MOUNTED corn picker VS. Towed type.M Farmall.WHY ?

[Bob M]

In the late 60's/early 70's I picked literally thousands of tons of sweet corn, first with an FMC picker mounted on a Super M, later with a 234 on an Oliver 1650.

To deal with occasionally muddy fields we swapped the regular narrow front with a fat single front tire - actually a used aircraft tire.

Mounting the picker - including swapping the lower bolster/tire assembly - took two of us 5 - 6 hours.

Running the picker was noisy, dirty and hot. For the most part we picked at night or early in the morning to lessen heat stress on the operator.

Great fun in retrospect. Though I would not want to do it today(!)

 

[JohnRowehl]

Really enjoying this dialogue.
Reminds me of when I asked a farmer why he liked growing wide row soybeans-He liked the way they fed into the header better.
Asked another why he liked drilled soybeans-He liked the way they fed into the header better.

Ran a one row New Idea for a couple of years in the mid 70’s when I was in my early 20’s.
Was a fun job for me. Generally had well standing corn….most of the time.

 

[jwal10]

No grain corn here, only sweet corn pickers. As a kid they were IHC pickers mounted on a Farmall M, although a neighbor had one mounted on a AC D-19. Another neighbor lady did most of the picking with an IH picker and she was missing 2 fingers, index and long fingers. Later everyone had 656 hydro tractors with pickers. These had side elevators to load trucks. I only remember 1 JD 3020 Powershift. No 2 cyl JDs with pickers. Later they used Pixall purpose built pickers and pulled hi-dump wagons. They still used hydro IHC tractor parts to drive them....James

 

[Destroked 450]

I’m not a IH person but do have a mounted picker
I remember as a child additional tractors hooked to the tractor pulling dads old Case pull type picker thru a muddy field, I also remember how much I hated breaking rolls spending a full day or more breaking rolls across a field
Dad bought a mounted picker to fit our 800 Ford tractor reducing the number of times we got stuck but still hand breaking rolls
After dad passed and corn yields got better we just skipped a couple rows thru the field, it penciled out the value of those hand broke rolls was ate up by lose of time and labor cost
Having a 2 row mounted would have increased the yields income but we didn’t have a narrow front tractor
Granddad farmed with Oliver’s and keep a 2 row mounted on a 1550 until he traded it for his first combine, he dad a 1755 and 550 for other farming needs
We only raise 5-10 acres of corn today to grind for cow feed, it takes a couple hours to mount the picker and like before when we were picking over 100 acres the picker stays mounted till corn is harvested
Not dads but been running this style picker since he bought his in 64

 

[NY 986]

Surprised I did not comment when this thread first appeared. Mounted corn pickers were quite uncommon here and the acknowledged peek for them here was the late 1950's. Meaning mostly JD 227 and IH 2MH. Things in NY were comparatively spartan to the Midwest and very few could afford a dedicated picker tractor and a tractor that did pick corn often had to do other chores such as spreading manure the same day. NI pull pickers were predominant in general here. A few (and I emphasize the word few) bought mounted pickers into the 1970's. There was a JD 237 picker just down the road from me and a couple of IH 234 pickers. The auctions over the years have turned up a few NI mounted pickers and NI was the last to give up on making mounted pickers. A few Ford 601 pickers have turned up in the western part of NY (Batavia, NY area).

 

[caterpillar guy]

We always picked the tad bit of corn we had by hand then dad got a Gleaner E with a 12 foot head he chis was in 1963 then corn head in 1965.

 

[Alvin 41]

Sorry guys, I sincerely doubt either opening fields or traction was a major concern to farmers.

Farmers ran pull-type forage harvesters (i.e. "choppers") from the 1950's through the 1980's. Lots of rows of corn got run over opening fields.

If losing that one row of product was such a concern, why weren't mounted forage harvesters all the rage? In fact, mounted forage harvesters were so rare as to be nonexistent. IH never made one!

Corn is chopped for silage in WAY worse traction conditions than corn is picked. Yet, pull type forage harvesters dominated the market for decades.

Frankly, I think mounted corn pickers stayed popular because farmers "always did it that way" and refused to change.

Forage harvesters came into wide use after corn pickers and there was no way to mount them like a picker. Self propelled ones cost a lot.Traction and opening fields was very important for pickers. Yes they were noisy and dangerous and difficult to mount (one of reasons power shift wheels were popular}. MM made a later model that mounted in one piece by backing under the raised front and tipping it down and hooking up the 3-point and pto.

.