High Atop Cinnamon Ridge
  • Blog
  • About
  • Our Farm

Not All Corn Huskers Are From Nebraska

10/19/2017

0 Comments

 
On the farm, October is a month of harvest. In Scott County and all throughout the midwest, corn is king and has played a significant role in our food, fiber and fuel. Today we can see the latest technologies and hybrids at the Farm Progress Show. But from 1920-1941, people gathered by the thousands at corn husking competitions. For the 1940 national corn husking competition, there were more than 120,000 people gathered at the Henry Keppy Farm Northwest of Davenport. With food tents, a parade, vendor booths and live radio broadcasts, it was more than just a husking competition. It was a great honor for Scott County to be selected for the national competition.
My father, George A. Maxwell and his brother Johnny were a contestants at the Keppy farm competition. At home, he and Johnny would practice husking quickly and throwing ears into the double box wagon to prepare for the competition. Their goal was to always have three ears of corn in the air going into the wagon. Despite all the practice, neither my father nor uncle placed in the contest.
The 1941 contest was the last, as the United States entered World War Two that December. After the war, mechanical harvesting took over and husking contests were just a memory.
Today we have harvesters that steer themselves, harvest 12 or more rows at one time and harvest as much corn in a minute as a husker could do by hand in an hour.
Cinnamon Ridge Farms offers many harvest treats, including pumpkin bars at our store. Please visit us at tourmyfarm.com.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am wife, mother, daughter, sister, grandma and farmer. I grew up on a beef farm in Minnesota, but now live on a dairy farm in Iowa.

    Archives

    March 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    July 2016
    February 2015
    January 2015
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    Farm Life
    Personal LIfe

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly