Drought threatened State Fair's corn supply - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

What would the State Fair be without fresh roasted corn on the cob? The drought has threatened a lot of crops, including sweet corn.

It's been a struggle for farmers this year, especially, but last year as well. For nearly two decades, Ousley Farms in Elwood supplied these booths with their State Fair sweet corn.

Then came the drought.

When supply dried up, the fair's corn distributor McFarling Foods found a new supplier who used a little strategy and a lot of luck to meet the demand for this fair favorite.

"You're really at Mother Nature's mercy," said Scott Wilson of Wilson Farms.

Wilson would know. He's the "Corn Man" (he even has the license plate to prove it). The crop in Sheridan is his bread and butter.

"Believe it or not, we're surviving, even though our irrigation comes from the sky. We're getting about 50 percent yield," said Wilson.

That's the good news. Some of his crop was so bad he just mowed it down.

"I lost three or four acres complete and total loss and the other 10 at the beginning were 25, 30 percent yield if I was lucky," Wilson said.

And then, a turnaround. Storms tracked over Wilson's northern Hamilton County farm at just the right time.

"We've been in enough rain that it's been muddy. Without that, with no irrigation, we would be in that boat where there would be no harvest," said Wilson.

That was luck, but Wilson also used a new strategy to try to outsmart the drought.

"I planted a little deeper and staggered my planting dates a little differently than I would in a normal year," he said.

There's not as much, it's not as tall, but WIlson says the corn that made it is "almost a perfect ear. These are flags, has pretty flags, pretty silk, pretty shank."

The corn gets picked in the field, comes to the 39 degree cooler, then it's loaded up on a trailer straight to the State Fair the same day it's picked.

At Opening Day of the fair comes the biggest test: the taste.

"Very good, real sweet. Real, real sweet," one fairgoer said.

"It's buttery and fresh and warm. It's delicious," said Devon Dempster.

Wilson couldn't be happier.

"You feel great about it when people say this is the best ear of corn I've ever had and you hear it all the time and it's because it's fresh every day, it couldn't be any sweeter," he said.

State Fair corn is big business.

Wilson estimates he'll supply more than 70,000 ears of corn for this year's fair. He's sorting the corn carefully to make sure everyone that comes gets a perfect ear so they'll come back for more.

Wilson Farms