Corn Cam

Will the corn be knee high by the fourth of July?

Find out for yourself at CornCam. Iowa Farmer Today (a trade newspaper) has trained a web cam on the corn fields of Iowa farmers Jim and Sharon Greif.

"As far as we know, we are the first company to photograph the growth cycle of corn on the Internet," says Steve DeWitt, Iowa Farmer Today publisher.

Frequency of the photos varies upon work being done in the field. Corn was planted in late April. Not sure what you're seeing? Head to How a Corn Plant Develops for step-by-step illustrations of the corn life cycle.

Know Your Corn

Did you know that corn not only nourishes, but cleans the air and provides a habitat for wildlife?

The corn you eat on the cob or pop in the microwave is very different from the corn most people see growing along the interstate. Dent corn makes up the bulk of U.S. corn production. The National Corn Growers Association provides the following breakdown of corn types:

Dent Corn - Dent corn contains 72 percent starch and can be used to make everything from livestock feed and fuel ethanol to corn syrup and sweeteners. It's harvested when kernels are dry and hard.

Sweet Corn - corn on the cob and canned corn that you buy in the grocery store are sweet corn. It contains more sugar than other corn and is harvested when the plant is still immature and the kernels still soft.

Popcorn - a special kind of corn that "pops" when heated because a hard outer layer allows enough pressure to build when the moisture inside the kernel turns to steam.

Specific-Trait Corn - includes blue, white, high-oil, nutritionally dense, high-amylose and other corns used in the production of food products such as corn bread and tortillas. These corn hybrids are grown for their specific milling characteristics.