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Cornfield Mazes Help Bring Fun to the Farm
Cornfield Mazes Help Bring Fun to the Farm
By
Terri McLean
MOREHEAD, Ky., (Sept. 27, 2006) – A one-acre cornfield located
north of Morehead is yielding a lot more than corn. It’s also
giving ground to good, old-fashioned fun.
 This
carefully manicured cornfield has been turned into a maze, a
bigger-than-life puzzle that people solve as they navigate their
way from beginning to end. It was one of the highlights recently
at the “Your Farm, Your Family, Your Future” field day sponsored
by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service,
Morehead State University and the Kentucky Department of
Agriculture at MSU’s farm.
“Are you ready to be a-maze-d,” joked UK Extension Agricultural
Engineer Tim Stombaugh as a group of field day participants
stopped to check out the demonstration maze.
Despite its triteness, amazing might well describe this and
other cornfield mazes that have been popping up around the
country in recent years. But it’s not only because of the fun
associated with trying to wend your way through a maze’s
oft-confusing passages. Mazes are also wowing farmers with their
potential to harvest additional dollars.
“If they are done right … there’s a lot more revenue potential
for this than the actual corn that you get off it. Way more,”
said Stombaugh, who helped design the Morehead maze using Global
Positioning System technology.
Cornfield mazes fall under the umbrella of agritourism, a term
that the U.S. Department of Agriculture uses to describe
enterprises that allow farmers to earn higher profits by
replacing or supplementing traditional farm operations with
innovative on-farm ventures. Although there’s a limited time
frame for maze operations – generally September and October –
the potential to realize additional profits from a plot of corn
is great.
“You’re adding value to that land. You’re still getting some
corn, maybe not as much value for the corn, but you have this
other value of the people that have been there and gone through
the maze,” Stombaugh said.
Cornfield mazes also have the potential to call attention to the
value of farms and the role of agriculture in American society,
which according to Brent Frazier, program coordinator
for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s division of
farmland preservation, has become increasingly important in
recent years.
 “It’s
just a way to bring people back to the farm and let them see how
things are grown and see the fun that can be had on the farm,”
said Frazier, who was on hand at field day to talk about
agritourism in Kentucky. “It’s getting back to something that a
lot of people don’t get a chance to enjoy because they are so
many generations removed from the farm. We believe it’s real
important to get those people to come back.”
Aside from the profit and public relations potential of corn
mazes, they can be relatively easy and inexpensive to create –
especially when GPS technology is used, Stombaugh said.
“Essentially, we started from a concept, which was almost a
hand-drawn sketch of the field and what we wanted the maze to
look like,” he said. “We took the sketch and put geographic
coordinates on it and put it into the computer. Then we came out
here with GPS receivers and laid out the paths along the field.”
A few computer software companies have designed GPS software
with the functionality that allows people to do such things as
design corn mazes. Stombaugh used a “high-end” version, but less
expensive ones are available, he said.
“The software is not terribly expensive, and actually the GPS
equipment – the equipment you’d want to use for this – you can
go out and rent it from companies, so you won’t need to purchase
that equipment,” he said.
Constructing a maze, once it’s designed, can also be an easy
proposition. Corn is planted with rows 30 inches apart and then
planted again, crosswise, to provide density. When the plants
reach a height of 6 to 8 inches, the passageways are cut down,
usually with a mower or weed trimmer.
Cornfield mazes, which typically range in size from four to 20
acres, may be created in a variety of shapes and designs. Some
are so intricate that they take hours to maneuver. They are most
successful when they are located near urban areas, Stombaugh
said.
“They’re becoming more popular where you have the urban and
rural interface, where the cities are growing … and people from
the towns want to get out into the country on the weekend and do
something,” he said. |
Contact: Tim Stombaugh, 859-257-3000, ext. 214
Brent Frazier, 502-564-4696 |
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The UK College
of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
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