## BillS

LincTex said:


> Yes, but: "Man cannot live on beef alone"


That's why you grow potatoes.

http://www.montcalm.org/downloads/pot_growing_1.pdf

According to that site you can grow 25,000 to 30,000 lbs of potatoes using modern equipment, fertilizer, and insecticides. I'm not sure what your yield would be using hand tools.

Another important crop would be tomatoes. I believe you can grow a lot of those with a minimum of effort.


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## crabapple

Bills,I agree.
Peppers are not as diverse as tomatoes, but they produce well.
OKra & squash are easy to grow & produce well also.
If you plant winter & summer squash then you can eat 12 months without a freezer.


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## RevWC

Breaking news 2025..100 bushels of Monsanto GMO corn have contributed to the cancer deaths of over 2,000 people that ate it 10 years ago...at 6.8 billion bushels consumed per year there is more to come...Due to the Monsanto Protection act know one is held accountable..
just saying...we don't know...


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## crabapple

RevWC, If we do not know, then GMO's could be the best thing to happen in the last 1000 years. Just saying


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## bananagoatgruff

shtf scenario farming will be difficult at best some very good thoughts...one ref is the foxfire series of books cataloging Appalachia mountain subsistence style farming....they didn't mess with wheat too much...it was corn...and livestock...pigs are an easier stock to raise because they will root and eat anything and can survive in the woods...cattle and horses require grain and grass and care...don't forget corn whisky either...could be very important...


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## LincTex

BillS said:


> According to that site you can grow 25,000 to 30,000 lbs of potatoes using modern equipment, fertilizer, and insecticides.


 I worked on a spud farm in northwestern Montana - - yes, the amount of spuds you can get is amazing. They have to have sandy soil, which Texas doesn't have a lot of. I'd like to try the "vertical stacked tire method" here.


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## weedygarden

JayJay said:


> Did you know only a few corn stalks have a 'more than one ear' yield?
> Think of that next time you buy a can of corn.
> I thank our Creator every evening meal for farmers.


I don't have much space to grow corn, but corn is one those grains that I have a fascination with. I know that there are many GMOs and I want to grow non GMOs.

As a result, I have grown a few varieties of native corns, for fun and experimental purposes. I have grown blue corn because it is productive, has large ears and is high in protein. I have also grown Painted Mountain corn. JayJay, you are absolutely right about this, especially with these native corns. The corn I grew this year had one ear of corn per stalk. I planted very late, didn't get much corn, but like the varieties. My ears from this year will be seed for next year. I plan to keep building up my varieties and seed stock.

It has been a fun project with family. They get gardening while they don't get prepping. I know that gardening is a way of prepping and a skill we can all benefit from.


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