O/T: Corn shocks

[Anonymous-0]

Went out after dinner into the over-ripe corn patch to cut some for the cows to snack on. It was a beautiful evening, cool and a nice breeze rustling the corn leaves. So I thought about my great uncle George 60 years ago chopping corn and shocking it by hand and figured I'd try it.
Those stalks are heavy when you get over a dozen in one arm while trying to cut more.
I'd be interested to hear from those of you with experience with the process. Do you try to bundle a dozen or less stalks so they can thoroughly dry and then stand a group of smaller bundles into a "shock"?
Western Oregon field corn gets chopped for silage so I've never been around "shocking". Am I even using the right term?
I had fun anyway and I figure if I can get them dry enough I'll toss them in the hayloft and feed the bundles over the winter.

Grub

 

[georgeky]

All I know is dad said they put 16 hills square in each shock.

 

[big jt]

Don't know about your great uncle but I always figured you would need to cut the corn with a binder first. This machine cuts and ties about 15 stalks together in a bundle. Would then shock those bundles in groups of 6 bundles or more.

jt

 

[Iowa_tire_guy]

My Dad talked about shocking feed sorghum (cain) when he farmed in the 40's and 50's in the Texas panhandle. He said it was the best way to keep that feed. So in college I had a chance to hire out to give it a try. It had been bound and bunched with a field binder. The feed was about 6 or 7 foot tall so that was a challenge although it had laid several days and dried out good. We would lay 2 bundles on the ground in an X pattern and then start standing the bundles upright in the corners of the X. We would put 20 or so bundles in a shock and move on. The work would have been about like baling hay.

 

[Leroy]

Before the binders it was all done by hand and the binders would depending on height of ears put 1 string around a bundle and if it didn't come right at the ear you could get 20 or more stalks per bundle, heavy, or if it hit right at the ear you might get 3-4 stalks per bundle. You cut as the plant was just starting to die, kernals on ear already dented. Then as soon as possible you stood the bundles in a shock. Somw wanted a smaller shock, more air circulation to dry the corn and others wanted a bigger shock to stand better. then about dead of winter you hauled in the shocks, lot of time you would be knocking snow of the bundles as you were loading them. A few would hand shuck the ears off befor feeding the hole stalk but that way less than half the stock would be eaten, after that before the husker-shreader the ears were hand shucked and the stalks choped with a small choper you hand run them thru and blew the foder in the barn for later feeding. Then the husker-shreader that took the ears off mechanily and cut and blew the fodder in as fast as you could feed the bundles. Some would only use the fodder for hog bedding. We fed the fodder in the evening to the dairy heard and what was left the next morning went out for bedding and hay for the morning feed followed again that night with fodder. The stalks choped up like that the cows would eat most of the stalk but the stalk fed whole they would only eat the leaves. And you NEVER fed a whole ear of corn to a cow as they would get it stuck in their throt and did. I still have the JD binder and New Idea shreader we used up to about 1959 and with just a little cleaning up they would go to work again.

 

[Dick L]

When I helped dad shock corn, not really much help as I was quite young, he tied four stocks that were not cut with one of the tops. Corn was cut the same distant all four ways around the four and then leaned against them. One stock was used to tie the total shock in place. He cut the four center stocks when loading on the wagon to take it to the shredder/sheller later after it was dry enough and the shredder was able to be at our farm.

 

[HENRY E NC]

I can remember helping shock corn. It was cut with a corn cutter (what else) that was sort of a sickle with a handle less that a yard long, had a curved blade about 20 24 inches long , the blade having a wavy edge(more like corrugation) and was sharpened on a stone that had a seat and peddles that went up and down. We would take two cutters for each man so we didnt have to walk back to the shed to sharpen until noon and evening. Anarmful was stood up and then the rest piled against that. That was in the early thirties, up until sometimes in the 40's

 

[Anonymous-0]

My dad used to do this. He had a sawhorse type of
thing with only 2 legs and a quite long third leg.
The corn was cut by hand and stacked on the long
leg side of the short leg then tied together.
Then the sawhorse thing was pulled out of the shocked corn and moved to the next spot.

 

[Owen Aaland]

I don't remember ever shocking corn, but then my dad only used the bundles for silage. My first tractor driving was to keep the Farmall H going straight down the row while he pitched the bundles unto the wagon. He would get it started so all I did was steer.