Maize is a grass, and the Incans bred it for the seed/feed. The maize grass seed was produced on the tassle, the same way that orchard grass, or wheat, or Timothy produces a head. However, the grass seed was smaller, so the stalk had no trouble supporting the weight of the seed. Through excellent processes of nurturing and breeding, the incans were able to find those genetic mutations where the seed formed lower on the stalk, and the tassle supported the pollen. They did this by selecting only the biggest maize grass seeds to replant. By doing so, the plants had to adapt to the increasingly heavy seeds until finally the stalks became mutated and the seeds formed along the stalk, not on the tassle, or grain head. By then selecting only those seeds, they bred stronger and stronger versions of the maize which we now know as our traditional looking corn.
However, all corn, at one point in time all grew like heads of wheat on the tops of the stalks.
I'm sure it took the Incans hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of years to accomplish this. We have only known corn for the past 500 years or so. Only within the past 70 years or so were we able to increase our average bushel per acre yield from 35bu/a to 160 bu/a. At this rate, there might come a point 70-100 years from now, where we are harvesting corn cobs the size of our forearms, with a 700 bu/a average yield.
So, your corn is simply starting to revert back to it's original form through stress and probably a midlife crisis.
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Today's Featured Article - Hydraulics - Cylinder Anatomy - by Curtis von Fange. Let’s make one more addition to our series on hydraulics. I’ve noticed a few questions in the comment section that could pertain to hydraulic cylinders so I thought we could take a short look at this real workhorse of the circuit. Cylinders are the reason for the hydraulic circuit. They take the fluid power delivered from the pump and magically change it into mechanical power. There are many types of cylinders that one might run across on a farm scenario. Each one could take a chapter in
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