DAPNET Forums Archive › Forums › Sustainable Living and Land use › Sustainable Farming › corn cribs
- This topic has 9 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 8 months ago by
Mac.
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- February 14, 2011 at 2:35 am #42443
Farrier
ParticipantWhat is the cheapest way to build a crib to store ear corn, say about 500 bushels?
February 14, 2011 at 2:52 am #65684Tim Harrigan
ParticipantSeems like if you can find an old wire crib you could probably pick one up pretty reasonable.
February 14, 2011 at 2:58 am #65687ParticipantIn my area the only cribs are permanent wooden structures. I don’t really want to go to the trouble of building a permanent crib because it will be on leased land.
February 14, 2011 at 4:08 am #65689Mac
Participant@Tim Harrigan 24854 wrote:
Seems like if you can find an old wire crib you could probably pick one up pretty reasonable.
Ok so help an old hillbilly out please. If a corn crib is made of wire, and I have seen them like this, how is it that the corn inside them doesn’t get wet and rot? The crib on my place is built out of poles and sawmill slabs, and the gaps in its sides, while not water tight, are quite narrow. And not only that, but it seems mice might be a problem? Perhaps I’m missing something?
MacFebruary 14, 2011 at 1:03 pm #65685ParticipantThey have a tin roof and a center ventilation tube. When the ear corn is dry and the outer ears get some rain that is pretty much surface water that will dry off pretty fast when conditions improve. I never a wire crib, they were not as protected as the wooden structures that we had, but seems like a pretty inexpensive approach. I do not remember the wood structures as being rodent-proof.
February 14, 2011 at 4:04 pm #65682Marshall
ParticipantThe cats are what make them rodent proof. At least that is what I am hoping when I get mine put up.
February 14, 2011 at 4:20 pm #65683Ronnie Tucker
Participantin middle tn we refer to ear corn in barrels not bu there are 5 bu to a barrel how wide spread this term is used i donot know ronnie tucker tn logger
February 14, 2011 at 6:49 pm #65686Charlie B
ParticipantHere in Illinois when all the farmers used to raise hogs in pastures, it wasn’t uncommon for them to build temp storage for the corn in the pasture. They simply built a door to shovel the corn out of, and then used slatted snow fence to hold the corn with steel post evey 8-10′. The stucture could be as big around as they wanted to fill, then they would add a second or third story by simpley making a new circle of fencing and filling it with ear corn. Some of these were built right on dirt and sometimes the would be built around a wood platform or a cement pad. But then they just fed out of these cribs all year. Also a second fence was built around the outside 3-5′ away to keep the hogs from rooting up sides of the crib. If they had a lot of extra corn we would come in with a corn sheller the next spring and haul shelled corn to town.
February 15, 2011 at 3:25 am #65690ParticipantThanks for the help there. I think I understand now what you mean. Like I said, the crib here is built out of slabs, but its about a foot to a foot and a half off the ground, with galvanized bucket bottoms nailed across the legs to keep the mice and ants from crawling up and in. The cats help too, more than one would think. I forget the dimensions, 10×10 or 12 I think. These are relatively easy to build, and you can knock one together in a few hours and then knock it down at the end of the season, if you wanted.
MacFebruary 15, 2011 at 12:07 pm #65688ParticipantThanks for the info guys. I like the slatted snow fence idea. Seems like it would go together and tear down pretty easy, then I wouldn’t have to worry about a permanent building being the way.
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