Why are there fields of dead corn just standing there?

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@Leaffan

A few rows left standing here, along a roadway, means it’s being used as a snow fence, to prevent drifting onto roadways.

I don’t know if farmers get reimbursed for this or not, but it’s very effective.

The farmers do not get reimbursement from the highway department.

But they get non-cash benefits:

1. they are probably the most frequent traveler on the roads right in front of their land, so less drifting on that road makes it easier for them to travel.
2. The snow drifts that are kept in the field behind the rows of corn melt in the spring, providing extra moisture for the seeds they’ve planted.

[jasg]

@Aeschines

That’s interesting, although I think hunting is pretty robust in Indiana, so I doubt that’s it.

Me too. Having just visited upstate PA/NY - whitetail deer are so plentiful they are vermin - counted 10 dead on side of road on a 90 mile drive yesterday.

Apparently they can’t shoot them fast enough. My cousin even had a photo of a cougar taken in the area - they are coming back because of plentiful deer.

[Si_Amigo]

@jasg

Me too. Having just visited upstate PA/NY - whitetail deer are so plentiful they are vermin - counted 10 dead on side of road on a 90 mile drive yesterday.

Apparently they can’t shoot them fast enough. My cousin even had a photo of a cougar taken in the area - they are coming back because of plentiful deer.

Just because they are plentiful doesn’t mean they are easy to get at during hunting season. You need permission of the property owner to hunt, so it behooves you to have a set up to keep them on your own land. Also, when people are actively hunting them in the fall (while they are in rut) they get very wary of people.

I lived in Ohio in farm country for 40 years and my sister and husband still own a large farm there and they definitely leave rows out in the field for hunting, one reason is because they often let other people hunt their land. Themselves they can just go out the backdoor and pick them off over by the apple trees every morning, not something you want other people doing. That and when you get an over population of deer you end up getting picky about which ones you take. Tracking down a buck with a large rack with your bow and arrow is a challenge. Then you got black powder and gun season. If you wound one he will often run to the nearest cover and lay low. If that cover is group of corn stalks on your own land so much the better.