Picking Corn , My Favorite Tractor Job !

It was a gorgeous day for harvesting corn here in central Minnesota with the Super H and 1PR picker. It was about 70 and sunny with a light breeze, fall colors, and no break downs or flat tires ! I have always enjoyed this more than any other tractor work, the sights , sounds , and smells. I picked the last load after dark which reminds me of doing this as a kid helping my Dad and Grandfather, and how it was spooky in the cornfield at night !
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I know what you're saying - last time I had ear corn 2 years ago I picked with my M and a 1-PR picker late in October. It was a warm day, no mud, leaves all changed colors - great time. Would have had a few acres this year if May hadn't been so wet. I've also done corn where it was cold, wet, muddy and stuck in multiple places.
 
My neighbor(rip) talked about sitting in the cornfield years ago eating a sandwich on thanksgiving trying to get the corn all picked.
 
The field is an 80 acre parcel, but it doesnt belong to me. I barter with the farmer for the corn by repairing his trucks and doing farm work if he gets behind. I plant some corn of my own but not enough . I feed it to the chickens and grind some for hogs and beef I raise to butcher. Works out well !
 
Clean without too many bare butts. Can't get any better than that.

I couldn't wait till Saturday during ear corn picking so I could drive a tractor all day hauling it in from the field. It didn't matter if it was cold and windy, I got to drive a TRACTOR!

Lots of memories! The most memorable? Me up in the crib holding a board at the end of the elevator spout shooting the corn out in the far corners when the crib was almost full. The old neighbor who helped us was unloading the wagon into the elevator and he was supposed to watch for me waving to him to stop when the corn got up to the spout. He never looked so I'd be waving frantically but he wouldn't look up to see me so I'd get down by the spout to frantically drag the corn out and kick it down farther . Then I'd go back up by the cupola door and wave again, but he'd never see me. I'd even throw ears down at him. But he kept on unloading. I'd try to slide the spout shorter so I could move it but it but it was too heavy and corn started dumping into the oats bin. Finally I'd go down the ladder, run out the alleyway and pull the clutch on the elevator tractor. After the crib was full it was MY job to pick all those ears out of the oats bin. GRR!

The speed jack that ran the elevator was run by a flat belt from the tractor so we would run the belt loose enough that it would throw off if the elevator began to plug if I couldn't get Down the ladder in time to stop the tractor. It was less work to leave the spout where it was and let it plug than it was to try to move it while corn was thumping down it and have to throw it back out of the oats bin if I dropped the spout.

Early on all of our ear corn was used for feed here on the farm and the cobs went to the cattle yard for bedding but when yields got better more of it was combined and hauled to town out of the field. When we figured in all the hassle of picking, cribbing, shelling, hauling to town from the sheller and cleaning up the mess, that free drying in the crib didn't add up.
 
Your picker is doing a great job--pretty clean and no butt shelling. Old Walter Buescher(AC guy) claimed that ear corn dried partially through the husk anyway. He must have never told my Dad, he wanted it clean. I always liked the harvest time. Nothing like coming home from school every night to find four barge wagons full of ear corn to shovel off before chores & supper. We had an ear corn scoop made of wire to let the shelled corn fall through. I hated that thing. it was like shoveling with a wet noodle.
 
My memories are the same, the most enjoyable tractor job was picking corn. Speaking of spooky at night it was also spooky pulling wagons on a path thru the woods in the dark. I wonder how these memories compare with the mega farm monster combines and semi trucks.
 
Yes it is pretty clean, still have some shelling losses but that's hard to eliminate. I have used this picker for many years and have figured out it will do the best job if the corn is a little higher moisture, the rpm is close to maximum and the ground speed is slow. I also tinkered with adjustments. It wasn't always good at husking, some of my first attempts were pretty pity-full !
 
You can have it! 1 row at a time, busted chains, stalks plugging up, fumbling around in the dark looking for monkey links, uggh. Used to pick 50-60 acres with a 1 row. NEVER AGAIN.
 
I liked running the 1-row picker. Didn't like shoveling all of that ear corn into the elevator; my left hip would get so sore I could hardly walk for 2-3 weeks after that. Was glad when we put hoists under the wagon beds.

When we picked the last row, the herd boss cow was standing at the gate waiting for someone to turn them out to glean the ears of corn that fell on the ground.
 
Dick one of the most pleasant sights in the fall was turning those cows out into the stalks. They'd run in maybe a hundred feet, then after that their heads were down, noses bumping every shuck to see if there was an ear in there.

When the experienced cows would find an ear they would get the ear in the back of the mouth and start grinding it up. The inexperienced ones would kind of wallow it around in the mouth, shelling a few kernals out till it fell back out on the ground. Jim
 
boy that all looks very familiar. We do it with a one row picker too, and the elevator and crib looks just like yours.

Love it.
 
Yes I am hoping to run across a wagon with a hoist sometime, or I may fashion a false front for this one if I can find an old wagon jack
 
About 55 years ago we too used a single row picker. We had a John Deere 101 semi-mounted picker on a '43 John Deere B. It seemed like it took forever to pick a wagon load. (I was a teenager though) so nothing went fast enough for me. LOL
 
Reaping what you have sowed on a nice fall day is hard to beat. Harvesting in the summer can be brutal. The only thing that beat picking corn was when we pulled, windrowed and threshed red kidney beans. It was usually a nice day- but then it had to be! It would be impossible here now as all it seems to do is rain.
 

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