Estimating the amount of eardrop in a cornfield is useful in determining a grazing strategy. An 8" ear of corn contains about .50 pounds of corn grain. Thus, by counting the number of ears of corn in a furrow, bushels of eardrop per acre can be estimated. If corn is planted in 30" rows, count the number of ears in three different 100' long furrows, add the three counts together and divide by two. This will give an approximate number of bushels per acre. Small and broken ears should be counted as half ears, while very large ears of corn should be counted as 1 1/2 ears.

If corn is planted in rows that are different from 30" rows, then the bushels of corn per acre can be determined by counting the ears in a specific area. Make three different ear counts in three defined areas and determine what part of an acre the counts were made in. Because there is .50 pounds of corn per 8" ear, then it would take 112 (56 pounds per bushel/ .5 pounds of corn per 8" ear = 112) 8" ears per bushel. Add the number of ears counted in the three different counts and multiply this number by the proportion of an acre that the counts were made in, then divide by 112 to get an estimate of bushels per acre. For example, in three separate counts in 30" rows and 100' long there are three, five and four 8" ears of corn. Because the three 30" by 100' long furrows are about 1/58.08th of an acre, take 12 (3+5+4=12) ears of corn times 58.08 and divde by 112 (112 = the number of 8" ears of corn to make a bushel of shell corn), which equals 6.22 bushels of corn per acre. Any amount between 7 to 8 bushels per acre will necessitate a well-planned grazing strategy. It may mean that the stalk field needs to be cross-fenced to limit the amount of grain that the cattle have available to them. Stocking rate could be increased so that each animal has less corn available to them.