Science of Weather: Greenfield Village, weather impacting the farm
Firestone Farm is a working farm located at Greenfield Village and the farmers are dedicated to maintaining the fields.
John Forintos, Manager of Historic agriculture at Greenfield Village says, "One acre of corn produces up to 4000 gallons of moisture a day, which in a week is enough to fill one residential swimming pool. So if you can imagine how humid it is with that type of moisture, you're not going to want to work out in the middle of a cornfield. So you're going to try to get as much done earlier in the season with your horses, cultivating and keep those weeds down."
The weather is a crucial element when it comes to harvesting the crops. Even though the weather pattern this year may not have been the best for the growing season, with it being so dry, the farmers will still utilize the crops.
John Forintos, Manager of Historic agriculture at Greenfield Village says, "So we may not get actual corn harvest out of it, but we can still utilize the corn plant itself as fodder corn. So we'll cut it down and we'll chop it up and feed it out to our cows so nothing goes to waste here on the farm."
Usually, in mid-September, the farmers will start to harvest the corn fields.
John Forintos replies, "This year, probably being fodder corn. We'll take it upstairs and we'll chop it up in a bite size pieces and feed it out to our cows. Otherwise, we take the ears off and then we'll store that inside the barn, and then we'll take the corn and feed it out to our pigs."
Depending on the time of year, specific crops will get harvested at different times.
John Forintos, Manager of Historic agriculture at Greenfield Village adds, "When it comes to harvesting, like your wheat, your oats, things like that, you want it to be really dry. Otherwise, you can ruin your crop with a lot of moisture."
Now that's the Science of Weather. In Dearborn, I'm Meteorologist Kylee Miller.