Page 37 2025 Logan County Spring Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2025 As the corn grew, cut worms showed up. Farmer said, “All the work I had done and the cut worms were trying to ruin it all for me! Our field corn came resistant to these little critters, but unfortunately our popcorn did not.” Even worse, Farmer notes, “by the time we realized what was going on, they almost snacked on my entire field. We made this discovery checking the field one late afternoon in June, so we canceled our plans and headed straight to Farm and Home to buy some insecticide to take care of them.” The family spent the rest of the daylight hours using two hand sprayers and walking the field. Farmer said, “their snacking also caused us to have to do some replanting. We used a small one row garden planter. It took some time, but they say you get out what you put in!” At the end of September, Farmer said the corn was turning and the family was getting anxious for harvest to start. Every week, they were hand shelling some corn to take it to the elevator to assess its moisture. Popcorn has to be dried down to the perfect moisture or it won’t pop. It seems to be taking forever compared to everyone around us to dry down, but as Farmer said, that’s what happens when you get it planted later than most. Finally, after weeks of waiting and testing, it was time to pick corn, which as farmers know, is a long process. Farmer said, “we don’t have a combine or a picker, so all of our popcorn is picked by hand [and] tossed in a bucket. The bucket is taken and dumped in the wagon and then we repeat [the process].” Harvesting the popcorn by hand took many days. Continued --
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