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What do the farmers do with all this sweetcorn?


Viv
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Our commune 'up north' seems to be having a thing about growing sweetcorn this year,I am surrounded by the stuff.

I don't like it ever since I was traumatised at an early age by Planet of the Apes!    But joking aside, what do they use it for? I was told that they use it for winter animal feed but it seems to me [as an old townie] that it's going rotten in the fields. When will it go???

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Maize.  You will hear the farmers talking about sileage, well, that is what they call it here.  It isn't like the sileage in the UK which is mainly grass cut in spring.  They are cutting it at the moment near me.  Early this year because of the weather.  They make big heaps of it and dole it out all winter to the cows. 

It is rare you see corn on the cob which goes into the tins but they must grow it somewhere.  You would think it would be around me in Brittany as Darcy at Moreac tin just about everything and I often see the lorries loaded down with haricot vert, peas, carrots etc., going to the factory.

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I just wondered if it was just going to rot away in the fields because I knew that Uk silage is usually made from green stuff and this looks like every bit of goodness has long since gone. Still , I suppose the cows aren't fussy.

I wonder how much they get paid to grow the stuff.

I would like to introduce them to the delights of baby sweetcorn...but no doubt someone will tell me that's an entirely different plant altogether.

 

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It is left to dry because it is for processing, this increases the starch content.  According to the Minister for Agriculture 50% is for animal feed, 25% for human consumption and 25% for industrial use. In the case of animals it would seem that it is sold to "feed" manufacturers who then add loads of goodies, anti depressants and the like to be used in factory farming. One could suppose that the 25% for human consumption is for maize flour. Industrial uses, I have yet to find out. About 60% of a maize farmers income is from subsidies and a farmer who uses pumped water irrigation receives 600 euros a hectare in Prime au Maïs Irrigué.   Silage is Silage and is made in exactly the same way as UK. nothing to do with Maize.

Best I can do on this one. Chris

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Sorry, but round here they are harvesting the maize at the moment, and they chop it all up finely as they harvest it, then 'clamp' it under anaerobic conditions to create Maize silage to feed the cattle with when they are over-wintered inside - it is definately silage, and is a very popular winter cattle fodder, to go with the big-bale 'enrubannage' (haylage) and hay, all which go to provide the fibre part of the ration, which is then topped up with concentrates, for growth or milk-production.

Regards

Chris

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Maize silage is used here in France just as much as it is used in the UK and most other European countries. The advantage is that the whole plant is used and can be harvested earlier than the cobs. The silage has a very high nutritional value and only a little bit is needed to provide for cattle. The cobs, if they are harvested seperately, are used to make maize meal mainly for chickens, but can be fed to any farm animal as a source of protein. (I feed maize to the horses in the winter) If the cobs are harvested seperately, the rest of the plant is rolled up and used as maize straw. All in all, maize is a very versatile feeding plant, and as it only has a limited season the fields can be used for winter seeds, like wheat, mustard, grass etc.
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Hi there Chris

I am up in Manche (50), and Christiane has pretty much answered your question, only to add that silage has to be properly made, tightly packed and kept under anaerobic conditions (to promote the right sort of bacteria which ferment the maize, and prevent the wrong sort), otherwise you get either a mouldy or a slimy, foul smelling product, which has little or no nutritional value - hence why you see large mounds in farmyards, tightly covered in plastic sheeting and covered in hundreds of old car tyres - to keep the air out!!

Regards

Chris

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You two are worth knowing, thanks for all the info. I had never considered what happened to the stalks and leaves, all the facts I had concerned the grain and its processing. The issue of maize is high on the public agenda this year for this region because of the water situation, we are still desperate and if we don't get real rain soon we will be in crisis!

Thanks, best wishes Chris.

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Fresh from the farmers mouth, so to speak, by coincidence I asked my neighbour this afternoon why he was taking a few stalks of maize to his farm.  He told me that it was for the calves as the normal indoor feedstuffs, hay etc were too dry for them.  The rest of the maize when it is cut is shelled and dried in large net cages you see in many farmyards for winter animal feed, but maybe not in the north of France.  Normally silage is made from cut grass and only where conditions are not suitable i.e. dry enough for making hay. 
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Here in N 46 the maize is  cut/chopped as silage - end Sept/early Oct in 2004 & 2005 but late JUNE in 2003 (not enough grass in the fields) - then clamped under black plastic held down by car tyres. We often see racks filled with drying corn cobs but have never seen them harvesting that version.

Our farmer neighbour also cuts some of his grass as silage, usually 2 weeks before making hay but this is nothing to do with weather conditions, just a different menu for the beasts.

As for corn for humans. we have never been served sweetcorn nor seen it in the markets so I guess that this particular delicacy does not tempt the French palate or there is not enough money in growing it of course.

Rambling Sid Rumpo (?) signs out

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My experience is much the same as Di's. Here in S24, the maize goes into clamps at the end of September beginning of October. There's a definite prejudice against humans eating sweeetcorn. My neighbour got a telling off from her husband for buying sweetcorn for her grandson. Apparently it's for animals not humans ! It reminded me of the "forrin muck" comments I used to hear in England. I believe that the kind humans eat is of a different variety.

I used to hear a prejudice against leeks too - "They're only for invalids" although I haven't come across that lately and there are always plenty for sale.

Hoddy

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Here in 2003, the maize was so dry that unfortunately there were a number of cows on a neighbouring farm who exploded once they had eaten it (as soon as it reached the liquid in the stomach it expanded et voilà). I hope things aren't as bad this year, as it has been very dry again.
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Unfortunately, cows, having 4 stomachs and not being able to vomit are a bit prone to bloat, where they blow up like a balloon - you can try 'drenching' them, but if all else fails, one solution is to puncture the stomach through the ribs - but as every other Frenchman goes around with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, this probably wouldn't be a very good idea, as what hisses out is methane, and the pair of them could go up in a ball of flames!!!

Regards

Chris

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As a side issue - in our area there are some experimental plantings of GM maize and there has been a lot of protest. In one place people came with ploughs during the night and dug up fields of GM maize. Then there's Jose Bove and his followers who trampled down fields of GM maize before they could be stopped. All very dramatic. Pat.
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[quote]It is left to dry because it is for processing, this increases the starch content. According to the Minister for Agriculture 50% is for animal feed, 25% for human consumption and 25% for industrial u...[/quote]

Re: Industrial uses - production of bio ethanol for fuel and as a substitue for ethanol from hydrocarbon surces in chemicals production; manufacture of cellulose based biodegradable plastics; production of starch, which has a myriad of uses.

I've heard of silage being made from green maize before the cobs ripen, but I was under the impression that the "straw" from fully mature dry maize had use only as animal bedding - I shall have to go and investigate.
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