Steed’s Dairy Farm and The Corn Maize, Grovetown, Georgia

“A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine.”

Ann Bronte

Saturday was a beautiful day in Columbia County, Georgia. It is finally fall but the leaves are barely starting to change which is odd being it's the beginning of November. Joe and I were busy working around the house and Jeannine called to see if I wanted to go the Steed’s Dairy Farm with the children. I’ve been wanting to go but hadn’t had the chance till now so I was excited about getting to go and see what this place is all about. Joe stayed and completed his chore list.

After a short ride, we were driving in the gate to Steed’s. This is located right near the I-20 and Belair Road exit and is a very busy intersection with restaurants and hotels. Driving just a short way down Wrightsboro Road, there is a very beautiful farm out in the county just over a mile from a busy part of town. The parking lot was full and while we were getting out of the car you could already hear kids playing and squealing with delight. I knew this would be fun for the children. We paid and went in where the fun was about to begin.

The first thing I noticed was the huge slide. The kids saw it and were already running towards it. They walked up the steps and came flying down with huge smiles on their faces. They kept circling around and climbing back up including her two year of boy. They loved this.

Then they saw the jumping pillow and ran to it. That was amazing. I had never seen anything like it. It looked like a huge pillow in the ground. They took off their shoes while running towards it and ran across it and jumped up and down as high as they could. I notice one boy was doing flips on it. They sat on it and while others jumped the were lifted in the air. Some appeared to fly when they jumped so high. How fun.

A huge pile of sand that had shovels and trucks to play with was near the slide. That could keep a child playing for hours and then we saw it had a large pipe going through the bottom of the sand pile for the kids to climb through. The kids loved running to the top of the sand barefoot and then climbing through the tube. What a great idea for kids.

Near the sand pile was a rubber tube to sit on that had chains attached to either end and you could sit on it and it rocked back and forth. That was fun to watch as some kids tried to knock others off by swinging it back and forth harder. I saw as many as six kids at a time on that with a parent pushing them.

They also had a wooden train and castle for the kids to climb in to explore. They also had a corn shooter that you can try to shoot corn into the fields. Another fun thing was a corn kernel pit for the kids to get in and dig and push toys around. I had never seen that before.

The kids were fascinated by the petting zoo. This was in a barn that was built recently to look like the Steed’s original barn. They had a baby goat with its momma, a baby cow, a momma cow, a huge pig, sheep, chickens, horse, and mule. The babies were the biggest hit getting all the Oohs and Ahs. The pic got a lot of attention as well. The pig seemed to be listening and responding to what we said. They had a sign up saying that pigs are smarter than dogs and after watching this pig respond to us, I believe that must be true. "That's some pig."  as quoted by E. B. White from the great book, Charlotte's Web. They also had a demonstration to show how cows are milked.

Riding on the back of the wagon for the hayride was a highlight as it took us into the pasture where you could see the size of this farm. What a beautiful pasture with hay that had recently been collected and rolled up and left in the field to dry. Besides that, there was a pumpkin patch, rubber ducky race where you pump water from old fashioned well pumps, fire pits for roasting S mores, zip line for little kids, face painting, and a ride on the pony cart. It was a fun day on the farm. What a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky and feeling the fall chill in the air. It is fall now and the cooler weather feels great.

The corn maize is on five acres and is a fun thing to do with kids. Children with their parents were running all through the maize enjoying the high corn stalks that they could not see over. How nice is it that there is a corn maize right in Columbia County.

Here is a brief history of the Steed’s. John Steed Sr. was a farmer in Lincoln County who had sharecroppers and planted cotton. He thought cotton prices would go up so he bought all the sharecroppers cotton but the price of cotton went down when the Depression hit in 1929. The cotton price went from 18 cents to 6 cents a pound. He sold everything and moved to Columbia County just off Wrightsboro Road in 1934. After he moved to Columbia County, he kept buying more and more land.

His son, John Steed Jr worked for Bryson’s Dairy downtown delivering milk. In 1946 when he was 16 years old, he convinced his dad to buy two Jersey cows to milk, and then in 1953 at age 23 he went to Griffin, Georgia to buy Cora and Alice, who were two Holstein cows. He paid $600 for each and when he brought them back, everyone thought he was just crazy since most cows were only going for $80 to $100 per cow. That was until the black and whites gave more milk than a whole herd of cattle. Then the Holsteins became the cow of choice in Columbia County.

By the 1960’s, milk was not bringing in enough money so they had to figure another way to keep this land. In 2009, John Steed Jr died after farming this land for 64 years. His son Jim took over and after hearing about corn maizes, decided that is what he wanted to try. Five years later, his dream became his reality and opened the maize in the fall of 2010.

This is a great way to spend a day with your kids. It is secure so you can let your kids run and enjoy themselves. One of Jeannine’s children kept saying this was the best day of her life. Steed’s is open every weekend in the fall I believe till the weekend before Thanksgiving. Look them up as they have special events throughout the year.