Iowa Corn

October 5, 2010

Well, what's more Iowa than corn? Well, actually, a lot, but I thought I'd toss in some cornfield photos to round out our Iowa stay. We love how they just farm the contours. This field got harvested while we were here.

Most of the corn is grown for feed, seed, and ethanol, especially what's still in the fields this time of year. And soybeans! There are almost as many fields of soybeans as corn.  Again, grown for ethanol.

Knee-high by the 4th of July doesn't cut it in Iowa...they expect it chest-high! Even though we missed the green sweet corn, the fields of ripened corn is still attractive.

We drove up north to see more countryside and ended up in Dubuque, then crossed the Mississippi into Wisconsin (probably the only state we won't do a geocache) and noticed on the map there was a nearby town called Centralia. However, when we got there, there was nothing there except a tavern/restaurant. No gas station, store, post office, etc., just a couple of signs and a bunch of really beautiful houses. This is about 7 miles or so west of Dubuque and it looks as if it's just a bedroom community.  There are a couple of large fields of corn, but most of the area looks as if it's "gentlemen" farms.

One of the things we think is interesting is that we've only seen one pig farm and up here in the north, there are lots of dairy farms, but we've seen no cows!  Maybe they're all over in Wisconsin for the day.