Donald Kuminkosky stands among his waist-high corn at his farm in Penn Township. Submitted photo

Donald Kuminkosky is feeling lucky this summer.

By following his usual routine on his Penn Township farm, the third-generation farmer managed to grow cornstalks that are tall enough to reach his waist — surpassing the long-running idiom, “knee-high by Fourth of July.”

Kuminkosky said Monday, July 3, that he didn’t do anything special to get his corn so tall so quickly, he just followed his intuition as well as his late father’s advice.

“My dad said, ‘You have to work that ground. Don't you come back until its ready to plant,’” Kuminkosky said. “You always want a nice level seed bed. If you don't, you'll have some water laying there, some laying over there.”

Kuminkosky said timing is one of the biggest factors in determining crop yield each year. Kuminkosky’s timing was not so lucky last year, or the year before, but this year, he planted his corn May 12 and 13.

While he said it was considered early by most farmers, the timing just happened to work out to get a healthy crop this year.

“You have to be concerned about frost ... You can plant corn and have it come up with frost, as long as it's not a killing frost,” Kuminkosky said.

The farm has been in the family for three generations, with Kuminkosky saying his grandfather bought it in the 1930s. Kuminkosky’s parents left the farm to him and his sister, Debbie Kuminkosky, and the two work together to keep it and its dairy cows in good shape.

The corn only is used as feed for the cows on the farm, but Kuminkosky said he still feels lucky to get such a good crop this year.

“I'm not going to preach to somebody, but it's amazing how tall that corn is,” Kuminkosky said. “Next year, might not be like this.”