Knee-High by the
Fourth of July
By Jerry Hostetler
In earlier times, farmers were happy and
their crop was on schedule if their corn was
up to their knees by Independence Day.
In today’s world, plant breeders
have improved corn genetics so it’s
almost unheard of to not have corn at
least twice that high by the first part
of July. With the drought our area
experienced this spring and summer,
“knee high by the fourth of July” might
not have been too far from the truth
for some farmers.
Dean Stutzman and Roger Yoder
Photo by Jerry Hostetler
are two Shipshewana farmers who
battled this year’s drought. Dean
and Roger agreed that they had never
experienced a drought like this before.
“This was the most stressful and most
challenging year that I’ve had since
I started farming,” said Dean. Dean
farms 120 acres of land and he planted
40 acres of corn which he uses for
silage to feed his 53 head of dairy cows.
“I planted (corn) in mid-May and I only
had a 10% stand from that planting,”
Dean explained. Fortunately, the first
planting of his corn was guaranteed by
Beck’s Hybrids. Dean had a decision to
make and it wasn’t going to be an easy
one. He started worrying about the
replant, because he knew the second
planting wouldn’t be guaranteed. Without rain he would have to buy feed and
hay to sustain his dairy herd. “I started
worrying about it quite a bit. Then
I thought of the Bible story of Peter
walking on the water to Jesus [Matthew 14: 22-33] and Peter worrying
continued on next page
pg 20 · The Hometown Treasure · October ‘12