Clarification of Answer by
tlspiegel-ga
on
01 Oct 2005 11:26 PDT
Hi lisa77,
Here is the additional information you requested.
Corn
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:XQh_j6FtHZsJ:www.agintheclassroom.org/060605/Teachers/Resource%2520Guides/k_3langa.pdf+In+autumn,+corn+is+harvested+with+combines.&hl=en
"In autumn, corn is harvested with combines. Combines are machines
which pick, shuck,and shell the ears of corn right in the field. The
corn is unloaded from the combine into a truck or wagon with an
unloading auger. When the trucks and wagons are filled with corn, the
corn is taken to a grain elevator or unloaded into a storage bin on
the farmer?s farm. A grain elevator is a cylinder made out of poured
concrete. When a truck or wagon with grain arrives at the elevator, it
is weighed. The clerk at the elevator measures the moisture content of
the corn by using a sample and weighs the truck and wagons with corn
in them. Next, the trucks and wagons go to the elevator storage area.
Here the corn is dumped into a pit and then drawn into the elevators
with augers in a pipe system. When the trucks and wagons are empty,
the farmer drives them back over the scale to determine the weight of
the truck and wagons. The clerk at the elevator then takes the weight
from before (when the corn was in the truck/wagons) and subtracts the
weight of the empty truck/wagons. This gives the elevator the weight
of the corn that the farmer brought in."
[edit]
"The Corn Belt is the region covering western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri,Nebraska, and South Dakota. Three-fourths of
the corn grown in the U.S. is from the Corn Belt. Corn fields are
harvested in the fall and planted in the spring. In the early 1900?s,
a large family could barely keep up with the work of a 80-120 acre
farm because most of the labor was done with horses or by hand.
Today, farmers have tractors and implements and they are able to
manage hundreds of acres. A cultivator is an implement that is pulled
behind a tractor to scrape (remove) weeds. Farmers used to say that
corn should be ?knee-high by the Fourth of July,? but now corn is as
tall as a person?s head by the Fourth of July. The brace roots of a
corn plant help support the stalk. Most dent corn is used as feed for
livestock. A combine is a machine which picks, shucks, and shells corn
in the field. Corn that is not fed to livestock may be processed at
mills or exported to other countries."
=========
Autumn on a Farm By Brenda Hyde
http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/farm1.html
"Farmers use many pieces of large and small equipment to take care of
their farm. Before winter they make sure everything is working like it
should and they repair anything that needs it.
A lot of farmers plow their fields in the fall so it will give them a
headstart for the spring. September is also the time that farmers
plant winter wheat. It grows until it gets cold and then it goes
dormant, which means it stops growing, until spring when it starts
growing again.
Most farm animals love corn, but it has to picked at just the right
time so the farmers can have a supply all winter long. Most corn today
is picked with a picker-sheller or a combine, both machines shell the
corn off the cob and then the farmer dumps it in a gas batch dryer
which dries it to a certain hardness, otherwise it will get moldy in
storage.Some farmers still just pick the whole ear with a regular corn
picker and store it in a corn crib, if they are going to just pick it,
they leave it in the field longer so it will dry. They test the
moisture by shelling the corn off the cob and putting a handful into a
moisture tester.
A lot of corn is chopped up in small pieces when it is still green,
and stored in a silo, where it ferments, just like cider will. This is
a treat for cows, who love silage!"
==========
Moving Kansas Crops to Markets
http://www.kswheat.com/upload/Exploring3.pdf
"Following harvest, farmers deliver the grains and oilseeds to markets
or storage facilities so that they can be sold into the processing
sector. This second sector of the production cycle transforms the
grains and oilseeds into the products.
Grain elevators are the chief tool for the movement and storage of
grains and oilseeds. Students may recognize them as the large white
cylinders or "prairie skyscrapers." How the crop is moved and stored
before processing is as important to the grain buyer or processor as
the quality characteristics of the crop at harvest.
The quality characteristics that farmers can monitor include moisture
content, protein content, color and the amount of foreign material.
Foreign materials, or dockage, are weed seeds, stems, leaves, dirt or
other items that may get mixed into the grains and oilseeds. Too much
moisture may cause the seeds to sprout, mold, rot or ferment. Insects
and rodents may also damage the grains and oilseeds if they are not
clean.
These quality characteristics play an important part in the price that
will be paid for the crop and whether the grain elevator will accept
the grain for storage. The quality characteristics of the grains and
oilseeds also have an important role in determining what products it
will be processed into.
There are numerous products made from wheat, grain sorghum,
sunflowers, corn and soybeans; some end up on your table and others in
your closet. The processes that the crops go hrough vary as much as
the products that result.
Throughout the processing chain the products are sold and resold.
Every business transaction may have several buyers and sellers and the
price that is paid is negotiated between them. In every transaction
the buyers and sellers have to make sure their business can make a
profit.
After the crop is grown, the farmer monitors it to see when it becomes
ripe, or mature. When it is mature, it is ready to harvest and be
moved by truck to a storage facility. The farmer may store the crop on
the farm in bins or deliver it to a grain elevator to be sold. The
grain elevator has an essential part in getting crops from the farm to
the processor to be made into consumable products.
This link of the chain provides three vital services - buying grains
and oilseeds from farmers, storing them until they're needed and
reselling them to processors. Crops are measured to determine how much
money a farmer receives for his/ her crop. Wheat, corn and soybeans
are sold by the bushel. Grain sorghum and sunflowers are sold by
hundredweight or by the pound.
Many of the processors that receive crops from grain elevators are in
the United States. At these processing plants, crops are processed
into many products including ethanol, baked goods, livestock feed,
plastics, oils, tofu and snacks and birdseed.
The grains and oilseeds may be exported, or sent to a customer
overseas. There, they are processed into many of the same products.
(scroll to page 5 to BACKGROUND INFORMATION)
(continue to page 6 and 7)
========
Iowa Corn - It Begins With a Kernel
http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_2.html
The corn refining process - see diagrams for:
Corn Dry Milling
Corn Wet Milling
Dry Grind Ethanol
Masa Process
http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_7.html
http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_3.html
Frequently Asked Questions about Corn in Iowa
http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_20.html#harvest
Is it true that there's corn in hundreds of products?
Actually, thousands of products in a typical supermarket contain corn.
For many years, the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has conducted
surveys by sending researchers into a typical supermarket to read all
the labels and tally all the products containing corn ingredients. The
last CRA study found corn ingredients in almost 4,000 products - and
that doesn't count all the meat, dairy, and poultry products that
depend on corn for livestock feed or the many paper products that
don't have ingredient labels but do contain corn.
=========
Iowa Corn - Primary Products from Corn
http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_6.html
Corn Starches
Antibiotics, Aspirin, Baked Goods, Candies, Condiments, Mixes &
Instant Preparations, Processed Meats, Puddings
Corn Syrups
Antibiotics, Aspirin, Baked Goods, Candies, Condiments, Mixes &
Instant Preparations, Processed Meats, Puddings
Dextrose
Brownies & Baked Goods, Canned Fruits, Cheese Spreads, Cured Meats
(such as bacon), Dessert Mixes, Intravenous Solutions, Jams & Jellies,
Soda Fountain Preparations, Marshmallows, Soups
High Fructose Corn Syrups
Carbonated Beverages, Fruit Fillings, Cereals, Frostings, Ice Cream &
Frozen Desserts, Pancakes, Pastries, Relishes & Sauces, Syrups &
Dessert Toppings
=========
POLICY PENNINGS By Daryll E. Ray
Three countries account for 88 percent of world corn trade
http://apacweb.ag.utk.edu/weekpdf/138.pdf
"A lot of corn is produced worldwide, 23.3 billion bushels,
but most of it is consumed domestically. Less than 13
percent of total production is exported. This relatively
small percentage of corn actually reaching the export
market may come as a surprise to those who follow shortterm
day-to-day fluctuations in futures prices."
=========
ERD Econoomic Research Service - United States Department of Agriculture
Briefing Room - corn: market outloook
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/corn/2005baseline.htm
=========
Wikipedia - Grain Elevator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_elevator
=========
keyword search:
harvest corn to grain elevator
corn grain elevator
export corn
corn food products
=========
Best regards,
tlspiegel
