This past 4th of July weekend, I was blessed to spend some quality time with my grandparents. My Grandpa Schirm was was born in the late 1920's and I'm always fascinated by his stories of growing up on his family's central Ohio grain and dairy farm and this particular weekend was no exception! As we sat on the porch sipping iced tea and watching the yearling heifers who were grazing in the pasture, someone made mention of how tall the corn has grown over the last few weeks as we've had our fair share of heat and rain. As we were having this conversation on July 3rd, we joked that this year's crop was definitely going to be taller than knee high by the 4th of July. As the conversation continued, my grandpa helped me understand where the phrase came from and while the explanation is pretty simple, I found it quite interesting! Not only have we seen major advances with the development of hybrid seed, impressive planting technology and GPS guidance, but what really has pushed our corn higher than knee high by the 4th of July is that in the ole' days, farmers didn't plant their corn until mid-May, which naturally wasn't knee high until 6 to 8 weeks later or during the 4th of July holiday!
The photo above was taken later that afternoon as I was attempting to document how tall the corn actually was on the 4th of July (and I should mention that this field was planted on April 10th, well before corn was planted in the early 20th century). As I learned from my grandfather, corn was planted later in the year for a few reasons: good hybrid seed corn which could withstand an unusually late frost wasn't available; scientific research of corn wasn't well developed until the 40's or 50's and it wasn't until that point that farmers were educated on best practices; and possibly most influential, farmers were still planting with horses or a small tractor and two-row planter, both of which took considerable time to get a field completed, so naturally planting was a much larger chore than it is today. Grandpa Schirm also shared his experiences with using his father's check row planter and discussed some of it's pros and cons. Using this implement helped farmers to plant their corn in straight rows resembling a checker board, which allowed for cross cultivation when the plants were young to keep the fields free of weeds as herbicides weren't yet developed. On the other hand, up to half of the total time to plant a field was attributed to setting up the equipment and the check line, which had to be moved by hand for each row!
Grandpa also shared how he eventually became a member of the 100 Bushel Corn Club in his hometown of Canal Winchester, Ohio where he and other members competed to produce the highest yields - eventually most of those in his group had reached the 200 bushel mark! Through this club, he and others learned how to care for their land in ways that helped them to become better stewards of the land. While things certainly have changed in agriculture since my grandfather was an active farmer, it's important for us to thank him and those like him for making a contribution for the betterment of agriculture!
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Author, Kristin Taylor is a farm and commercial agribusiness underwriter with the Western Region of Westfield’s AgriBusiness Division. She is located at the company’s headquarters in Westfield Center, Ohio and holds underwriting responsibility for the states of Illinois and Iowa.
She is a graduate of Ashland University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in communications, specializing in English and journalism.
Kristin’s love of agriculture is strongly tied to her experience growing up on her family’s registered Jersey farm in north-central Ohio. Her posts focus on the dairy industry perspectives and Westfield’s rich history in farming and agribusiness insurance.
