Field corn

"Field corn" is a general term used in North America for corn varieties other than sweet corn, popcorn, yellow food grade corn used for yellow corn meal or flour and corn starch, and white food-grade corn used for white meal or flour and corn starch. Field corn is primarily grown for livestock feed and ethanol production when allowed to mature fully before being shelled off the cob before being stored in silos, pits, bins or grain "flats". Field corn can also be harvested as high-moisture corn, shelled off the cob and piled and packed like sileage for fermentation; or the entire plant may be chopped while still very high in moisture with the resulting silage either loaded and packed in plastic bags, piled and packed in pits, or blown into and stored in vertical silos.

Although not grown primarily for human consumption, people do pick ears of field corn when its sugar content has peaked and cook it on the cob or eat it raw. Ears of field corn picked and consumed in this manner are commonly called "roasting ears" due to the most commonly used method of cooking them.

Principal field corn varieties are:^[1]

• Dent corn
• Flint corn
• Flour corn, including blue corn (Zea mays amylacea)^[2]
• Waxy corn

Uses

Large-scale applications for field corn include:^[1]

• Livestock fodder, whether as whole cobs (for hogs only), whole or ground kernels, or (after chopping and ensilage) the entire above-ground portion of the unripe plant
• Cereal products including corn flour, corn meal, hominy, grits, nixtamal, tortillas, corn bread, and cold breakfast cereals (such as corn flakes).
• Other processed human-food products including corn starch, corn oil, corn syrup, and high-fructose corn syrup.
• Alcohol and corn whiskey

Field corn is not generally regarded, in industrialized societies, as desirable for human food without commercial pre-processing. An exception is "roasting ears", similar in appearance to corn on the cob, although it is necessarily roasted (rather than boiled or steamed as is usual with sweet corn), and is neither tender nor sweet even after the roasting. Field corn is commonly eaten in third world countries, e.g. a variety of Field corn, known as Cuzco corn, is commonly eaten in the Andes region of South America.

References

Maize (corn)
Varieties	Baby Blue Dent Field Flint Flour MON 810 MON 863 Quality Protein Maize Shoepeg Sweet Transgenic maize Waxy Bolivia varieties Ecuador varieties Italian varieties Sweetcorn varieties
Parts	Cob Kernel Stover
Processing	Amylomaize Corn construction Maize milling Nixtamalization Wet-milling
Pathology	BBCH-scale Corn allergy Maize streak virus
Corn-based products	Raw materials Cornmeal Masa Mielie-meal Oil Samp Starch Steep liquor Syrup Beverages Atole Bourbon Champurrado Chicha Colada morada Pinolillo Pozol Tejate Tejuino Tesgüino Dishes Arepa Bread Conkies Cookie Corn flakes Corn on the cob Cou-cou Fufu Grits Hallaca Hominy Humita Johnnycake List of maize dishes Mazamorra Mămăligă Milho Frito Mush Nachos Nshima Pamonha Pap Pashofa Piki Polenta Popcorn Pudding corn Pupusa Sadza Sagamite Taco Tamale Tortilla Ugali Corn syrup Glucose syrup High fructose corn syrup Public relations High maltose corn syrup Non-food Biofuel Cornstalk fiddle Misc. List of popcorn brands