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swindave |
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southwest in | whats the story on mounted ear corn pickers? ive been looking thru some old farm magazines and seen a few ads about them< where they easy or hard to put on? what size tractor could you use? what were the advantages over a pull type? and what was the more popular brands? thanks | ||
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| Red/Green |
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Elizabethtown,KY | Back when I was a kid in the 50's we had a 60 John Deere with a 227 mounted picker, putting it on was about a day's job as you had to widen the rear wheels all the way out and then mount the under carriage that the picker attached to to the tractor frame. We would also change the engine oil before doing that. Then you drove the tractor up into the picker and mounted it, then had to mount the elevator to the back. The Deere 227 and later 237 along with the IH 2MH and later 234 were probably the most popular mounted pickers and the New Idea would probably have been 3rd on the list. The best thing about mounted pickers was being able to open fields without knocking down corn, the worst thing was damage from fire and the tractor running hot from fodder getting over radiator screens, etc. | ||
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| Ken |
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central Ia | I never got to run either a pull or mounted picker but popular ones were New Idea John Deere IH Allis had a low mount picker it was different than the rest | ||
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| bshannon |
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. | In this area New Idea, IH & John Deere were the most popular. Advantage was you didn't knock over rows of corn opening fields and could split fields, go back & forth etc without knocking down additional rows. We had a IH 234 that mounted on a 706 in the late 70's early 80's time period. The tractor was used the rest of the year for various jobs. The rear tread was never adjusted so it wasn't a big deal to mount the picker. An hour or so generally at the most. In that time period there were lots of small dairies and farmers put the ear corn in cribs on the farm. Advantages were no drying costs and easy storage. Either local feed mills picked up the corn, farmers hauled it in, or you had your own grinder-mixer. But whatever way it was done, the whole cob was ground into the feed mix which was great roughage for the animals. The biggest disadvantage I saw to the mounted vs pull type picker was how you dirty it was and you were right in the middle of all the flying husks and dirt. It could also be dangerous, as when it plugged you were tempted to push the trash through. I remember an old pitchfork handle we carried to push broken off stalks through. Pushed too hard one day and the rolls sucked it right in. It came out toothpicks. When we replaced the tractor with a diesel wide front 806, the picker was traded with the tractor. It was replaced with a New Idea pull type until we discontinued picking. | ||
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| Robert W Greif |
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Dallas Center IA 515-720-2463 | There were some corn pickers in the 1920s, maybe earlier. But not very many. Probably did not work very good. And the old problem - Just cost too much money. One and two row pull type machines. Also some mounted on tractors. Many of these had a holding bin. There is a picture of a Farmall Regular [first row crop tractor] with a overhead hopper being dumped into a wagon pulled along beside. Pretty sure the first really good corn picker came into being in the mid to late 1930s. But between the poor times, the poor crops, people just did not have the money to buy the things. One man good at hand husking could probably average 75 bushels a day. And get 100 or more on those good days. For 60 - 80 acres of 40 bushel corn, hand picking was not as big a job as we seem to think it would be today. I don’t know which brand was first. But International Harvester was certainly a leader. They had a early galvanized picker, I do not know the model number. The model that really got IHC into the business was the 2M. Not sure when it came out. Would bet about the same time as the new row crop Farmall H and M tractors, 1939. The 2M would fit the models H and M. Also older models F-20 and F-30. Not sure about the Farmall Regular, but I do not see any reason why not. Also a 2M was a lot of picker for the rear axle of a Model H. Axle problems. Later IHC models along the same design were 2ME, 2MH, and 2MHD. All had open snapping rolls, three gathering chains, the snapped ears travelled up over the axle to a four roll on each side husking bed above and behind the rear axle. 2MHD had six rolls. There were a LOT of grease zerts on a IHC picker. IHC also had a cheaper two row picker, a one row tractor picker, and one and two row pull types. Deere: In Mounted Deere had the 25 [maybe 25A] two row. Not a whole lot different design than the IHC 2M. Deere use small wheels ahead of the rear tractor wheels to carry some of the weight. Deere also had a one row model, maybe model 15. Later Deere tractor pickers were the 226, and very popular 227. The 227 was the peak of the market late 1950s Deere picker. I think Deere had a later 237. Deere also had pull types. A popular model 200. others. New Idea was big in corn pickers. Mostly pull types until the mid 50s. Then about 1961 a very good New Idea SuperPicker. Dad got a SuperPicker the first year they were out. That thing would just plain pick corn! Oliver, J I Case, MM, Massey Harris, all had pickers of some sort. Not near as popular as the IHC or Deere models. Should add that Ford had a real good two row mounted picker in the 50s. They sold a lot of them with kits to mount on other brands of tractors. And the picker probably sold a lot of Ford tractors. Allis-Chalmers had a two row that was priced pretty darn low. And it did a pretty fair job. A different design. Just one gathering chain per side. And the gathering chain ran the length of the machine. Moved the ear on back over the two row husking bed, then on back and dumped them into the wagon elevator. The A-C picker also moved the picked ears under the tractor axle vs over as the other brands. And the Allis-Chalmers pickers all had stripper plates over the snapping rows. Every one made from 1940 on. It gets me that Deere makes a big deal about ‘inventing’ stripper plates on their combine corn heads about 1954. It was quite a job to mount them on the tractor. There was efforts at a easy and quick mount. The first good picker that had a pretty simple, easy and quick attach design was the New Idea SuperPicker. Later other brands. Mounted pickers had a big plus in being able to open up fields without running over un-picked crop. Also mounted was better in down corn. The corn picker had a short life. Mid 30s to the 60s. By 1965 combines sales were taking off. Edited by Robert W Greif 4/4/2015 08:57 | ||
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| cornerpost |
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SE MN Still in Pothole Country | Just to add to Mr. Greif's excellent history. I first ran a corn picker a little when I was 14. IH 2-MH mounted on a Super MTA. Mounted pickers were also much better when if it was a wet fall compared to a pull type. In this area when I was a little kid Moline pickers were pretty common. They would pick cleaner--less trash in the box-- than an International. But trash would plug the discharge chute if it was too dry. Remember if it was too dry folks would plow and wait for a damper "Moline" day when the %&# hole on the picker would not plug. The variety being picked must have made a difference too. Remember one fall when Dad's friend rented our 400. He could not go slow enough with his Super M on a pull type Moline picker. Lots less to get ready in those days if you do not count mounting the picker. Usually if something went wrong it was mechanical and not a hard to find electric issue somewhere in the dryer! | ||
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| RJ 4020 |
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Northeast Nebraska | I've run a JD 227 picker with JD A, 60, 720 and a IHC M. My uncle had a JD B under a JD 227 never had enough power. My last picker was an Oliver 73 pull type pulled with a JD 4020 very nice to operate and out of the dust. Alot of fingers and hands missing from farmers back then because they were trying to unplug something with the machine running. The good old days but wouldn't want to harvest that way anymore. | ||
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| dondozer |
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NW Ohio,near Findlay | My Dad and I had a New Idea 2 row, with the rear husking bed, mounted on a Ford 960. It took days to mount it, had to change foot steps to narrow, high ones, raise seat, spread tires way out. We had a wide front end, had to switch that to a NF. One of the dirtiest machines ever, you sat between the snapping rows, your face got cut up by the corn leaves, noise was terrible. Couldn't turn in wet fields at ends, slow, but got the job done. Then when you finished, around December, you had to demounted and switch tractor back, another 2 days or so. We still have the Ford 960 for yard work and box scraper. Looking back, I guess we didn't know better, was the only way then. Soon the early combines were modified to mount a corn head on them and all mounted corn pickers were junked. Our early combine with corn head was a MF 72. | ||
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| Boone & Crockett |
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| I don't know why, but I've always wanted to run a 237 on a 730 diesel. Just something from my youth I never got to do, but watched my Dad for several years on that same outfit. | |||
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| mn2 |
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| My dad and his brother ran a ih 2m then they got a ih 2pr pull type ran that for many years then I went with dad and we got our own Ih 2 pr.Right around the last year they made them. 1972 or so? Picked a lot of corn with it. Toward the end some farmers ust left the picker on year round. Those who were left picking. Picking and cribbing was the easy part, summer corn shelling is where the work came in. Edited by mn2 4/4/2015 08:12 | |||
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| Kornkurt |
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Central Iowa | We had a New Idea 301 mounted on a Massey 44. We picked alot of corn with it. Picker is long gone, but the tractor is still going strong. Edited by Kornkurt 4/4/2015 08:23 (kelsey tractor0038.jpg) Attachments ----------------  kelsey tractor0038.jpg (89KB - 1017 downloads) | ||
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| billw |
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E. Kansas | Corn pickers were obviously a big step above picking corn by hand, but I never heard too many compliments said about them from my dad, granddad, etc. Corn pickers were long gone from my family's farm before I showed up, but I heard about them. My dad had a 2 row IH mounted corn picker that he bought new (don't remember the model) for his '53 narrow front Super M, and only had it for 2 or 3 years, but the Super M is still here, alive and well. He said it was quite a job to get everything all set up to pick corn. The tractor was tied up with the mounted picker until harvest was over, so you had more limited use of the tractor. You wouldn't be able to use it on the loader, or work ground, or drill wheat, etc without removing the picker. So I guess that was one disadvantage of a mounted picker compared to a pull type. In 1960, he bought a '58 JD 55 Combine and a brand new 2 row JD corn head with it. The corn picker was sold then and no tears were shed about it leaving. He said running the corn picker was usually a dirty job, with the picker and the conveyors on both sides so close by. There was quite a bit of time spent with unloading the trailing wagons with the corn rake/shovel/whatever it's called, plus having to maintain corn cribs, then take the ear corn out later to have it shelled, etc. With no livestock, there was no reason "here" to want to continue with ear corn and all the hassle of transferring it, storing it, etc. Having a combine that shelled the corn as it was harvested, then being able to dump the grain into a wagon or truck right then and haul it to an elevator was light years ahead of anything having to do with picking corn, at least for "here". However, without the development of corn pickers through the years, both pull type and mounted, I'm sure that when combines were becoming more popular in the 50's, it would have been longer before corn heads were available for them. | ||
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| Robert W Greif |
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Dallas Center IA 515-720-2463 | Other Early Corn Harvesting Before the good corn pickers, corn was often ‘Shocked’ The whole plant was cut. Grouped into bundles of so many and tied with twine, maybe wire. No idea how many plants per bundle - guess about 10? The bundles were made into the corn shocks that made such pretty fall pictures. The corn plants were cut with corn knifes. Also horse pulled deals that I know little about. And then the corn binders. Binders looked much like a pull corn picker. Made bundles and dumped them into piles for building shocks. There were one and two row binders. Early ones were horse pulled and driven by a ground wheel. Later there were tractor PTO powered models. Even two row machines. But I am pretty sure many old ground drive corn binders ended up being pulled by tractors. The nice pretty shocks out in the field were hauled in over the winter. I think the ears were removed and the rest fed to cattle. Not sure. Maybe some was feed to cattle with the ears still on the stalks. Before my time. Also Husker Shredders: Looked somewhat like a threshing machine. Bundles of corn plants were fed into the machine. The ears were removed, husked and came out a elevator on the side, into a wagon. The rest of the plant was ran thru a chopper deal and out the spout. Very much like the straw spout on a threshing machine. As I said ‘Before my Time’, so not sure. But betting the rest of the plant was used much as baled corn stalks are today. The cattle ate some - Layed down on some - And pooped on some. Pretty sure making corn fodder was a LOT of work! A LOT!! In my country there was very little of it done in the 1950s. Picking corn by hand was a whole family deal. My mother has told me of just moving up to Iowa from Missouri in the late fall of 1928. Her Dad was already here working on a farm. Mom said she spent her 15th birthday, Jan 3, 1929 helping pick corn. Hired men were paid for corn picking by the bushel. Also there were many folks that came to corn growing areas in the fall to pick corn. Many Missourimen came north to make good money hand picking corn. Missourimen was a term used around here for hired labor from Missouri. Some corn was not picked. Sometimes hogs were turned into a field to help themselves. This is called ‘Hogging Down Corn’ There was some corn cut green with a binder. Hauled to a silo and ran thru a ‘Cutter’. The cutter chopped the corn plant and blew it into the silo. I remember seeing that done pre-1950. Dad did it. My Dad got the first Allis-Chalmers chopper in the branch in 1949. Sure glad, as filling silo with a binder and cutter looks like a whole lot of hard work. | ||
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| CMN |
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West of Mpls MN about 50 miles on Hwy 12 | The last corn picker we had was an IH 234. It had snapping roll's, and quick attach husking bed or sheller unit. The sheller unit had waaaaay more capacity than any other two row size combine of the day. It was a rotary design, and we pulled a 250 bu gravity wagon behind so we had a 250 bu. grain tank. We had bumpers on the back of the wagons so we could push when it got muddy. I think the 303 IH and 55 JD combine's had like a 60 bu. grain tank. It was mounted on a 560 diesel. That same 560 would do a little bit of tillage in the spring, then would do all the planting, then a row crop cultivator would be mounted on it, then it would get a mounted sweet corn picker put on it and pick sweet corn for a couple months before getting the 234 mounted on it to pick seed corn on the cob, and then shell field corn. I'm guessing the 560 has at the very least 20,000 hours on it, third gear is wore pretty thin. FWIW, we've only replaced the torque once. :) The last year the 234 picker was ran on our farm, dad was farming about 600 acres so it picked about 120 acres of seed corn, and shelled 200 acres of field corn. Dad also did some custom picking for the neighbors. | ||
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| German Shepherd |
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My father in law in MN used a 2 row picker mounted on an IH M right up until he retired in 1986. Corn was all put in a crib and he ground it with a grinder mixer to feed to the milk cows. If it was a good year he'd get the neighbor over with his MM corn sheller and the extra would get shelled and sold at the elevator. For some reason, he always seemed to be shelling corn when we'd show up in the spring. Nothing harder than trying to move ear corn, even with a corn rake. | |||
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| mn2 |
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| did ih make a narrow row 2 pr? that's why new idea got popular around here. | |||
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| flyinfarmer |
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NE Iowa | Mom & Dad started farming on 25A when I was in 2nd grade. For the first couple years, we had the corn custom combined. But the farm had a good crib, and Dad bought a 2 row mounted picker on a JD 50 (I think). Based on other responses, I am guessing the picker was a 227 or 237. During harvest, I couldn't wait to get home after school to ride around in the barge box moving ears of corn to the corners of the wagon so more would fit before changing wagons. I am 47 yrs old now, and I can still remember riding the wagon as the first ears came flying off the elevator. Had to stand with my back to the corn for awhile, as kernels of corn shot off those first ears like bullets as they hit the empty barge box floor. Once there was a 'puddle' of corn, I was along for the ride until it started getting full, and I would push ears to top off the wagon. Then my fun was over, as I was then in charge of unloading the wagon into the crib. If I was good, I would get it empty quick enough to ride in the next wagon to help top it off. Either the corn wasn't very good or the picker wasn't very good, because after harvest, we would have a family pick-up-corn day. We would put a wagon behind an old '38 B and run it as slow as possible while the 4 of us walked behind picking up ears off the ground. I don't know if this was to salvage the corn, prevent volunteer corn for next year, or to just build character in us kids. I do remember the rows had enough 'definition' that nobody had to drive the tractor. Just get it started down the row, and jump off to help pick up corn - it would stay in the row by itself. The other fun part of that experience was shelling day. Had a guy with a JD sheller that custom shelled around the neighborhood. Was a pretty big deal to a little kid, and always seemed to be the hottest day of the year. Never seen so many rats in one place. Thanks for the good memories. | ||
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| garvo |
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western iowa,by Denison | we use to run a 1026 hydro with mounted 234 picker around the 70,s was normal to pick 1000 acres year of earcorn-then went to a new idea uni-my biggest year we picked 1,000 loads of 150bu wagons of ear corn-then flood of 1993 -switched over to earlage choppin-it was a big deal with a 2 row mounted-never a day in fall slip by the picker wasn't running by 5am- (img071.jpg) (002.JPG) (003.jpg) (004.jpg) (013.jpg) (006 (Small).JPG) (062.jpg) Attachments ---------------- img071.jpg (58KB - 1183 downloads) 002.JPG (110KB - 1064 downloads) 003.jpg (97KB - 1053 downloads) 004.jpg (127KB - 981 downloads) 013.jpg (181KB - 1011 downloads) 006 (Small).JPG (54KB - 1054 downloads) 062.jpg (93KB - 1015 downloads) | ||
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| E718 |
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Sac & Story county IA | Nobody mentions the danger. A lot of guys lost fingers, toes, hands, arms, lives to those things. We didn't get where we are at by accident. Or maybe we did. Enclosed cab. Switch in seat to stop head. Pickers had none of that. Operator could get off to unplug with machine running. A person can't let go of a stalk faster than rolls will pull it down through. Chains running near operator. Maybe chain had a shield when new but after a few repairs, the shield didn't get put back on. Don't romanticize about old farm equipment, it was not safe and didn't perform all that well. | ||
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| Marlhauler |
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Vicksburg MI 49097 | Robert W Greif - 4/4/2015 08:39 Other Early Corn Harvesting Before the good corn pickers, corn was often ‘Shocked’ The whole plant was cut. Grouped into bundles of so many and tied with twine, maybe wire. No idea how many plants per bundle - guess about 10? The bundles were made into the corn shocks that made such pretty fall pictures. The corn plants were cut with corn knifes. Also horse pulled deals that I know little about. And then the corn binders. Binders looked much like a pull corn picker. Made bundles and dumped them into piles for building shocks. There were one and two row binders. Early ones were horse pulled and driven by a ground wheel. Later there were tractor PTO powered models. Even two row machines. But I am pretty sure many old ground drive corn binders ended up being pulled by tractors. The nice pretty shocks out in the field were hauled in over the winter. I think the ears were removed and the rest fed to cattle. Not sure. Maybe some was feed to cattle with the ears still on the stalks. Before my time. Also Husker Shredders: Looked somewhat like a threshing machine. Bundles of corn plants were fed into the machine. The ears were removed, husked and came out a elevator on the side, into a wagon. The rest of the plant was ran thru a chopper deal and out the spout. Very much like the straw spout on a threshing machine. As I said ‘Before my Time’, so not sure. But betting the rest of the plant was used much as baled corn stalks are today. The cattle ate some - Layed down on some - And pooped on some. Pretty sure making corn fodder was a LOT of work! A LOT!! In my country there was very little of it done in the 1950s. Picking corn by hand was a whole family deal. My mother has told me of just moving up to Iowa from Missouri in the late fall of 1928. Her Dad was already here working on a farm. Mom said she spent her 15th birthday, Jan 3, 1929 helping pick corn. Hired men were paid for corn picking by the bushel. Also there were many folks that came to corn growing areas in the fall to pick corn. Many Missourimen came north to make good money hand picking corn. Missourimen was a term used around here for hired labor from Missouri. Some corn was not picked. Sometimes hogs were turned into a field to help themselves. This is called ‘Hogging Down Corn’ There was some corn cut green with a binder. Hauled to a silo and ran thru a ‘Cutter’. The cutter chopped the corn plant and blew it into the silo. I remember seeing that done pre-1950. Dad did it. My Dad got the first Allis-Chalmers chopper in the branch in 1949. Sure glad, as filling silo with a binder and cutter looks like a whole lot of hard work. My Grandfather described to me everything that W Greif just described. My Grandfather told me these stories when I was a kid.. Now that I am older I spread lime on many Amish Farms and I watch them farm in the exact ways described above.. Shocking the green corn and hauling the shocks on wagons back to be blown into a silo. I have seen an Amish Family pick corn by hand with gloves on the knit type gloves with the little rubber nubs on them for better grip. I have seen wheat shocked and hauled back to the Thresher or Separator. Also there are many steam Clubs and Antique Tractor Clubs who still do harvests with this type of equipment .. One day an Amish Farmer told me he was having a pretty good day with over 3 wagon loads of ear corn harvested that day. Meanwhile across the street was a larger modern Combine loading out Semis with shelled corn .. All of this hired labor would never work now days as Welfare and Food Stamps pays better and you can sit at home all day and watch TV on your big flat screen TV Drink Coke and Eat Doritos .. | ||
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| Marlhauler |
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Vicksburg MI 49097 | E718 - 4/4/2015 10:21 Nobody mentions the danger. A lot of guys lost fingers, toes, hands, arms, lives to those things. We didn't get where we are at by accident. Or maybe we did. Enclosed cab. Switch in seat to stop head. Pickers had none of that. Operator could get off to unplug with machine running. A person can't let go of a stalk faster than rolls will pull it down through. Chains running near operator. Maybe chain had a shield when new but after a few repairs, the shield didn't get put back on. Don't romanticize about old farm equipment, it was not safe and didn't perform all that well. I think the Point is to have respect for how hard work it was back then it built character.. The other point is maybe people lived happier lives with less stress back then too. The other point is these pickers were a huge improvement over doing things by hand and using horses. In another 20 years there may not be anyone on AG Talk who can tell about this equipment and methods from memory. Since I am a lot of Farms I still see some of this equipment sitting in barns ect .. and I have been to some Steam Shows and antique tractor shows where some of this stuff is Displayed. I have seen photos of my Great Grandfather and the Neighbors running a Port Huron Steam Tractor powering a Threshing machine.. My Grandfathers sister in Law wanted to borrow all of the Family photos .. then later she threw a huge box of them away ... so all of the Photos from my Mothers side have been thrown away by one woman with Alzheimer's disease .. | ||
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| garvo |
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western iowa,by Denison | so true-we had a picker cab on the 1026- | ||
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| Moe Syslak |
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The rapidly vanishing farmland of Boone Co. Ind. | I'd just like to add, mud was not your friend no matter what the brand. Always needed a narrow front tractor and husks, stalks and mud would ball up under all that tinwork and make your day miserable. In addition, you about had to take them off on concrete or they'd settle in the dirt or gravel making them a nightmare to put back on the tractor. Picked corn up until 5 years ago when I sold my cows, great feed. Last machine was a NI 2 row narrow. Neighbors all told me it looked like the 50s at my place around harvest but almost every one of them, big farmer or small wanted to run my picker for a few rounds. | ||
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| Moe Syslak |
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The rapidly vanishing farmland of Boone Co. Ind. | Mr. Garvo, we had a crib almost identical to that one. Did yours have drag chains in those slots in the floor? My grandpa laid two old hay elevators in the concrete when he built it, sure made unloading easy. | ||
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| rburk |
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NCOhio | Robert Greif I started farming in 1970 with a WD and mounted AC picker. I don't remember stripper plates. I remember dad changing those little rubber plugs in the rolls. Dad died Christmas day but he was in the hospital all fall. I talked mom into buying a combine the next year. When my brother came back to farm with me a year later we bought a used Oliver pull type picker because we had cribs that we could use and saved the drying and shrink at the Elevator, for the corn used for the dairy cows. This didn't last too long. It was a lot easier to put the shelled corn from the combine in the feedbank at the Elevator. | ||
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| danaoh |
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xenia ohio | I've heard the stories about hand picking corn from my Mom and Dad also. Mom said sometimes has a prank they would tie a bundle around a stalk still attached to the ground then watch as the man gathering them up tried to pick it up to throw it into the wagon. Dad talked about the man that would come around to help hand pick it. He would have one ear hitting the wagon side and another would already be in the air | ||
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| seagram |
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ne iowa | Neighbor was choked to death by a mounted jd picker. My mom cut the strings off on my sweaters for a decade after. We had a NI super picker on a 450 farmall and soon traded for a uni picker. Ran it until the tin wore thru. | ||
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| dave morgan |
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Somerville, Indiana | Dad started with a New Idea pull type picker husker usually pulled with the H as it was lighter went threw the muddy spots better...The front wheels have three different widths to choose from if the tractor didn't have a mounted picker on it, made it hard on your thumbs and arms as the steering wheel would whip easy, always keep your thumbs on the outside of the steering wheel was on of the first day's lessons...The M got a hydraulic cylinder mounted on the back just behind the seat exactly right so the brace could hit the back of your head when bouncing over small ditches...It raised the front of the wagons and raced back and forth to pull them to the cribs, also had a bumper mounted on front to push the wagons threw the muddy spots...The New Idea had over a hundred grease fittings, so bearings lasted, probably where I got my habits of wanting to grease all the bearings...My first job after school was greasing the picker after a piece of punkin pie that Mom always had for me...Dad painted cars at Chrysler-Evansville until they moved to St Louis so he got home from work a half hour after I got my pie ate...He knew the picker would be greased and gone over before he got home...He never would let me run the picker, ever...I always wanted to, but knew better than even ask...I didn't understand then, thought he was being selfish afraid I would miss a few ears...That wasn't it at all, that was the dirtiest most dangerous job there ever was except maybe about the same as unloading silage from well worn out drag chain wagons into the silage blower...After the first M, then the H, came the M with power steering...I thought he bought the power steering tractor for me but it was the one that carried the new 2 MH picker...I have no early pictures but Garvo has one showing the wagon dumping into the elevator...Almost every farmer had an elevator, Dad started out with a sears 40 ft double chain with a swing down hopper...Was happy to see it go as the flighting would crawl over the ear corn and brake the chain, bend flighting, or slats as I think they were called then...Wasn't long the Kewanee elevator came along it was a trophy, even had a PTO gear drive winch to raise and lower, was shaped wider on the sides to take baled hay better as well as more ear corn...That elevator stayed for many years as it took shelled corn well too, still here but doesn't get used in years maybe for a while for baled straw...The 2 row IH picker had a grease bank called then with 6 or 8 zerks in a row on the sheet metal behind the snapping rolls easy to get to...There were several more, but nothing compared to the hard to get to New Idea fittings...Carried the grease gun along the left side of the engine of the Ms and H, fit the Ms better than the shorter H, but the heat off the engine made the grease thinner and much easier to pump...Always had to shoot a shot or two in the air to make sure it was aired out...One time a good shot came back down on the baler man's father's cap...I thought I had it, Dad was looking at me with that look, I knew it was all over with, but, the greased cap guy saved me, said if that was my son I would whip his , just hit Dad the right way though as Dad said he ain't your son though...You never know how lucky things can get when its hot and folks are all busy and tard...As started telling the story the M with power steering got the 2 MH picker, slide out the back wheels and put balls and hinges on the rear axle, took off the draw bar that was mounted to the axle...Put the super snoot on the front of the M where the front of the hood covered the radiator, so the engine ran cooler without the stalks and dirt covering the front...Another picture above shows a super snoot can tell as it has a perforated box that sits up over the radiator more out of the shucks and dirt, was an engine savior but hard to see around, couldn't see where the big long front snoot was going into, he had to run the height of the snoots by watching the outside ones...After the super snoot was on, side shields around the engine, and the ball and hinges, the front of the picker was mounted, then the rear wheels slid in as far as possible without gathering mud and stalks enough to rub the elevators on the picker...Then backed into the rear elevator, drawbar assembly, and drive assembly I think was attached and kept on the elevator...A lot of weight on the rear axles...The M had all it wanted...Uncle had a 2 MH mounted on a 450, with 15.5 tires and more power and gears with live PTO it was the winner in loads/day...Got hot easier though until cold weather arrived...A couple years later about the time of the Kewanee elevator, the wagons were worked over and received their own hoists, that was a big day when the wagons dumped without unhooking them and using that head banging cylinder...Also could pull them in the hog lot and dump out just what he wanted for the hogs, they really went after the new crop corn...Here, the 93 combine took the place of two pickers, uncle bought the combine, with no cab...a year or so later they both had 303 combines, was until 1967 or 8 when everyone went to 4 row combines...The combines changed the cattle feeding program as we shared a BearCat sheller grinder mixer that would grind ear corn for the cattle, without the ground cobs they would founder...So the corn went threw the sheller and grinder for the hogs and threw the grinder only for cattle...Much easier scooping for cattle than it was for hogs...Dad had a apprx 20 ft cattle feeder for fat cattle that held 2 batches of ground corn a week sometimes could get three in but that left a danger of hungry feeder cattle...Life became much more simple after the combines and shelled corn bins arrived and the livestock gone. I hope John can add to Bobby's stories...Bobby did a good job with his. Edited by dave morgan 4/4/2015 15:12 | ||
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| jdbob8100 |
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ND | This was a very interesting thread. When I was about 7 yrs old remember my Dad hiring my uncle with a 400 IH & 2 row mounted picker & his neighbor with a JD 60 & 2 row picker. We had a JD 1 row silage chopper & JD belt drive silo blower but never a picker. First combine with a corn head a 643 was a 7720. | ||
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| boog |
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| Moes, I worked on a shelling crew back in the late '60s / early '70s. Most of the custom shellers had their own drags around here. When the farmer filled the cribs they laid boards over the tunnels. When when we came into shell we shoved our drags into the tunnels We would start shelling at the front of the crib / closest to the sheller, then as each board was uncovered with corn we took that board out , working our way board by board to the opposite end of the crib. | |||
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| boog |
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mn2 - 4/4/2015 08:11 . Picking and cribbing was the easy part, summer corn shelling is where the work came in. You got that right. I worked for a neighbor on a custom shelling crew in HS & right afterwards. Wasn't easy work, especially when temps were in the 90s and higher and you were working in a crib with a metal roof over your heads or in a barn stall that had no air movement. The worse two days I can recall from back then was spent in 110º temps removing the shelling cage from a JD sheller that had a rock run thru it. I was the only guy that helped the boss, rest of the crew spent their time sitting under shade trees. It did have it's benefits, after that I was promoted to crew supervisor, so just had to watch the sheller to grease the sheller of a morning & spend the rest of the day watching the sheller making sure it was working properly, occasionally oiling chains or changing sprockets on the drag drive depending on how the corn was feeding. Later moved up to truck driver. Back in the '50s we had a IH #24 picker on an H. Basically, the #24 was just a picker, had no husking bed so tended to leave the corn "dirty, especially if the corn was wet. We weren't large farmers, normally shelled 14-15,000 bu a year. For a couple years we grew some popcorn . The popcorn company really liked the little "24" as not having a husking bed it didn't damage the kernals like pickers that had husking beds so we did some custom popcorn picking besides our own. My job was to pull loaded wagons from the field to the cribs & take empty ones back. As a kid I thought that was the greatest thing because I got to run up & down the roads pulling wagons. Usually pulled two full ones & 2 or 3 emptys. Later on we ran a 2MH on a SM for a couple years before getting a combine with a cornhead. I only ran the H & picker once or twice but did run the SM & 2MH quite a bit the last year we picked ear corn. IIRC, I was a freshman in HS that last year. A lot of the old times lost fingers or hands from running ear corn pickers. I can remember on the 2MH you sit down "in" and chains were whizzing by less than a foot or so from your head. Was actually unnerving until you got use to it as they didn't have guards over the chains & they would really "hum" when you were running hard. Surprisingly more farmers didn't get hurt than what did. My uncle got his hand caught in the "24" when his foot slipped off the clutch while reaching back trying shove ears down in the elevator hopper. he was wearing leather gloves that had the little steel balls to tighten them on your wrist & one of the balls caught jerking his hand into a chain. Luckily je didn't lose his hand or fingers but he had problems with that hand the rest of his life. Als had a neighbor that got 3rd degree burns to his arms & face when he was filling his picker tractor up with gas & the fumes exploded. Edited by boog 4/4/2015 20:06 | |||
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| Curt Keiser |
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Beresford SD | Pickers that were used on our farm. First is Dad in 50ies with WD45 Allis with Allis picker. Second is me with 4010 JD with New Idea picker. Last we had was a JD 300 pull type with 3 row head. Do not have picture of that. Edited by Curt Keiser 4/4/2015 20:38 (Dad 1955 picking corn.JPG) (Curtis Family 80-90 005.JPG) (David unloading corn.JPG) Attachments ---------------- Dad 1955 picking corn.JPG (138KB - 1053 downloads) Curtis Family 80-90 005.JPG (79KB - 1020 downloads) David unloading corn.JPG (106KB - 984 downloads) | ||
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| Moe Syslak |
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The rapidly vanishing farmland of Boone Co. Ind. | That's the way ours worked, had boards you pulled up as the ears where raked into the drag. Ours were permanent. We shelled our own with a JD sheller, Had two, one to run and one for parts. When I was little before we got the sheller, we'd take a load to town in the truck and the guy at the elevator would let us stay in the cab while they hoisted up the front of the truck as it didn't have a hoist on it. (what a great ride for a kid). They'd shell it and dump the corn back in the truck. | ||
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| cornerpost |
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SE MN Still in Pothole Country | IH did not make a 2-PR in narrow rows but it was pretty easy to cut a 40 inch 2-PR down to 30 inches. Friend did it and I helped him. Actually I helped most when he put in new deep pocket snapping rolls as I had helped my dad and uncle do the same and knew the little tricks. | ||
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| Moe Syslak |
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The rapidly vanishing farmland of Boone Co. Ind. | Nice pics, thank you. I like that AC rig, I'd like to have it now. I think everybody had a snow fence crib on the good years. | ||
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| cornerpost |
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SE MN Still in Pothole Country | Somebody in here mentioned picking with an IH hydro. That would have been the cats meow. Last ear corn we ever picked was in 1982 when I still had milk cows. Great feed. Dad ran the picker. It was a beautiful day. Had my 3020 Diesel on it. He ran in 2nd gear and I remember him saying that at pto speed it was "Just the right speed." He died not quite 4 years later but ran the combine (7720) the last harvest he was alive for. | ||
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| boog |
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| I remember the cradle hoists well. First truck we had was an old stub nosed GMC that had begun life as a semi tractor & was later stretched & had a bed , no hoist, put on it. Truck was so wore out when we got it that you if you weren't careful the whole shifter would lift up & out of the socket. One elevator we hauled to wouldn't let you ride up the cradle but another would. Second one would even have you pull up to the second pit when the first one got full while the truck front end was still up in the air. Processor in town had a hoist that they would pick up semis with. That was a real thrill until one day I had to sit in the cab for fifteen minutes while they went on break. Always got out after that. | |||
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| JDFarmall |
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Northeast Nebraska | I used a New Idea on a Super M when I was 16 one fall... The SM stayed on the picker year 'round. Might have been one of the last years it was used I think. | ||
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| IADAVE |
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| I remember the allis picker on the WD. I am old enough to remember picking in second. Then corn got better Grandpa picked in low. Then I remember Grandpa saying he picked all day and never fully engaged the hand clutch. Dad bought a 234 and put it in the 560 diesel. We carried fuel to Grandpas for it in 5 gallon cans. We took 3 cans every other day. My job was to unload the wagons. If the ground was right I pulled them in by hand so I didn't have to unhook from the elevator. The old JD elevator wouldn't keep up with the picker so Dad had extra wagons. When they caught me they stopped for lunch ( 10a.m. or so and 3- 4 pm) or dinner. Usually when I had everything empty they were coming back to work! On the home farm Dad bought a 5, 000 bu bin The man who sold that bin said we would never fill it on this farm. I now have 55,000 bu storage and it is almost full! I worked for a guy that had New Idea picker. That sure made me appreciate Dad's 234. I will say when he put the single tire on the front of the 856 and then put that under the New Idea picker. Things went faster when you weren't working on it! Probably one of the nicest things ever done for me was when my boss bought a 540 Massey combine. ( and got rid of that picker) | |||
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| shoop |
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M | Garvo mentioned picker cab, in about the late. 60s or early Lundeen made a cab you could leave on a 856 when a 234 picker was mounted on it. I never seen it but I guess it was showed at the minnesota state fair | ||
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