Farmer restores corn crib, provides corn shelling experience for kids

SOMONAUK, Ill. — Corn shelling is once again a job on Nathan Gudmunson’s farm operation.

“The last time we filled the crib was about 1991 and I was 11 years old,” said Gudmunson, who is married to Kim and they are the parents of McKenna, Drew, Benson and Cole.

“I was very much a farm boy. I loved everything about the farm,” said Gudmunson, who is the third generation to live on the farm in DeKalb County in north-central Illinois. “I would rather do corn shelling than go to any baseball game — I loved it.”

The corn crib had deteriorated over the years and it was to the point where Gudmunson had to make some decisions.

“We had painted it and we were using the center bins, but we didn’t put corn in the sides,” he explained.

“I thought about putting steel on the sides, but I kept procrastinating and finally I figured out why I didn’t want to do anything,” he said. “I knew once that was done, it would never hold corn again.”

However, Gudmunson wanted his kids to experience shelling corn.

“I remember standing next to my grandpa and unloading wagons,” he said. “I wanted my kids to be able to do the same thing.”

Gudmunson purchased cedar boards from Sublette Farmers Elevator Co. to rebuild the corn crib.

“Figuring out what kind of wood to use was hard,” he said. “We knew pine would not last as long, so I bought 1-by-6 cedar boards and we had to run them through the table saw twice to bevel each side.”

Jerry Cleveland, a carpenter from Leland, assisted with the restoring the crib.

“I really needed his expertise on how to do it the right way,” Gudmunson said.

He also received some advice from Randy Rosengren, from Ottawa, who owns the corn sheller.

“I had to replace the floor anyways, so Randy said if I was going to do all this work, I might as well put a Whitmore in,” Gudmunson said. “So, we raised the floor 6 inches and put the trough in it.”

Once the farmer completed the crib work and filled it with corn, he planned to shell it out sometime in June.

“Last night we hosted a party for real estate agents and I thought it would be cool for Randy to come and do a demonstration,” said Gudmunson, who along with his farming operation also is a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group.

“They loved it and Randy did such a great job of explaining what a crib is,” he said. “To them, everything is just a barn, but every barn has a purpose and you don’t see cribs much anymore.”

Gudmunson wanted to provide real farming experiences for the agents, including the opportunity to interact with livestock.

“I wanted the sow to have a litter of pigs for them to see and she had the pigs during the party,” he said. “It was pretty fun that they all got to see that and they also got to see our cows and calves.”

Gudmunson has a cow-calf herd with 17 head of cows.

“I raise my own calves and market all of them locally as freezer beef by selling quarter, half or whole beef,” he said.

Rosengren started shelling corn in 1982 with a 1964 Cook Special Sheller that is mounted on a 1964 I.H. 1700 Loadstar.

This was the first new Cook Sheller with all-hydraulic drive and the first new Cook Sheller mounted on a new chassis.

During the ‘80s, Rosengren shelled over 900,000 bushels of corn during a couple of those years.

“This is the first crib I have shelled this year,” he said. “And I have one to do on Monday. Those are the only ones I have scheduled to do.”

“I am very happy to see it all work — hear the sound when the truck starts up, the sound of the corn, the smells, the dust and everything else that goes with shelling corn,” Gudmunson said. “And the neighbors stopping by, it has been fun to watch them, too.”

This year, the farmer has planted 117-day corn that will be stored in the crib after harvest.

“I planted later-maturing corn so Mother Nature can do some of the drying for free,” he said.