They're Looking At Flour Corn As High Value Crop

They're Looking At Flour Corn As High Value Crop AG WORLD 26-2-24 Along with a handful of other Minnesota growers, Kathy Connell, Sebeka, Minn., has been looking into the possibilities of producing and marketing flour corn made from multi-colored "Indian" corn, the kind that's usually only used for ornamentation. Not all ornamental corn is flour corn. Some of it is flint corn. The difference between flint and flour is the type of starch stored in the kernel. The starch in flint corn is mostly a hard translucent, colored starch. In flour corn, the starch is soft and white, although the seed coat may be any color. Dent corn, the type grown by most U.S. farmers, contains both types of starch. Connell says flour corn can be easily ground into flour that is as fine as wheat flour. "It can be used in just about any way that wheat flour can be used, except that the yeast we use to make raised breads from wheat won't work in corn," she says. Connell and several other growers are working to determine whether the flour corn will make a good alternative crop. This research project has been funded through a Minnesota Department of Agriculture "Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Program" Producer Grant. Lynda Converse, Project Director, says the organization is gathering information on flour corn grown in rotation with buckwheat, edible beans and sometimes potatoes. She says they've learned that flour corn is more difficult to produce and yields less than commercial yellow dent corn. Connell points out that corn flour tastes a little different from wheat flour, but in cakes, cookies, quick breads and biscuits, it's hard to tell the difference. "It's a great flour for people with wheat allergies," she adds. Most of the growers participating in the flour corn project are doing so on a very small scale. They've found that it requires more management than commercial dent corn and the variety they're growing doesn't lend itself well to machine harvest. Connell says native Americans from across the country all had different varieties of flour corn. For example, the Mandan Sioux in North Dakota produced a variety that's available from several seed companies as Mandan Bride. The Iroquois Indians of the Northeast developed a white flour corn variety that is now known as Iroquois or Iroquois White. A group of growers has also been working in the Northeast to promote flour corn using Iroquois white. Painted Mountain, the multi-colored variety being used in the new Minnesota growers' project, was developed by a Montana rancher. It was chosen because of its short maturity date. Most flour corn varieties produce slender ears with eight or 10 rows of kernels. Ear length varies from 6 to 10 in. Cobs are usually thin and fragile. Ear placement varies from just above the first node to high on the plant, depending on the variety. Plants range from around 4 ft. in height to more than 8 ft. Most tend to produce a lot of tillers. Mandan Bride, for example, grows less than 5 ft. tall and produces so many tillers the plants look more like bushes. Connell is making selections from Painted Mountain in hopes of developing a strain with more white grain and for higher ear placement. She's calling her new variety "White Mountain". Flour corn yields appear to be quite low compared with commercial yellow dent or even sweet or popcorn. Yields range from 15 to 30 bu. per acre, depending on region and relative maturity of the variety, but there's no good yield data available. The white Iroquois corn is closer to 100 days in maturity and some have reported yields of closer to 50 bu. from improved strains. Connell believes motivated growers might be able to develop profitable local markets for corn flour, particularly if higher yielding varieties can be made available. For now, though, there appears to be more money in selling seed and ornamental corn. In season, ornamental corn can sell for $1 an ear or more. Putting ornamental ears into decorative table arrangements or door hangings increases the value. FARM SHOW tracked down a number of sour

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