handy looking picker for corn

larry@stinescorner · Jan 20, 2015

passed by this in nj ,never seen one,so I Took some pictures,sure looks handy for picking ear corn,,,are they good?(just curious)

Cory Schmidt · Jan 20, 2015

A UNI-Harvester.

Never seen one working or know anyone with or had one. That's one of many attachments for those things. I seen combine and chopper units along fields when on a road trips (don't remember where but seen them)

NY 986 · Jan 20, 2015

There was a nice looking one for sale south of Geneva a few weeks ago.

jm. · Jan 20, 2015

Some of them had a V6 buick engine and were prone to catch on fire . Just a unit that were sold but seemed to never make it over the hump. There are folks that collect them today so might have some value.

Brendon Warren · Jan 20, 2015

There were a few of them around me. I know of two
still here but in the fence row.

rrlund · Jan 20, 2015

I had one just like it. Good idea,but not so great in reality. I can pick twice as much corn in a day with my 2 row pull type as I could with that 3 row Uni.

rrlund · Jan 20, 2015

I had a 701 with a Chevy 292 straight 6 in it. That one caught fire. Then I got a 702,that one had a GMC V6 in it. That power unit was OK,but it was hard to keep the attachments in one piece. I had a husking bed,a sheller and a combine for it.

gab · Jan 20, 2015

Used to be quite a few of them around here in N Illinois, some of them had a GMC v/6 in them.

Formerly PaMike · Jan 20, 2015

So why can you pick more with your 2 row than the uni 3 row? Just cant get the ground speed to push corn through it?

rrlund · Jan 20, 2015

I've got a 12 roll bed on the 2 row and the Uni had a 12 roll with a 3 row. The stripper head on the Uni pulled in so much trash,I just couldn't make any time. Add to that the constant breakdowns and it was slow going. I never knew a machine could have so many bearings,but I think I replaced every one in every attachment at least twice.

GeneMO · Jan 20, 2015

Gleaner head on it.

Gene

rrlund · Jan 20, 2015

It's a New Idea head. Either a 725 or 735.

Old weldor · Jan 20, 2015

That's a New Idea. Wasn't the Uni Harvester built by
Minneapolis Moline?

Tim(nj) · Jan 20, 2015

If that was up on Route 46 near Hot Dog Johnny's I know who owns it.

casenut1 · Jan 20, 2015

Short answer is ,no.

730 virgil · Jan 20, 2015

the silly things a had a bad habit of catching on fire

ss55 · Jan 20, 2015

I remember they were advertised during the 1960's and 1970's. Don't know anyone that used one though.

caterpillar guy · Jan 21, 2015

We had 2 of them.
1 was a 702 with the V-6 diesel. It burned so replaced it with a 708 with the 354 pukins diesel. The 708 wouldn't start in cold weather for anything. Was always an ether sucker with a block heater and extra batteries hooked up. Had the starter reworked also.
We probably were the most like the intended use of them. We had a 767 chopper for corn and hay then an old 760 chopper for ground ear corn and a sheller with 4 row head for picking shelled corn. The power unit and chopper with 3 row head is inside and for sale. The one 4 row stripper head is inside for sale also. The rest is either sold or setting outside. The shellers are for parts outside.

MikeJM · Jan 21, 2015

Larry,
Where in NJ was this? Looks kinda like my area and one of the neighbors has a uni just like that.

fixerupper · Jan 21, 2015

(quoted from post at 16:23:34 01/20/15) passed by this in nj ,never seen one,so I Took some pictures,sure looks handy for picking ear corn,,,are they good?(just curious)

My father in law had several of them through the years. He had a six row Deere head on the last one and it worked OK but a head that size overloaded the husking bed. He had a silage chopper on one with the V6 diesel and a combine also but the combine didn't have much capacity. Oh, I forgot he had a drum type corn sheller on it too. The sheller did a very good job. It had three row capacity.

larry@stinescorner · Jan 21, 2015

Dont want to say exactly or specifis,but near anandale,,,dont say exactly where it is,in case something gets missing etc,dont want to make any trouble,,,have to be careful,,,,

WGM · Jan 21, 2015

Minnie sold the uni-harvester to New Idea

MikeJM · Jan 21, 2015

Thats the other place I was thinking of, there's a farm near there that had a bunch of those uni's over the years. Some of his even have/had the toro flow diesel's in them.

rockyridgefarm · Jan 21, 2015

I used to work for Kaltenburg seed in the fall. I picked many acres with a Uni with a cummins in it. Not a terrible rig, but not a great one either. Since it was for seed corn, it had no husking rolls. We picked 4 rows at a time. 5, if the boss wasn't there to yell...

Kaltenburg Seed was in business for 100 years. The second-to-last owners fought like cats and dogs, but run it decent and had thousands of acres under production. The last owner was the spoiled brat baby brother of them. Momma gave him her 51% of the business and he took over. He fired one, the other quit, and he run the business into the ground within three years. When it went under, he made sure it'd never be brought back by stripping and selling everything that could be sold and scrapping everything that couldn't. Most of their close-by ground was owned by them and it's currently being sold off as development ground. Ironically, one of the other brothers started a new seed business on his own. He can't even get the name back.

Tim(nj) · Jan 21, 2015

Oh, I think I know whose that one is too then. Didn't think they were still doing ear corn.

paul · Jan 21, 2015

Minneapolis Moline starts with the yellow, then bronze colored
mules (power and chassis) units. new idea made them red and
improved the power unit but still a tad weak, the heads never
were all that much. Then as White merged in they turned
silver, and were kinda starting to be something with a good
diesel and rear wheel assist and some beef to them, but the
farm economy and the switch to shell corn put then under.
They lasted a long time as sweet corn specialty machines at
the end.

Neat idea, but they don't handle mud well with the offset
weight and the rear wheels not tracking behind the front
wheels.

The early power units just weren't durable or powerful, and the
corn headers were less than other companies had.

It just never quite came together.

The cage sheller unit that harvested shell corn was actually
the best unit they made, no one really knew, but those
dedicated corn shelling units were the bees knees. Couldn't
combine other crops with it, and the poor headers and power
units still left them behind. But the cage sheller could really
separate out a nice sample of shell corn in a hurry.

Actually around here they were used into the 2000s for silage
cutting, and you sometimes see the snowblower option on
them too.

Paul

INCase · Jan 21, 2015

quite a few of them here in northern Indiana.
alot of seed companies here and they used them until the Byron/Pixall/Oxbo units came around

not a bad idea. one power unit to buy and maintain and have a self propelled picker and chopper too.

I know of one fellow that still picks corn with one and has a 4 row IH header.

Heard that the choppers weren't that great. ok but soso.

handy looking picker for corn

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