Fergie, Do you have any pictures of that machine? I've not heard of the "grinder" attachment for a picker, what is the final product? Ground corn or ground ear corn? Thanks, John
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MM UNIs,LP, toys, stuff, MM SH picker, MM Uni picker, MM Uni picker/sheller, MH #4 picker
I don't have any pictures yet. The corn gets shelled of the cob and falls through a 1" screen. The cobs are broken up by knives, like a hammermill, and forced through the screen. Then everything goes through a roller and gets augered into a wagon. The corn ends up being cracked and the cobs are in 1' chunks.
It's nice and quick to grind feed, but our goats and calves always separate the cobs out and don't eat them. I asked the vet about it and he says tha they are just being picky eaters.
Yeah, last fall we borrowed a corn picker and picked three wagon loads. We had planned on grinding all of it up with a Lorenz grinder for feed. We ended up having an oil leak on the tank that runs the unloading auger. Since we couldn't use the grinder we used my Corn King corn sheller to shell about 10 pails of corn per day. The sheller is a standing corn sheller. It doesn't have a motor on it. I bought the sheller a couple years ago for $17.50. The corn was in a 200 bushel nu-bilt gravity flow wagon. We shelled just about the whole wagon load before we got this picker. After we got the picker we ran all the cobs through that we had form shelling. They make good bedding. Now we run the ear corn through the picker and fill a wagon with the feed.
Tim, If you're referring to me, I lived in Union County, Lorimor, 15 miles south of Winterset. There is a very active MM collector in or around Clarinda, I'm on the stateline between Chicago and Milwaukee now, been here 40 years.
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MM UNIs,LP, toys, stuff, MM SH picker, MM Uni picker, MM Uni picker/sheller, MH #4 picker
This past year, we picked the old fashioned way - by hand. I put the stock racks on the pickup (leaving one side off), and drove down the field. When we got done with a few rows, I'd shred about 5 picked rows and move the pickup over. Depending on the wind, and size of ear, you can be pretty acurate at about 10 rows between you and the pickup - any more, and it gets hard to see what you're aiming at.
I feed whole ears to the goats AND the chickens (I chop or break them into 3" chunks for goats...). I've noticed that the chickens don't care - they can strip an ear faster then you can. The goats are different, some will eat the cob, others will "waller" it around until they get the grain off, and I have one who takes it into the barn, drops it on the concrete, then rolls it against the wall to strip it. She can clean the cob pretty quick. Remember - ALWAYS feed goats BEFORE you let the chickens loose. Otherwise, the chickens will get most of the corn - they are WAY faster then goats....
I also have a Letz grinder for shelled corn. I will grind some feed for the chickens (mixed with other things) to feed in the spring/summer/fall.
