Feed Corn

[flowerpower]

My feed store carries a whole corn from a local grower, within 5 mi of my house. It's lg yellow , smooth kernals. What type of corn is it considered? Flint, dent, etc. Just curious. Thanks

[Alan]

It is most probably dent corn which is what most people use to feed animals and to also make flour out of, though sometimes people do feed flint and use it to make flour as well, it is definetly not as popular.

[sandbar]

Is the distinguishing characteristic between flint and dent corn in the "dent" (or indentation) in the top of the dent corn kernel? Does flint corn have a dent in the kernel?

[Alan]

Yes, Dent corn has a dent in the top of the kernal that distiguishes it from Flint corn which basically looks like popcorn kernals, hard and plump. Sweet corn of course looks wrinkeld. There are also a few other Phenotypes such as the Waxy characteristic that Maize Morado has or tiny husks that cover each Kernal individually of primitive type corns and of course you can have multiple types of kernals on one ear of corn due to cross pollination.

[flowerpower]

OK Thanks. I will look to see if it has a dent. I would say it looks "flat". Is this what people put into those corn stoves?

What about Bloody Butcher? I thought that was beautiful.

[Alan]

Yep, dent corn is what is used in corn stoves (to my knowledge). I do believe that bloody butcher is dent corn if I'm not mistaken.

[flowerpower]

It is smooth on one side and the other is a big dent. I thought it was the one that goes in the stove. Maybe I will put a handful on the side and plant it. None of the animals are complaining. So I can basically feed them any dent or flint corn? I like planting the colored varieties. And if they can double as feed, even better.

It is a pretty big seed. Is that an indication of the height of the plant? My friend is looking for a tall corn use a a screen form his next door neighbor. He has animals too, so the type is not important.

[Alan]

Yep, animals for the most part will eat both flint or dent corn though it is more common to feed dent corn. Usually if the seed of corn is pretty good sized the plant will also be good sized, dent corn is generally a pretty good sized plant. A really nice old fashioned dent corn that does a good job is Hickory King or Hickory cane, however if your feeding animals yellow corn is in general higer in protein, there is also a yellow hickory king that I believe Sand Hill carries.

hope this helps.

-Alan

[flowerpower]

Thanks Alan. I will put some seed aside for him.