Agricultural technology leads to more challenging corn mazes

Aug. 20—SACKETS HARBOR — Corn mazes, like those at Old McDonald's Farm , have become increasingly intricate in their designs, with advancements in agricultural technology that allow for precision corn planting.

The farm announced its 2023 maze on July 30, with an aerial photo showing three round pigs — snouted and stubby legged — along with an angry looking wolf and a brick house.

Julia Robbins, general manager of Old McDonald's Farm, said that before 2018, they were mowing their designs into the corn field. According to Robbins, this year's winding path, twisting and turning through 10 acres of corn, would be too complicated for that method.

"When we mowed it, we had a tractor with a tow-behind mower and a map on paper. That was always a much simpler design. Kind of like a main thoroughfare with some loops along the outside," she said.

Now, instead of cutting out the path as the field grows, the design is created during planting.

Emma Shirley, the agriculture education coordinator for Old McDonald's Farm, is responsible for designs. She began this year's pig-themed maze by searching Google images for inspiration.

"The field that it goes in is kind of a funny shaped thing; there's a triangle piece that sticks out, so it's always kind of hard to fit a design in there," Shirley said.

After deciding on the Three Little Pigs theme, which she chose because it would go along well with their storybook-themed hayride, Shirley worked out the shape using a sheet of paper and a pencil, with "lots of erasing."

The newer technology comes into play once Shirley finishes the design on paper. She sends it over to the Grand family in Ohio, who are tech-savvy friends of Old McDonald's Farm who help with some of their "trickier" tasks, according to Shirley.

"They use a computer program called SMS Farming Software. They have all of our field boundaries in there. What they have to do is translate the picture into the field. They have to tell the computer that not only is there a field boundary, but the design itself — all the little pieces of it — are a boundary," Shirley said.

The finished product created by the SMS program is called a prescription. It is loaded into one of the Old McDonald's Farm tractors, which are equipped with computers and GPS.

The computer reads the prescription and tells the planter what rows in the field to plant, and what rows not to plant.

The GPS onboard is important because it allows the tractor to navigate and stay on course, something it can do without the driver's help.

"We use autosteer, so the tractor drives itself. There is a driver in it, because at the end of each row, as you turn around, you do have to physically turn it around," Robbins said.

The newer method of making corn mazes not only creates designs that are more complex, but it does so in a more efficient manner, according to Shirley.

"Corn is expensive, and the last thing you want to do is plant a solid stand, pay for all that corn, and then just mow it up. I mean that's crazy. This way, we are simply not dropping the seed where we want our alleyways to go. I don't think anybody wants to go mowing down corn that they spent thousands of dollars on," she said.

With these advances in agricultural technology, mazes now are complex enough that people can get seriously lost. For this reason, Old McDonald's Farm does have some measures in place to help prevent the need for search and rescue missions.

"We do put signs up throughout, just to kind of help people. Most people appreciate it. There are some corn maze enthusiasts who really, truly want to get lost," Robbins said. However, if people follow the marked path, the maze should take them around 30 to 40 minutes to complete.

Shirley realized how difficult the mazes can be, after getting completely lost in last year's sunflower design.

"I had a dairy tour coming up, and I could not get myself out of the sunflower. I was totally stuck in there. I ended up calling the front desk, saying, 'Tell them I'm coming, I'm just lost!'" she said.

Instead of trying to follow the alleyways out, she decided her best bet would be to blaze right through the field.

"I had to just bust right on through. It's on a hill, and I knew the farm was down the hill, so I just had to keep going down and eventually I would bump into the pig race area," she said.

After she "careened" through the rows, Shirley finally made it out.

"I felt so bad. I was just five minutes late for the tour, but I came out of there sweating, covered in the corn tassels and all the pollen. I came out of there like I had been lost for weeks or something in the wild," she said.

For visitors who don't wish to take on the full-size maze, Old McDonald's Farm will also have a smaller maze for kids, located inside the same field as the big one.

Both mazes are set to open to the public on the weekend of Sept. 9.