Tag Archives: corn

Garden

What poop can tell you about wildlife

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:

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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.

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Cattle, Garden

First harvest fed to my uncle’s cattle

A raccoon was getting into my garden and harvesting the corn. How do I know it was a racoon? In an effort to stay on topic, I will share my evidence tomorrow.

Nonetheless, it was time to harvest the corn and remove what has proven to be a pest attractant.

Remember, the corn, sunflower, pumpkins and soybeans were volunteers that came up from…“creative” soil amendments. So I worked out a trade with my uncle: I’ll feed my corn and sunflowers to his cattle in exchange for some manure. After all, any biomass sent off the farm takes the nutrients with it. With our deal, those nutrients will come right back to the soil.

Here is his herd chowing down:

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