ear corn ?

[swindave]

does any one still harvest corn on the ear?
it was always one of my favorite things to do,
we had a new idea 2 row picker, i usually drove the tractor pulling the wagons to the crib, we had a mulky elevator,
what brand of picker and elevator did you use ?
it made good feed, thanks

 

[tomstractorsandtoys]

We still do some. I have a Deere 300 pull type and this fall we are planning on using the 237 mounted picker on a 2510. Also have a Deere 350 elevator. Tom

 

[big tee]

When I was a kid we picked all the corn on the ear--had 1000 bu. round wire cribs and a wooden crib with a driveway down the middle. Fed ground ear corn to the cows and had a guy from town come out with a old Ford truck with a Deere sheller on the back to get shelled corn to grind for the hogs and chickens. Had New Idea pickers 1st then Dad bought a IH 2-pr. He and the blacksmith narrowed it up to 30 in. rows then he bought a Deere 300 husker with a 3 row head--best picker made at the time--had stripper plates in the head and didn't leave rows of shelled corn on the ground like the rest of them did.--Memories---Tee

Dad and Farmall 400 and 2-pr picker--middle 60's

Me and my little cousin and dog unloading corn--had 2 barge boxes and a IH flare wagon

 

[casecollectorsc]

Have a working JI Case corn harvestor. Picks the ears and chops the stalk for bedding or fodder. Pull one wagon for corn and another beside the machine to catch the fodder....works good!

 

[DPittman]

Watched em yesterday with 2 New Ideas, an Oliver, a Case and a John Deere. There was a M5 Moline with a New Idea also. Different wagons and tractors taking full wagons to the crib and bringing back empties. Shelling the corn at the crib with Moline equipment was good to watch. All this took place in Geneseo Illinois at the Antique Equipment and Tractor Association show. As far as the health department was concerned it was just a bunch of people in the field playing with tractors and stuff because apparently we couldn’t have an organized event for reasons that can’t be mentioned. First time I’d ever been there and still had a good enough time to go back next year. Met a guy that gets on this webpage but don’t know if he’s logged in here or not.

 

[centash]

Now, thats a cool machine!

Ben

 

[Rich'sToys]

We also picked all our corn on the ear when I was growing up. When I was younger Dad had a John Deere 200 picker. By the time I was old enough to help he had traded it for an IH 2-PR. He had that till they stopped picking ear corn. Dad usually ran it. My job was to haul the wagons to the crib and unload them. I loved that job! Corn picking was my favorite part of harvest!
A custom operator with a truck mounted sheller would come and shell the corn that Dad sold. The rest was ground for cattle feed. In early years Dad would shovel the corn into a PTO driven hammer mill. Later on there was an operator in town with a truck mounted mill-mixer who would come and grind all our feed for us.
I have several pickers of my own right now. This spring I picked two loads off a food plot which my brother had planted the year before. There was too much left to just disc down so I took my New Idea no. 7 and went out and got them. Just as much fun as it always was!

 

[Goose]

Seems to me that when driving through northeast Nebraska a few years ago I was startled to see quite a bit of ear corn in wire cribs.

That being said, when I was in high school in the early 1950's, my dad got a job in town and turned the farm work over to me.

He'd always picked corn by hand, and expected me to do the same. I went out one afternoon, pulling a wagon with a VAC Case. I'd pick for a ways, and then have to get on the tractor and pull the wagon ahead. I lasted about two hours and said, "This is bulls**t".

I went into town and bought a used single row picker to pull behind that same VAC Case. I thought I was in heaven.

 

[sleepy1]

I miss the days of picking ear corn,it was just a more easy time to live in now it is rush rush rush to get things done.I remember we would fill all our cribs for our cattle,and still have some to sell.If there was a market for it where I live I would still do it.

 

[Destroked 450]

Dad bought a Ford 601 side mount new in 64, between our's and custom work it picked around 150+ acres per year, we still have it for parts for the one I have now but mine only picks 5-10 acres per year of our own corn for cow feed.
I mount it on my 4000 and use gravity bed wagons, we have a Little Giant elevator.

 

[farmerjohn]

Took this picture in the mid-1980s standing on the Corn Crib roof. I remember when we would unload the crib always have the shovel handy to slap the rats.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Ear corn is sold in my area as 'deer corn',multicolored grain or 'Indian' corn on the ear with the shuck is a big seller for decoration.

 

[flying belgian]

We had the New Idea Super Picker. Man that thing shelled the corn. Both on the ground and in the wagons. Every time we moved the elevator we had to clean up piles of shelled corn under elevator. When we were picking on home farm we pulled with 700 Case because it went a little faster in 3rd. gear. When we were picking on other farm we pulled it with JD. 60 because 700 went faster up and down road. Back home we ran the Kewanee 500 elevator with the 36 JD. "B" Had two Mn. wagons with New Built flare boxes. I think they were 110 bushel capacity and Pa put 12" side boards all around and then some flare boards on the sides.

 

[Charlie M]

I do a few acres every year to fed the stock I have. I have a sheller so if I want shelled corn its no problem. I grind the cobs for bedding also. Here is my outfit for picking.

 

[ford1956tractor]

Growing up we had ear corn scooped it all by hand into cribs. 30-40 acres
A portable truck mounted feed mill would come once a week to our community to grind. You put your name on an chalk board at the
Local store as to the order of grinding.
Dad added HOT molasses which they carried with second truck and cotton seed meal that made the feed smell good to eat! !!

 

[gtractorfan]

Doesn't the stripper head put more fodder in with the ear corn?

 

[4520BW]

I can remember dad using my little plastic kid pool under the elevator to catch the shelled corn.

 

[55 50 Ron]

Thanks for the great photo and posting. Even though I didn't grow up in corn country, I've certainly enjoyed the corn picking, cribbing, and shelling with our crews at Farmamerica where we volunteer. Nice tractor too !!!!

 

[John in Mich]

I do none of the below listed processes...now. Our first year, I was 7, we had a corn binder and a corn shredder. I rode the binder behind dad driving our Oliver Hart-Parr 70. Dad then put the bundles into shocks for drying.
Later, the Oliver was belted to the shredder and the corn was fed into the top and ears husked. The ears went into a wagon to be shoveled into the crib.
As that was work intensive and dad only had me as a helper, he hired our corn to be picked for the next 2 years. My job was to shovel into the crib. Dang that guys 2 row picked fast!
Dad bought our Ford 8N to replace the Oliver. He soon purchased a Woods Bros. Dearborn one row, PTO drive picker. It worked but the 8N sure had it's work. I still had my shovel!
Dad then added a Farmall H to the farm. It pulled the picker much easier and the 8N spotted the wagons. I was old enough to take the 8N down the road, and I still had my shovel.
We stopped all farming shortly after I left home in 1963.

 

[504]

WE had ear corn till the corn crib blew over. We never owned a picker and I have know idea who picked it. My job was running the pto on the 70 JD, and kicking corn to the back side of the crib(slant roof) On really good years, the overflow corn went in a bin made from snow fence setting on used tin. THere was a guy the next town north with a Minnie Moline sheller on a tuck that paid a premium for ear corn. The last few years we bought a 45 JD with both heads, and we shelled the corn and hauled it straight to the elevator.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

New Idea pickers, and Sam Mulkey elevator. John Deere corn sheller was used on the hottest days the next summer. Later we updated to a nice New Idea elevator, and an old, but hungry, MM sheller. Oh, and Little Giant gravity wagons. I believe they were purchased in pieces, and screwed together, but that was before I can recollect, and I'm 65!

 

[4520BW]

I still pick a wagon load every year for feed and just to do it. The old cribs are now full of firewood.

 

[M Nut]

New Idea 2 row picker, 5 gravity wagons, Owatonna elevator to put in crib.

 

[Al Baker(pumpman)]

I still pick a few loads each year, maybe just because I enjoy doing it. I use an Oliver 83 Narrow 2 row picker. With the new Hybred corns ia Almost has trouble with the elevator getting the ears out to the wagon fast enough. I only pick if it is dry enough to not make ruts. I do hook it up to one of the front wheel assist tractors. Open station on nice days, cab if to cold or rainy. I do not miss unloading wagon after wagon. Two or three a year is enough for me. Nice to have some ear corn to throw at the Momma cows in the winter. Al

 

[fixerupper]

Havent picked in the ear for forty years and I dont miss it. Now that I have that off my chest (wink) dad used a Minneapolis two row pull type picker he bought new in 1949 and used it all through the fifties and sixties. He pulled it with a Deere A and the wagons were pulled in with the neighbors SC Case. We had a Stanhoist wagon lift that lifted the wagon to dump it until a wagon rolled off the front of the lift and darned near pinned dad against the back of the tractor. After that dad had hydraulic hoists installed on the wagons. A 1935 Deere A was belted to the elevator. In 1960 a brand new 630 Deere pulled the picker and the A pulled wagons in along with the SC. In 1969 Dad bought a used 227 Deere mounted picker to put on the 630. It took a day and a half to mount and a day and a half to dismount the picker from the tractor. That combination lasted about 10 years. The last year of picking we hired a guy with a New Idea Uni with a 6 row head. Boy was it hard to keep up hauling away from him! Today around these parts no one picks in the ear except for our local threshing show.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

(quoted from post at 05:48:01 09/20/20) We still do some. I have a Deere 300 pull type and this fall we are planning on using the 237 mounted picker on a 2510. Also have a Deere 350 elevator. Tom>

Tom, I may need to hire you to do 12 acres for me this week. That is if a guy wants to buy my crop to make earlage.

 

[caterpillar guy]

When we had ear corn I was about 4-6 years old. Dad bought a Gleaner E in 1963 and a 3 row head for it in 65 never picked ear corn more than to check in field for moisture by hand. Shelled corn and hauled to elevator then haula load back home for feed would put in bins in overhead grain storage. The rest got sold. Still shelling corn only more acres than then.

 

[LonM]

We still pick around 40 acres of corn each year. Currently running a New Idea 702 Uni with 2 row head and 12 roll husking bed. Pick into a gravity box or barge boxes. Elevator is a Kewanee 500, filling round wire cribs or piling between two rows of hay bales. We ferry wagons with a 3020 diesel, and power the elevator with a Farmall H.

Grind all of it through a Lorenz grinder mixer and feed weaned calves and fat cattle with it.

I don't know of anyone else around who still picks more than a few wagon loads per year, but we like it. Parts for the Uni are getting hard to find, so we will likely move over to chopping earlage or high-moisture shelled corn in a few years.

Lon

 

[LonM]

That is a cool perspective for a picture, and the corn is nice and clean.

Lon

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Supposedly ear corn is far and away more nutritional than shelled corn.

If ear corn is so great, so much better, why isn't picking ear corn something EVERY farmer with cattle does?

What magic does the cob hold? If there's so much nutrition in the cob, why haven't they designed combines to catch the cobs to be ground and mixed back into the grain later?

 

[B A Star]

Google "Half Century of Progress show".   There is video of 30 / 35 pickers in the field picking corn near Rantoul, IL.