As promised, I can present my evidence that it was racoons that ate my corn.
The first clue was that overnight the stalks were ripped down and only a few bites were taken from each of the ears now at ground level. The next day however, the ears were picked clean which leads me to believe the groundhog worked in tandem with the racoon.
However I was working on my apple seedlings about 300 yards from the garden and came across this:
Corn filled raccoon scat!
Furthermore, my next door neighbor is growing soybeans this year and not corn. Unless his personal garden got raided as well, mine appears to be the only source of maize.
Raccoons have been recorded to have a home range of up to 20 square miles so it is no surprise that they will travel to raid my corn. Something also carried a small pumpkin I harvested about 20 yards before abandoning it sans stem.
Regardless, I am not too worried about raccoons as garden pests. However I will rest a bit easier when my fence is installed.
thegreenergrassfarm 
What a pain. Makes the snails on my chard seem like nothing!
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I’ve never seen a fence that could dissuade a racoon. So good luck! I had one recently de-fishify my pond. Sad, but at least he didn’t see my yummy hens sleeping twenty feet away. A win in my book!
Also, nice poop pic! Only on an organic gardening blog can one get away with a scat feature image 😉
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Haha well we do need to keep track of the fertility! I’m building an electric fence slanted outward ~45°. If any creature can surmount that, they’ve learned my respect and a snack from the garden
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Zap! I didn’t know it is to be electric. That’ll get em. Although, I wouldn’t put it past a racoon to get an engineering degree… Sneaky buggers.
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Yep…if the racoon is really determined it could go through the barn and climb up the wall that bounds the garden. I won’t put hot fence wires in the barn due to the chance of fire even if that chance is miniscule. I also read on the intelligence of raccoons and was blown away. Same as some monkeys and they solved 11 of 13 complex latches in 10 tries or less. Then solved the latches when they were re-oriented and remembered the solutions for 3 years!
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