Out chopping corn, pioneer style

Bruce from Can. · Sep 28, 2018

Nice day for chopping corn. Neighbor kid , in his 20?s, says that I still chop corn pioneer style, with a side pull harvester. Don?t seem that long ago that a two row harvester and a 100 hp tractor was big time. Guys used to go out to do custom with equipment like this. Now fellas would rather write a fat check to a custom worker with a big self propelled harvester, and a few old trucks. Think I?ll just stay with my pioneer out fit, and pay myself.

rick n ohio · Sep 28, 2018

Nice looking rig

NY 986 · Sep 28, 2018

Nothing better from the entertainment aspect of it in terms of running the pull chopper, self-unloading wagons, and blowing up into the silo. As long as you don't think that you are losing out in terms of not processing the kernels what is the harm? I am old to remember when kernel processors started out being used at the bottom of the chute with upright silos so you don't have to have a KP if you have that system. Heck, I heard of guys using a KP mounted on the discharge conveyor of a silage wagon and then conveyed into the mixer wagon. More than one way to do it.

NY 986 · Sep 28, 2018

Darned edit. It should say "you don't have to have a KP ON YOUR CHOPPER."

stoughtonfarmboy · Sep 28, 2018

Back in high school, 50 years ago, we hand cut the outside rows to make room for the tractor. Some fields were next to woods or other fences. The big tractor was an Allis Chalmers WD45 on the chopper and a D14 to pull the loads.

Part Time Pete · Sep 28, 2018

I used to love chopping corn - nothing like the cool air and the smell of the corn. The guy I worked for ran a TW-20 on a two row chopper, two 5000's hauling and the 8000 on the blower. We could put a lot of corn up in a day if the fields were close to the barn, but still nothing like the custom guys do today
Pete

Charlie M · Sep 28, 2018

He needs to do corn with a corn binder and ensilage cutter for a while - he'll appreciate your equipment a lot better after that.

Chris(WA) · Sep 28, 2018

Pioneer Style, LOL! If that is pioneer style, I guess we chopped like cave men! Three neighbors got together to chop all three farms. My dad on our JD "A" pulling a Case chopper, Bob Leaf's W-9 belted to the blower, and Ole Randall pulling wagons. I started out helped Bob clean up around the blower, graduated to climbing the silo and putting in doors, then on to pulling wagons. Still can smell silage in the fall air...

Farmer Ron · Sep 28, 2018

(quoted from post at 10:56:10 09/28/18) He needs to do corn with a corn binder and ensilage cutter for a while - he'll appreciate your equipment a lot better after that.

That's right, and I'm not THAT old but we (me included) cut, loaded and fed ensilage cutter by hand.
3-4 acres to fill a 10×30 wooden silo, one of the first built in the county in 1917. We did that until about 1970.

larry@stinescorner · Sep 28, 2018

heres one to watch on video from 1960
JD chopping corn

RVS · Sep 28, 2018

You gatta love those 66 series IH. We had a 766 with cab like that and use to go and run the neighbours 1 row gehl chopper. Always had the big farm lunch everyday, then home for supper. That's what happened to my waist line!
Also had a 1066 open station, sure liked those tractors. Then traded those two in on a case Ih 1896.

Still liked the sound of those big 6 cylinders working hard. Oh the good old days.

WI Dan · Sep 28, 2018

In that case, I wish I was a pioneer.
I'd pull wagons for you in a heartbeat. That looks like a nice day of work to be done.

rrlund · Sep 28, 2018

Finished yesterday. The boys are coming this weekend to put the plastic on.

Phil9N3667 · Sep 28, 2018

Wife and I just got home from Gettysburg, Pa and we still marvel at the dairy farms up there and the silos, etc. We cut silage with a ONE row machine in the late '60's-early '70's and I used a 2020 JD to pull the the wagons to the unloader/blower!! Been over 40 years ago.

tomstractorsandtoys · Sep 28, 2018

Mine is older than yours. We use a Deere 4520 on a 3940 two row chopper. For fun I have both a Deere 34 and a 35 with one row heads that we always cut a few loads with as well. Is your harvester an 892 or a 790? The NH 824 corn head is much better than the Deere. Nice pics thanks for posting. Tom

Bruce from Can. · Sep 28, 2018

Well Tom, I have both the 792 and the 892. I had the 892 first, and it had seen a pile of work. There was a auction with this 792 , older fella had bought it new and only used it for about three years, and because of failing health had to pack it in. So after some ten or more years of retirement, he had a clearing auction, and I bought this near new harvester for 5 grand. Always hated changing hay head to corn head, so the 892 has a hay head, and I use it for haylage, and the smaller, but less worn harvester only came with a corn head. I chop 25-30 acres of corn, and I think I am too old to wear it out.

Bruce from Can. · Sep 28, 2018

You should have been here today then, mama had
two roasted chickens for us at lunch. Makes it hard
to go back to work after. She goes to work
tomorrow, so I have to rough it.

Philip d · Sep 28, 2018

I?m with you Bruce! Nice looking equipment I?ll add too. We replaced out 35 yr old equipment last year with 15 yr old equipment for not much more than 1 yrs worth of custom work.

Philip d · Sep 28, 2018

Horning makes add on processors for most popular machines made in the last 40 years. We have one of theirs on our 790

Adirondack case guy · Sep 28, 2018

That chopper sure was doing a horrible job of chopping. It would be better described as a shredder.
Loren

Bob Harvey · Sep 28, 2018

Back when dinosaurs were still lurking, I helped on a corn chopping silage bunker program. They raise registered Hereford bulls. The tractor was an 80 JD and JD chopper. My job was to drive the truck (a '47 Studebaker 2/3 ton, that you could hear the rod bearings about a mile out - never been off the farm - had 24,000 mi. on it). Then packing with a hand start 'A'. Got paid in beef, best I EVER had - they finished cull bulls on grain and molasses. Great times ! !

formerly ny bill · Sep 28, 2018

up until 2016, we chopped the same way, IH 5288, NH 900 chopper, and dump wagon. then I got hurt, and a neighbor with a self propelled chopper with a KP stepped up and chopped for me. no more cleaning cobs out of the feed bunk. it is kind of a big gulp when I write the check, but he can do in 2 days what would take me 2 weeks. if I don't have any breakdowns.

Bruce from Can. · Sep 28, 2018

I have had a lot of pleasure running this old 966. Not the quietest tractor, and maybe a hot place to spend a summer day, but a smooth steady old power plant. And yes that six cylinder has a good sound, with ear plugs in.

Kansasredneck · Sep 28, 2018

Nice rig. I was expecting to see a corn knife and horse drawn wagon. When I was a kid we'd moved up to pulling the wagon with an 8N, but still chopped the stalks with a machete.

Bruce from Can. · Sep 28, 2018

Even though I don?t have a processor on my harvester, we get very little cob left in the mangers. I have been using a silage variety, and not a grain corn. So the cobs are very soft. Around here a big Claws harvester with trucks and drivers, will set you back $500.00 per hour. And they easy do 5 acres an hour. So it would cost me $$2,500. - $3,000.00 . I can still do it for less out of pocket.

Bruce from Can. · Sep 28, 2018

I thought it was a long chop. Probably never set the ledger plate, and the knives were worn down. But he was making feed just the same. Tough to get a good packing job done at the pit with that long cut, but it could help the butter fat.

centash · Sep 28, 2018

Much like the rig I had up to a few years ago. Those were a darn good harvesters. When dad built our first silo in 1965, I recall helping fill it with a corn binder and cutting box, now that was hard work. Did that for two years, then he hired a neighbour with a 2 row Dion pulled by a 400 International. We were always last to be filled, so dad got his own unit in 1969. There were 3 of us boys, so there was lots of competition to drive the loads! Good times, I miss silo filling as much as I miss the cows, in a good way.
Ben

Commercial Farmer · Sep 29, 2018

Still run 2 rows here.

stevob671 · Sep 29, 2018

...then we were pre-pioneer. Ran a Case 1 row chopper behind a Ford 961 diesel, neighbor supplied the Gehl blower run by a Deere A, wagons were hay wagons with sides and false fronts winched to the back- had to knock it down into the blower so a whole bunch wouldn't topple in and plug it up. Wagons towed by our 8N and B Deere of the neighbors. Swapped each year doing theirs first, then next year ours first. Later when the neighbor quit cows, we had to buy our own McKormick blower (used) and belted it to the 860.
One year we ran wagons for another neighbor had them newfangled power chopper boxes. The 8N really had to work to pull them but un-loading was sweet!

Old Scovy · Sep 30, 2018

I will try again to post. I wanted to say that I well remember the McCormick PTO Binder and the Papec ensilage cutter and the next was a Skyline Chopper with a Wisconsin engine on it. Not much improvement . The next year we got a brand new 611 New Holland Chopper and long trough blower. A 46 Chevy rack dump and a 50 Studebaker rack dump. Big operators now. We even did some custom silo filling . Fall silo filling was a great time for all.I sort of miss it. . Old Scovy

ss55 · Sep 30, 2018

If you think about it, some of that equipment is ten to twenty years older than the young guy in his twenties. For many of us here, equipment that much older than us would be pre-WW2. He is looking at them the same way we thought of F-20 Farmalls and unstyled A John Deeres. It all still works great, it's just not as modern, ergonomic or has the capacity as he is used to at home.

Chadd · Oct 1, 2018

Pre-pioneer here too, and I am only in my 30s. Dad used a Gehl 84 Flywheel cut all the way up until 2000. Pulled it with an IH 660 Diesel until the mid 1980's and then with a 966 until we quit. Hauled the wagons with a 656 Hydro and ran the blower by belt with a McCormick W6. Miss those days.

Jeff in ND · Oct 1, 2018

Always loved silage season for some reason.

Dad and 2-3 neighbors jointly owned the chopper and blower. The later chopper was a NH 717, 1 row. A MM M670 to run it and later a White 2-105. The blower was a Allis Chalmers with flat belt drive. Ran that with the WD45 although the neighbors used a McCormick M. Maybe the "coolness" of the belt was attractive to a kid in the 70s. Small PTO powered rear unload S&H power wagons and 2 guys with forks to unload.

After the other guys retired, Dad ended up with the equipment and found a less worn blower of the same type only with PTO for the last few years.

I ended up the last years being the one to climb the silo with the rope tied around my waist and feed it through the pulley and pull up the pipes. Pipes were always put up and taken down every time from when the group went from farm to farm. Remember standing on the top of the crows-nest hoop at the top and reaching out to grab the gooseneck and guide it into the door on the silo roof. Yikes!!! Nothing but my wits between me and the ground below.... One small slip from certain death.

You could not pay me enough now to do that.

sammydwm · Oct 1, 2018

we started out with false endgate wagons and a long hopper blower. Pulled a 1 row Gehl behind the IH 460 and had to borrow the neighbors old McCormick to run the belt for the blower.
In the 80's we got big time and ran a Case 300 with a 2 row head behind a Case 800.

Out chopping corn, pioneer style

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