SO, What the Heck are These Things?

mnmthunting

mnmthunting

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Old timers, Help us out here. :)

 
They are called shocks of corn. First you bind it with a binder that puts a few stalks together in bundles then you put several bundles together and presto you have a shock of corn. It is done so the corn stalkes dry and then you can feed it to your cows in the winter. It preceded silage cutting.
 
haymaker said:
They are called shocks of corn. First you bind it with a binder that puts a few stalks together in bundles then you put several bundles together and presto you have a shock of corn. It is done so the corn stalkes dry and then you can feed it to your cows in the winter. It preceded silage cutting.
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Yes and I have not see these in a long time. We did this in the sixties on the farm. :cheers:
 
Kick'em and shoot rabbits:thumbsup::) When I was little some guy made them guess he couldn't let the good old days go:D Rabbits everywhere.
 
I took a few pics, I may not see these again. :confused:

 
They sell them here to homemakers who put them on the lawn at Halloween! I see a McCormick binder here and there, they maintain there value! Most go for $250-500 dollars, depending on condition. a couple of years ago, you could by binder twine to use at Farm Supply, it's the same as AC rotobaler. I like the look, my Grand dad used them to feed stock cows, with a little blackstrap molasses for energy. Later he used a Hesston Stack-Hand 10 to feed a much larger herd!
 
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Thanks for the comments.
These are mine, on my place. I made about 100, why? cause I could.:)

Done in early Sept, I should take some current pics. The deer and turkeys have totally demolished every one. To get at the grain. :eek:
 
Amish farmers still do this, my father lives in central PA and on one side of Jacks Mountain is a large Amish community that I saw them doing that, except they were stacking them by hand.
 
There is only one way to do corn shocks, that is by hand.
Unless You mean to say, "no binder"

These hundred or so shocks took me about 50 hours + -.
With the chopper I could have done it in about 1/2 hour with no waste. :confused:
Chopper is easy, boring. The shocking fun, great for the wild critters. No monetary value to me what so ever.

Will I shock some more up next year? Maybe. :cheers:
 
dodgeboy75 said:
Amish farmers still do this, my father lives in central PA and on one side of Jacks Mountain is a large Amish community that I saw them doing that, except they were stacking them by hand.
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yeah, when I saw Wayne's photo it reminded me of PA. I was driving through PA (a few years ago) when I saw a few fields with corn shocks. It looked neat with all the rolling hills in the background. Kinda felt like I was going back in time a bit.

Nick
 
dodgeboy75 said:
Amish farmers still do this, my father lives in central PA and on one side of Jacks Mountain is a large Amish community that I saw them doing that, except they were stacking them by hand.[/QUO

I grew up in the area you are talking about. Most of my family still lives there. And yes the Amish in that part of the country still make these.:cheers:
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BigC, Welcome to UPH forums.
Really, There is NO other way to shock corn then by hand.
Technology for what ever reason, :confused: Did not advance in that area. :rolleyes:
Corn choppers and pickers and combines were/are so much more efficient.
Like I said, I could chop 50 tons of corn for every shock that will probably make 500 pounds. :eek:
Maybe time to increase the medication. :cheers:
 
Shocks of feed, that is part of fall that I remember so well. My father would plant some cane on the bottom land then when it was mature or at least prior to the first frost which comes early in the bottom, I would pull the John Deere binder with a Ford 8N tractor with my father on the binder. Later we would shock the feed. The local FFA chapter would shock feed as one of their fund raising projects. I was usually too busy at our place to get involved with that.

The shocks in the field and the fall colors of cottonwoods and hackberrys along the creek and an old rooster bird by a shock, that that is a picture of fall of years ago at my place. If I was an artist I could paint it for you.

I have looked for a binder and hope one day to find one and once again have my bottom land decorated for fall for all the see the yesteryears I remember so fondly.
 
M.R. There are old rusted remains of corn binders grown up with brush and trees somewhere in every old homestead grove. Out on the prairies they are often slid down into a washout or coulee.

Check out Craigslist or ebay. Usually there are a couple corn binders for sale.

The 16,000 sisal Round Baler twine is the same stuff as binder twine.
 
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