I am becoming more and more pleased with the Floriani Red field corn. It has done real well in spite of seeming like everything has been against it. When it first came up I thought the crows were going to carry all of it away. Then after one of those crows managed to end up hanging from a tobacco stick in the middle of the field, the rest of them learned to stay away. Then someone, whom I won't name, left a gate open one night and mules got into it. They didn't graze much, but they rolled in it and wallowed out a pretty good sized area. I took the last of my seed and replanted those places, so the stand is a little uneven. Then we had flooding. The field, which does flood from time to time, has never been flooded past April in the time I've been here, until this year that is. My corn ended up under water twice. The most recent time I was sure it was gone. When I went to look, there was no corn visible, nothing but rolling muddy water. I figured the whole field was headed toward New Orleans. But, the water finally went down, and most of the corn was still there, just laying down. I had planned to see if I couldn't get down there and prop some of it up, at least enough to get seed for next year. Then, the first day that the sun came out, all the corn stood back up and is looking pretty good. I've mainly been dragging logs out of the field now and cleaning out the trash. The stalks are between 10 and 12 feet tall, with an average of two ears per stalk. I did see a couple of stalks with three. So, now I'm bracing myself to fight off the deer and the raccoons and hopefully have something to put in the crib this winter. And in spite of all that, it's still easier than tobacco!

Jerry, Where can you buy some of that seed? It sounds like a good producer.

I bought mine from Fedco seed. I hope to have some to sell myself before next planting season. I've already filed for organic certification and will be have the local college test to find if it really does reach 21% or near there in the protein.

Jerry, someone once said, "out of every adversity, comes equal or greater opportunity". I think you've found yours. Congratulations.

Between the crows, sandhill cranes, and turkeys; I have a 50% stand of Wapsie Valley. Now deer are working it real hard. They will walk past the highspeed roundup ready imitation corn. Wapsie Valley has produced for me well in the past.

My Amish neighbors raise Wapsie Valley and speak very highly of it. My family has raised a white corn variety called Hickory Cane, not to be confused with Hickory King. It was really tough for me to branch out and try something different. The old Hickory Cane was a good corn and a good producer around here. But I had been reading about the lack of lysine in white corn and wanted to try either a yellow variety or one of the red ones. Then I got into this looking for a high protein quest and that's what brought me to this Floriani Red. We are hoping this corn will replace the tobacco, and since the tobacco was taken out by the weather this might the beginning of something new.

Mark DeKorne my Wapsie Valley is a favorite of the local wildlife as well. Nice looking corn plants, hope to have enough to feed when the deer are done.
Billy