Corn Maze Created Without GPS

Corn Maze Created Without GPS AG WORLD Strom’s Farm and Bakery in Ontario Canada has all kinds of attractions from wagon rides to pedal tractor races But for many the fall highlight is the 6-acre corn maze which includes over 5 kilometers of paths Unlike most corn mazes the Strom’s make theirs without the use of GPS “When we started in 2002 we wanted to figure out how to do it ourselves without expensive CAD and GPS software that we couldn’t justify ” says Channing Strom Strom explains: “All we needed was a spreadsheet program and a planter with consistent row spacing  We pull logos into a spreadsheet that has been narrowed to a square grid We fill in with paths that follow the grid  This gets printed off on a plotter with the grid lines numbered in the background ” Tall long-season field corn is then planted in a square grid pattern at half the normal population in each direction Once the corn reaches 6 to 8 in tall staff can count rows from the printout and mark paths using baseball diamond chalk A crew of about 10 students is then put to work hoeing out these marked paths On average it takes 6 hrs to create about 2 1/2 miles of paths within the 6-acre maze And as corn is in the grass family each stalk will continue to grow and requires several rounds of mowing to die back completely Overall this low-tech solution has proven successful “We get to within 15 in accuracy in the middle of the field ” says Strom “pretty good for the simplicity of it ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Strom’s Farm & Bakery 5089 Wellington RD 32 Guelph Ontario Canada ph 519 822-1070; info@strom ca; www strom ca

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