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Iowa | 500 A with a one row? (those are your words) That would be be silly at best. 2 rows and good going might fetch you 2500 bu a day and that would be VERY hard to average, day in and day out. 2000 bu a day would be quite good, with moving the elevator to new cribs, etc, I'm very doubtful you could average that over time. 500A * 200 bu/A = 100,000 bu, which would take 50 perfect days of picking with a 2 row, or 100 days with a one row. I don't think you'll have 100 days available, do you? I'm doubtful you'll even have 50.
Pick in the rain? You'll shell ten times worse at the rollers and leave enough in the field to pay the custom combine guy. And the husks that make it to the crib can cause a hot spot and spoilage. When I had a 227 picker on a JD 60, my 410 Massey combine could go a full day earlier after a rain--your thoughts on picking in wet conditions are incorrect.
I'll let Garvo tell you how much his family has picked- all I'll say is that I have harvested and unloaded over 230,000 bushels personally- not my Dad, my Uncle, etc- but me personally 2 rows at a time with junkyard pickers out of the neighbor's groves. It's not a walk in the park....
While great feed, if you want to sell the corn the sheller and labor and trucking will cost you more than the combining would have cost.
What are you missing? More than I can tell you; if you'd done it for 20 or 30 or 40 years you wouldn't need to be told.
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Corn Picking versus Combing
