SENNETT - Sunday's corn festival was a way to show people life on the farm before diesel tractors became a staple, and it was also a place to exchange stories.
Jessica Soule / The Citizen
Dave Minturn feeds bundled corn stalks in the corn chopper as a demonstration of the old way to make cattle feed during the New York State Draft Horse Club Annual Corn Harvest Sunday. The festival has taken place in recent years at the Sennett farm of Dave's parents, Charles and Karen Minturn.
Dave Minturn feeds bundled corn stalks in the corn chopper as a demonstration of the old way to make cattle feed during the New York State Draft Horse Club Annual Corn Harvest Sunday. The festival has taken place in recent years at the Sennett farm of Dave's parents, Charles and Karen Minturn.
Charles and Karen Minturn hosted the New York State Draft Horse Club Annual Corn Harvest on their Tru Water Farm on Freeman Road in Sennett.
Charles said using antique techniques, such as using a binder to cut and group six to 10 stalks of corn, would require many laborers working together for hours to complete difficult tasks.
His mother, a city girl, would ask what she should cook for the men working with her husband thrashing corn.
“He said, ‘When the men are out of the house, just make sure there's food left on the table,'” Charles said, commenting on the men's appetites.
Now, his neighbor can clear the rest of his corn field in an hour, he added.
On Sunday, people got a taste of how much work farmers had to do.
Workers pulled a binder beside a horse-drawn wagon in the field of the Minturns' Auburn farm. Then, a group of volunteers grabbed the grouped corn stalks and threw them on another wagon that was trailing the first. From there, the corn was taken back to a corn chopper, which acts like an early era wood chipper. The Minturns' son, Dave, and various helpers fed the bundles through the machine, and it chopped up the corn and spit it out in little bits.
The family will use the product to feed its beef cattle, Dave Minturn said.
The organization's corn harvest event has been around for more than 20 year, but the Minturns have hosted it for the past three years. They took it over from a gentleman who no longer had use for the feed created during the festival.
The New York State Draft Horse Club celebrates hard work in both people and draft horses, which are strong, sturdy animals used for work.
But the group also just gets together to have fun, Dave Branagan said. The Locke resident put a yearling up for raffle for the club's annual draft horse sale Friday, Oct. 5, in Cortland.
Whip and Linda Hammond watched the men throw corn into the chopper and reminisced when they used to do that while working at Linda's father's property, Forchee Farm, during the 1950s. While technology had updated by that time to make the job less labor intensive, many farms were still too small to invest in the equipment, Whip Hammond said.
The event is to show the history of how it used to be done, club treasurer Denise Goedel said.
“There's not many (binders) left, they've all gone to the scrap yard,” Bob Bennett said. He came out with his sons Jacob, 9, and Christopher, 4.
As technology allowed farmers to rely on fewer people, the way people worked changed too. Many young people don't realize the value of working hard and helping each other out, Bennett said.
“You won't see any young bucks up there,” Whip Hammond said, pointing out the men throwing corn into the chopper. “In my day, you work or you went hungry.”
Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311, ext. 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net
Charles said using antique techniques, such as using a binder to cut and group six to 10 stalks of corn, would require many laborers working together for hours to complete difficult tasks.
His mother, a city girl, would ask what she should cook for the men working with her husband thrashing corn.
“He said, ‘When the men are out of the house, just make sure there's food left on the table,'” Charles said, commenting on the men's appetites.
Now, his neighbor can clear the rest of his corn field in an hour, he added.
On Sunday, people got a taste of how much work farmers had to do.
Workers pulled a binder beside a horse-drawn wagon in the field of the Minturns' Auburn farm. Then, a group of volunteers grabbed the grouped corn stalks and threw them on another wagon that was trailing the first. From there, the corn was taken back to a corn chopper, which acts like an early era wood chipper. The Minturns' son, Dave, and various helpers fed the bundles through the machine, and it chopped up the corn and spit it out in little bits.
The family will use the product to feed its beef cattle, Dave Minturn said.
The organization's corn harvest event has been around for more than 20 year, but the Minturns have hosted it for the past three years. They took it over from a gentleman who no longer had use for the feed created during the festival.
The New York State Draft Horse Club celebrates hard work in both people and draft horses, which are strong, sturdy animals used for work.
But the group also just gets together to have fun, Dave Branagan said. The Locke resident put a yearling up for raffle for the club's annual draft horse sale Friday, Oct. 5, in Cortland.
Whip and Linda Hammond watched the men throw corn into the chopper and reminisced when they used to do that while working at Linda's father's property, Forchee Farm, during the 1950s. While technology had updated by that time to make the job less labor intensive, many farms were still too small to invest in the equipment, Whip Hammond said.
The event is to show the history of how it used to be done, club treasurer Denise Goedel said.
“There's not many (binders) left, they've all gone to the scrap yard,” Bob Bennett said. He came out with his sons Jacob, 9, and Christopher, 4.
As technology allowed farmers to rely on fewer people, the way people worked changed too. Many young people don't realize the value of working hard and helping each other out, Bennett said.
“You won't see any young bucks up there,” Whip Hammond said, pointing out the men throwing corn into the chopper. “In my day, you work or you went hungry.”
Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311, ext. 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net
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