During the hot South Carolina summer (and in all the other 49 states for that matter), you’ll see rows of green stalks stretching for miles. They’ll reach their peak in late summer and just before cooler weather sets in, they dry and turn brown, ready for harvest.

This corn isn’t the sweet, juicy corn slathered in butter for your holiday cookout, it is field corn that fed the cow who turned it into delicious and nutritious beef for your burger or may have even been turned into fuel for your vehicle.

Down along the U.S. Highway 176 and SC Highway 210 intersection, you’ll find yourself in Providence, an apt name for this farming region where the Hutto Brothers Partnership — Dean Hutto, wife Sarah, brother Richard, father Barry and cousin Hank Hutto — grow field corn, their largest crop.

“I am a seventh-generation farmer,” said Dean Hutto, who confirmed an ancestor came over from Europe in 1735. “We have been recognized as a National Bicentennial Farm.” American farms in the same family since the signing of the Constitution are designated National Bicentennial Farms.

“Rain makes corn” goes the saying, but rain can be scarce. Farming in partnership with Mother Nature is always challenging, so farmers adapt.

“Over the years, we have added irrigation, which has helped to somewhat mitigate the risk,” Hutto said. “On an average year, we plant between 1,200 to 1,500 acres with at least half being irrigated.”

When growing corn, heat and rain represent the biggest issues. “Obviously, it has to rain to grow anything,” said Hutto, “but it can get hot while corn’s pollinating and it won’t make a full ear. Last year, we had super mild temperatures and had a great crop.”

For Hutto, a typical day involves doing anything from planting, working on an electrical issue or answering one of the hundred phone calls he gets a day. “You just roll with the punches as they come and celebrate the victories when they happen to arrive.”

Hutto said all his corn goes to either poultry or swine feed. “I sell it to the mill and it’s ground for feed of some sort, mostly for poultry.” Nearly half of all corn grown in the U.S. goes into livestock feed.

Farming is far more than work. “Corn has been a way of life around my farm for a long time,” Hutto noted. “My family was in the dairy business for years and they cut corn for silage to feed the cows, so it has sustained us in many ways. It’s my favorite crop to grow because it gets a new year of planting started.”

Corn 365 days a year

Now back to that holiday corn ...

The year was 1948 — that’s when the Rawl family began growing a variety of produce on Calks Ferry Road in Lexington County. In 1982, Clayton Rawl Farms was formed. As their business grew, the Rawls maintained a strong presence at the South Carolina State Farmers Market while adding customers that included grocery stores and other distributors along the East Coast.

Today, Clayton Rawl Farms employs 175 people, operates its own trucking line and farms more than 2,200 acres. Sweet corn is a cornerstone of their crop lineup.

“The success to growing corn,” said Chris Rawl, “is consistently producing top-quality corn with bumper yields. That consistency extends to your customers, and their support creates a customer base that is necessary for marketing. Also, being consistent can be having a year-round supply so your customers don’t have to look elsewhere for it.

“Our season runs from June 1 to July 31 and then we come back from September 20 to November 15,” he explained. “About eight years ago, we purchased a place in South Florida to grow corn for the winter. That filled the gap for having corn from November through May. The short time we don’t have corn in August and September, we source it from Ohio and New York. We have corn to sell our customers 365 days a year.”

Rawl Farms typically plants around 200 to 250 acres of sweet corn for the spring and summer season and 100 to 125 acres in the fall season.

“For the Florida fall/winter/spring season, we plant around 500 acres. That season lasts for seven months so that’s why the acreage is more. Warm weather and holidays like Memorial Day and July 4th, along with backyard barbecues, increase demand manyfold. Maybe one-half of our sales of sweet corn occur these three months.”

Rawl said every acre of sweet corn is planted with GPS. “We soil-test every acre and apply the necessary amendments of lime and fertilizer to maximize our yields,” he added. “Those acres are under irrigation and only the appropriate amounts of water are applied in the most efficient manner to save water and energy.”

Plantings start in late February and continue through May. “The acreage is staggered with small plantings during this time,” Rawl said. “As soon as we see the last planting coming out of the ground, we plant again. This allows us to have a continuous harvest for June and July.”

Unlike its cousin, sweet corn doesn’t dry on the stalk before harvest. It’s picked at just the right time to ensure a tender, tasty kernel. And while you’ll find variation in the color (white, yellow or bicolor), Rawl says color doesn’t impact the flavor.

“Different regions of the country demand a certain color because they grew up eating it. It’s what everyone in that area wants. They think that color is the best, but the variety is what really makes corn taste good, whether it’s white, yellow or bicolor.” As far as color goes, Rawl tells people to put a blindfold on and they won’t be able to tell the difference.

No matter what color you prefer, remember all the advances in technology and production methods that help bring you corn 365 days a year.

An eye on change

Farmers are constantly working to improve their yields through new production practices and crop varieties. Thanks to the collective power farmers have in checkoffs, they are able to fund research for a specific crop.

Woody Green farms in Sumter County. In South Carolina, he’s only the sixth generation since the late 1790s to farm his land. He’s long kept an eye on change.

“While our farm has been growing corn for generations, it took on new importance as the federal tobacco program began to wane 30 years ago,” he said. “Corn leads our operation today in acreage and crop value, and productivity has increased substantially over that period.”

Change led Green to advocate for a corn checkoff. “Traditionally, we’ve asked ourselves if we really needed a checkoff, with South Carolina being a corn-deficit state. As we see weekly, times are changing, and growing corn is becoming ever-more expensive and marketing corn more challenging. And, despite the substantial irrigation and technology investment made by farmers over the last two decades, our state yield lags behind our neighbors.”

Change is a constant in just about everything, and the marketplace is no exception. Said Green: “Emerging economic trends in our local markets could threaten the favorable basis that has made growing corn in South Carolina work. With practically all checkoff dollars staying in-state, this investment is our opportunity to optimize production methods, protect current markets and encourage new ones.”

Corn checkoff funds will be devoted to agronomic research, market development, promotion and education. Increasing South Carolina’s corn yield is important. At 121.8 per acre yield, South Carolina has the lowest average corn yield per acre in the Southeast over the last 10 years.

Green stressed the importance of the animal agriculture sector to the state’s growers of field corn.

“The animal agriculture sector in South Carolina is our market for our product. Its importance cannot be overstated. It benefits all of us in South Carolina agriculture to support, promote and expand animal ag.”

It’s Green’s hope that strategically focused investments by the elected corn board and its checkoff “will benefit corn growers with productivity improvements, cost containment, stronger markets, new markets and increased interest in South Carolina-grown corn.”

The corn checkoff

As of July 1, Marketing Order #14 puts the corn checkoff into effect.

Mary Catherine Cromley, executive director of the South Carolina Soybean Board, South Carolina Corn and Soybean Association, said, “The corn marketing order sets up a ‘commodity checkoff program’ for South Carolina corn farmers. Checkoff programs promote and provide research and information for a particular agricultural commodity, without reference to specific producers or brands.”

Farmers at corn’s point of sale fund these programs. “Cotton farmers pay $1 per bale into the South Carolina cotton checkoff; corn farmers will pay one-half of one-percent per bushel of corn,” Cromley said.

Checkoff programs are nothing new. South Carolina farmers currently pay into checkoff programs for several other commodities on the state level, including soybeans, cotton, peanuts, tobacco, watermelon, beef and pork, as well as many national programs overseen by USDA.

These programs have a proven track record of bringing value back to the farm by leading innovation for new uses of the crop, agronomic research and foreign market development.

“Two of the most recognizable campaigns are the ‘Got Milk?’ and ‘Beef-It’s what’s for dinner,’” Cromley said. “The newly established South Carolina Corn Board will be 100% farmer-led. Peers will elect seven corn farmers from four districts across the state to serve on this board to direct the investment of farmer dollars into programs that further the corn industry in South Carolina, whether it be through agronomic research, marketing or other programs the board may see fit.” The checkoff will be subject to farmer review and referendum a minimum of every five years.

Corn is an amazing crop long revered. Teosinte comes from the Nahuatl or Aztec word tosintli, or “sacred corn.” From tiny teosinte grew the mother of corn. Today, stands so green and tall feed man and animal alike. Something to be thankful for, not only across South Carolina, but across the world.