Walking in the Furrow
The week leading up to the Indiana Corn Husking contest is quite an undertaking, but it wouldn't be possible without the help of family, friends, board members and volunteers. Each year, we try to make improvements and add a little more as we are inching closer to our turn of hosting not only a state contest but a national cornhusking contest, too. It was in 2008 when I attended my first corn husking competition in Wabash. I had always seen the news releases about the corn husking competition in The Farmer's Exchange but had never acted on it. It was actually the Williams family from Middlebury that sparked my interest in driving 75 miles to meet them and husk corn for 20 minutes.
Husking corn by hand was nothing new to me; Dad and Grandpa had always husked the two outside rows around each corn field, plus the corners, so we could use the New Idea pull-type ear picker without driving over unharvested rows of corn. After experiencing my first corn husking contest and picking up some pointers while watching others, I had a better understanding of the rules and how everything worked. Sometimes the deductions from remaining husks left on the ears or gleanings left in the field can weigh up with harsh repercussions after all the deductions are subtracted from the gross weight.
Have you ever wondered what the difference was between a corn husker and a corn shucker? According to wikipedia.com, a corn husker is a person or a machine that removes the husk from a corn cob, and a corn shucker is someone who shucks or removes something. Well, if you search the word "corn husker" on the internet, it will most likely refer you to the Nebraska Cornhuskers!
The summer and fall of 2012 was extremely dry and the contest location had experienced a drought near the Fort Wayne area. I remember inquiring with a board member to see where the contest would be held that year but was told, due to the drought, the corn crop would not be worthy of harvesting and the contest would most likely be canceled that year. Luckily, Dad and I had already opened up one of our fields and, with the help of the LaVille FFA members, we husked three rows out and divided each land into an equal number of rows. The Indiana corn husking board members were impressed with our proposed layout and were excited to announce us as their backup corn husking site.
After getting our feet wet hosting our first contest 14 years ago, I never would have imagined that we would be the host site for future contests to come. Every year, we have drawn spectators and huskers from all across Indiana and parts of mid to lower Michigan. It has taken a lot of dedication and hard work from board members and media sources to promote our organization, which has steadily increased the membership drastically after moving it from northeastern Indiana to north-central Indiana. In 2012, we only had 20 husking members shucking corn; the following year, we increased another 12 members and today we are well over 100 members.