Does anyone have a corn burning stove?

[genesis5521]

I'm the OP.

OK. You all convinced me to forget about a corn burner. This is why a forum like this is so valuable.

Now I'm not much of a gardener, but ya got me thinking. Umm?

Thanks a lot goys.

Don <><

What I meant by the above was planting veggies to sell and use the profits to buy hardwood logs. Now I sure don't have a green thumb, but my girl friend sure does. I've helped her in her huge garden. Built her a couple of waist-high above ground planting beds with landscaping timbers. She LOVES them. Put an 8 foot high deer fence around her garden. Till it for her. Rigged up a sprinkler system. She would gladly help me and really show me the ropes. I'd do this if I could make around a grand a summer as that's what a truck load of hardwood logs would cost.

Don <><

 

[Dalmatian90]

Just to be the (partial) contrarian...

...and this is all just me randomly speculating...

IF you like old equipment, get an antique tractor with a corn snapper to harvest:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VJ3znipjzEQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Build an old fashion corn crib so the the ears dry down naturally (we didn't always have propane on the farm).

Instead of shelling, use to cobs with kernels still on them the once they're dried to supplement your wood supply, I'd think you'd start on wood then mix in cobs to stretch your wood supply.

You'll also need planters, plows, disks. Split your field so you plant 1/2 in corn each year, the other half you plant oats & hairy vetch (the oats are the nurse crop for the vetch) -- the vetch fixes nitrogen, so next year you plow that crop under and plant corn there. Still will need to test for P & K and fertilize for those as needed. You ain't gonna get 200 bushel/acre corn. Complete scientific wild ass guess you might be manage 40 bushels; probably want older open pollinated varieties of corn since you won't have the nitrogen levels to support the denser modern hybrids.

Be cheaper to just buy your firewood But might be more fun farming for the cobs if that's your desire.

 

[Chris-PA]

Aren't you supposed to save the cobs for the outhouse?

 

[Hedgerow]

Just to be the (partial) contrarian...

...and this is all just me randomly speculating...

IF you like old equipment, get an antique tractor with a corn snapper to harvest:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VJ3znipjzEQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Build an old fashion corn crib so the the ears dry down naturally (we didn't always have propane on the farm).

Instead of shelling, use to cobs with kernels still on them the once they're dried to supplement your wood supply, I'd think you'd start on wood then mix in cobs to stretch your wood supply.

You'll also need planters, plows, disks. Split your field so you plant 1/2 in corn each year, the other half you plant oats & hairy vetch (the oats are the nurse crop for the vetch) -- the vetch fixes nitrogen, so next year you plow that crop under and plant corn there. Still will need to test for P & K and fertilize for those as needed. You ain't gonna get 200 bushel/acre corn. Complete scientific wild ass guess you might be manage 40 bushels; probably want older open pollinated varieties of corn since you won't have the nitrogen levels to support the denser modern hybrids.

Be cheaper to just buy your firewood But might be more fun farming for the cobs if that's your desire.

That is a sweet 530 and picker... Someone spent alot of hours restoring those... And that 530 is runnin' a bit faster than it rolled off the line runnin' me thinks...:msp_sneaky:
Rep for the trip down memory lane...

 

[Deereman76]

My Brother Had a Indoor Corn Burner, He grows his own Corn, But in Doing the Math, He can sell his Corn to the Elevator, and buy electricity, and come out Money ahead.

 

[tooold]

My neighbor heats his old farm house with a corn stove in the kitchen and a corn boiler in the basement. He goes through a gravity wagon worth of corn a winter and seems to like it. He does have to tinker with them once in a while.

 

[Whitespider]

My neighbor heats his old farm house with a corn stove in the kitchen and a corn boiler in the basement. He goes through a gravity wagon worth of corn a winter...

Yeah, but that doesn't tell us anything...
What size gravity wagon?

 

[Hedgerow]

Yeah, but that doesn't tell us anything...
What size gravity wagon?

Don't matter... Bad idea even if it's a little 150er... At 7 bucks a bushel, you can buy a lot of saw gas or wood...

 

[hoosier daddy]

tinker nothing...

Seriously, I would have to tinker with mine from time to time...usually about 2:30am when the wife's elbow finally found my ribs...usually had to do with a clinker build up which caused me to empty the burn pot (imagine digging out all the coals of your stove tonight at 2am) and cleaning it and restarting the fire...tinker nothing...

I used primarily seed corn that had gone out of condition and was free and would not go back...no way...

I still have two friends that use this same type of furnace in their house and they have switched to a pellet/corn blend to save some money. It all sounds good, dump some corn in this hopper, light the pot, set the thermostat and enjoy your "green" heat...they left off the part in the instructions where your freezing your toes off and burning your fingers through your welding gloves to restart the damn thing.

sorry for the rant...Run from corn heat...

Hoosier Daddy's words of wisdom from experience...it's kind of like not having to be told twice about pee-ing on the electric fence...(story for a different thread)...

 

[tooold]

The wagon my neighbor is using is a 200 bushel wagon. He had it filled with 175 b this year (at $6 a b)but this year has been warm. Last year he had over 180 b and used it all up.

 

[Dogsout]

Oh man… Where do I start? I could type pages and not get everything said.

Burning corn for heat was a bad idea at 2-dollar corn, and now at $7.oo it’s idiotic. In reality, growing your own on 8-acres would probably cost you more than just buying the stuff. Figure the cost of equipment, maintenance on equipment, fuel, seed, fertilizer, drying, storage, crop insurance (yeah, if you’re gonna’ lay out that kind of cash to plant it, you damn well better insure it), and even the potential loss of income from the land (‘cause you’re burning the crop, rather than selling it). It takes a lot more land than 8-acres to make it work. And you live in Northern Wisconsin… man, ol’ Mother Nature is gonna’ do everything she can to screw with ya’. A cold, wet spell shortly after planting and you loose the crop… insurance may pay expenses, but it may be too late for replanting. Hail? Ever see what hail can do to an emerging corn crop? A hot, dry spell just as the ears are forming equals small ears with small kernels. And then there are those early, cool, wet autumns… when the corn has no chance to dry on-the-stalk, even starts to mold on the ear. Do you have any idea how many gallons of LP a corn dryer will use in a 24-hour period? Do you even have a corn dryer? How ‘bout an early, wet, snowy winter… like an early blizzard before you can get your corn harvested? Now you have 10-inches of snow on top of 12-inches of mud in your corn field… How you gonna’ get that corn out?

Why was burning corn for heat at 2-dollars a bad idea? Corn and soy beans are our food source… plain and simple. More than corn flakes, those grains are used for tons of purposes along the food chain, such as feeding all forms of livestock, fertilizers, even plastics and rubbers used for equipment parts… just to name a small few. So now we add to the demand, using it to make motor fuel (ethanol) and burn it for heat… driving the price up to 7-dollars. To keep up with demand farmers are growing more corn and less beans, which drives up the price of beans and requires more fertilizer because of the lack of crop rotation. As the price of those grains rise, the price of near everything else in this country follows… from the grocery store to the fuel pump, and even the carpet on your floor. And our not-so-wise politicians’ are dumping billions of tax-payer dollars into this idiocy. If you think the housing bubble was a fiasco… just wait. It ain’t just the farmers that will get hurt… we’re all gonna’ pay a huge price for this stupidity.

We keep this crap up and we could be the first nation in history to starve because we literally burned our food source!!!!

Hey Spider I usually agree with your assessment on most issues, but here I think you have gotten into Zoggers stash of good smokes. When you are talking about burning corn at $2.00 is a bad idea. BS when I purchased mine and corn was at that price we had it coming out of our ears hence the $2.00 price. You live in IOWA for crying out loud, did you live under a rock when farmers could hardly give it away seeings how there was such a surplus. Now I can't speak for the small indoor burners, as I have stated before mine was a big outside burner. I fully stand by my statement that I could have made it work for UNDER $3.00 at the price of LP at the time. (4 years ago) The farther under that price the better it would work. With the price of LP today I would guess you could bump that up to $4.00 to $4.50. Don,t use it for fuel because we need it for food, DOUBLE BS! You could heat a 1/5 of the good ole USA and still not come up short in our food supply using corn. As for burning it and causing you to pay more for the stuff you purchase you better light up another one and give that a little more thought. Even if I subscribed to that theory I could really care less what you pay for your stuff, my priority has been and always will be to take care of my family first and foremost. If burning corn was still economically feasible you can bet you back side that I would still be putting it to the fire. If you got that second smoke done now can you see the light? Finally as I stated before I would NEVER recommend a corn burner to anyone. A wood burner is the ONLY way to go IMHO.

 

[One Shot Will]

if corn got under $2.00 i would fire mine up tomorrow.

 

[Dogsout]

if corn got under $2.00 i would fire mine up tomorrow.

I would have to move my ODW to make room for it. I do know mine would still run in an emergency. IF corn got to $2.00, with the price of LP at $1.85 in NC Iowa you could save a nice chunk if you were willing to work at it a little. This is the first year for my ODW and I would say it would take a heck of a lot to have me push it off of the pad.

 

[smbassman]

I've got two Corn (multi-fuel) burners

At $6+/bushel they are burning pellets this year. But as you may notice, this is my first post and I logged on here to get information to replace my second stove (basement) with a wood furnace. If you really want a multi-fuel ( I really do like it in living areas) you have to get a good model. Mine is a St. Croix Auburn and it usually puts out enough to heat (with corn) the 18x20x13'high addition that it's in and also the 1700sq ft mfg home upstairs with little to no mess. I added a Harmon to the basement thinking I would run that when it's really cold out. The Harmon is very dirty when cleaning out the ash. It turns out, the Harmon heats the basement (1700 sq ft x 10ft - 3ft exposed on one side, 6ft above grade on the other) but it barely adds enough to the upstairs temp to justify the amount of corn/pellets it burns.

So - for local room heat, there is nothing wrong with a multi-fuel stove to avoid the mess and hope the price comes back to reality. Also - to the person saying burning $2/bushel corn was a bad idea, I completely disagree. Even with last year's $5.90/bushel, it was cheaper to burn corn than LP and the pleasure of handing my money to my local Farmer/supplier instead of an oil company was worth it. I am missing that this year as my pellet supply come from big box stores, I thought of buying a couple tons of corn.

The real issue was the ethanol. That is where the demand went and they were buying with government money. It's a lot easier to spend someone else's money, but when the subsidies end, the corn should return to $3 or so.

 

[Whitespider]

Dogsout,
You and I are not talking about the same thing. You’re comments are narrowly directed, talking about personal household finances and the well-being of a small subset of our economy (mid-western corn growers). The picture I’m looking at is being painted by a much wider brush.

 

[Dalmatian90]

The real issue was the ethanol. That is where the demand went and they were buying with government money. It's a lot easier to spend someone else's money, but when the subsidies end, the corn should return to $3 or so.

Not really.

The corn subsidy system (and ag policy in general) itself is completely FUBAR.

Specifically in this case, the subsidized price of fuel is what's going away.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 still requires distributors to 25 Billion gallons of "renewable" fuel into our automotive fuel supply each year -- increasing eventually to 36 Billion, and corn ethanol is the most economical way to meet that. In no small measure that's because even at $7 corn we're still pumping $3.5 Billion in subsidies into corn. (The ethanol subsidy was $6 Billion.)

Well designed government agriculture policies have an important role to play, especially in grain crops that can have wild swings based on things entirely out of the control of the farmer (like annual climate differences impacting a nation, like droughts, and local weather events like hail storms) -- without income stabilizing policies you wouldn't be able to support bank loans to plant or buy equipment, and you risk wild swings in production creating real shortages or price-crashing surpluses. But our corn policy is one of no matter what's happening, just put your foot down on the accelerator and produce more...and like market distortions caused by Federal policies regarding mortgages and student loans there's no immediate financial downside to running up the price. But like Thelma & Louise, this ride is going to eventually end very suddenly.

 

[zogger]

Hey Spider I usually agree with your assessment on most issues, but here I think you have gotten into Zoggers stash of good smokes. When you are talking about burning corn at $2.00 is a bad idea. BS when I purchased mine and corn was at that price we had it coming out of our ears hence the $2.00 price. You live in IOWA for crying out loud, did you live under a rock when farmers could hardly give it away seeings how there was such a surplus. Now I can't speak for the small indoor burners, as I have stated before mine was a big outside burner. I fully stand by my statement that I could have made it work for UNDER $3.00 at the price of LP at the time. (4 years ago) The farther under that price the better it would work. With the price of LP today I would guess you could bump that up to $4.00 to $4.50. Don,t use it for fuel because we need it for food, DOUBLE BS! You could heat a 1/5 of the good ole USA and still not come up short in our food supply using corn. As for burning it and causing you to pay more for the stuff you purchase you better light up another one and give that a little more thought. Even if I subscribed to that theory I could really care less what you pay for your stuff, my priority has been and always will be to take care of my family first and foremost. If burning corn was still economically feasible you can bet you back side that I would still be putting it to the fire. If you got that second smoke done now can you see the light? Finally as I stated before I would NEVER recommend a corn burner to anyone. A wood burner is the ONLY way to go IMHO.

Hey! The 60s was a long time ago for me..I ain't got no good stash now...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I smoke the cheapest rattiest terbacky ceegars they have out there now, that's it..and drink cheap instant coffee. That and an aspirin once in awhile when my back goes out on me handles my psychoactive needs. I even quit beer way back in the 90s.

I'm addicted to the outdoors and country living, that works for me now.

And I like good old fashioned wood, stored solah powah.

 

[rackmup]

I would not be afraid of well built corn stove at all. I have a central boiler 6048 and the only advantage is having it 80' from our house. Otherwise I would have a corn burner. My mom and dad have an LDJ corn burner and had it professionally ducted. They heat their 2000 sq. ft home with 200 bu a year. once in a while they will buy an extra 30 - 40 bushel during a severe winter. They bought it new 10 years ago and only replaced 1 part just last year. The heat is so superior to propane it's not even funny. The gray ash is a bit of an issue until you figure out to leave the door closed. Here are the figures, no bull:

propane: 1.85 x 1000 (min)=$1850

corn: 240 bu (max ) x $7 = $1680

They watch our 3 year old daughter so they do keep it a bit warmer than they used to. For my dad, it is about being independent of the petroleum industry and having the much warmer heat. I do believe the worm will turn with this ethanol and it is a matter of time before other countries adapt hybrids for their climates. This should increase supplies at some point but who knows when. Will it be $3 again, who knows. One thing is for sure, LP will continue to climb.

The folks who point out the opportunity cost of your land are correct if everything is about the dollar. It is fun to grow your own fuel if you can. we have done it and it's fun if you have a relationship with a farmer and he will harvest for you and knife anhydrous. I would rent out the ground and buy proper moisture corn from an elevator/supplier. If I had to do it again, I would likely go geothermal with a 25k - 30k generator for good measure.

 

[genesis5521]

I'm the OP.

Does anyone have a pellet stove AND make their own pellets from either saw dust or biomass (leaves, grass, etc). If so, please share your experiences.

Don

 

[AdamG]

My dad has heated with corn in an indoor corn furnace for 6-7 years now. Thing has more than paid for itself, though this year he is looking at about 1300(i think) for the season (roughly 5ton) - which has been the highest so far.
It is definetly a learning curve. The first few years the fire would go out 2-3 times/day (not a huge deal because his business is right next to the house) but he has since then learned that if you mix a scoop of pellets to a 5gal bucket of corn it burns alot better. his furnace holds 4bushel, and even on the coldest days he can go 24hrs between loads.
I like my owb better- but it is also more labor intensive. Still a bit of work with corn, but not like wood.
I can say if I had not found the owb, I would've went to corn/pellets.