Corn field day Wednesday

For several years, Jerry “Doc” Strissel and his team have developed white and yellow corn for the industry with proprietary genetics. They have 24 acres but it’s all hand-harvested.

JFS and Associates are hosting field day Wednesday. It will include a drone demonstration and hands-on training, white and yellow corn demos and people can learn about the potential expansion of local grower network for IP grain.

The event will be held at 800 Industrial Ave. from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch will be served from noon until 2 p.m.

“Every year, people have a stigma against white corn. White corn is used in the food industry,” Strissel said. “They usually pay a premium to get people to grow it. Most people shy away from it and don’t understand it.”

Strissel said they’ve been working with the white corn for years.

“Now we have one that has added value that people can take advantage with in all phases,” he said. “We started with the tortilla business and made an impact there. Then we extracted the protein from the grain from the white corn and went out to Idaho and did a trout feeding study.”

Strissel said they found they could completely replace the fishmeal.

“We did studies with animals. Now we are doing work with ethanol and are looking for benefits there, as well,” he said. “We’re involved with the capturing of carbon.”

Strissel operates out of three fields and hire a lot of high school kids for the summer for the corn breeding purposes.

“We have people from South Korea, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and we’ve had them all here at one time,” he said. “It’s quite an operation.”

Strissel said his new product has such potential for local growers and is sound.

Attendees will include a network of corn growers who grew the white corn; local growers, some from Canada, seed production people, and more.