I want to thank the folks who set up this forum, its a great help to all us corn pickers still out here.
I'm in Tennessee, right up against the TN/KY line, one county east of I-65. We raise 8-10 acres of corn that is picked and raised by organic standard. I figured if I liked raising corn the old fashioned way, why not go organic? I like to cultivate with my Allis tractors as much as picking. Seemed like a good match. Our populations and yields are admittedly lower, but also matches the equipment that much better. Right now we're picking with a 309 NI snapper that I've had for about 12 years. Basicly picking ears w/shuck for beef cattle. A 323 NI picker would be nice, as I'm learning from you guys about the virtues of ear corn drying and the hinderance of the shuck. It would be nice to pick a bit earlier.
A video made during this year's picking.
I find myself in need of a pto powered sheller. We would like to start a small hog herd and would like to shell about half our crop. Not a large one like the MM outfits, but perhaps the size of a #43 JD sheller. Any other recommendations on mid-sized shellers would be appreciated as well. I'm not as familiar with shellers as I am pickers. I'm a WC, WD, WD45 Allis man - so that's about the hp I have available for shelling.
The wagon is scooped off, it doesn't dump. The tailgate slides up and out of the sideboards and the area behind the tailgate is to get a good start on scooping. I have two wagons like that, built by my great-grandfather and his brother. The wagon in the video holds 15 barrels, the other wagon holds 12.
We scoop the corn off onto an elevator that dumps the corn into a cribbed barn loft. I cut traps into the barn loft floor to let the corn fall back into the wagons when it came time go grind. The traps were cut between floor joists with sliding boards that cut the flow of ears off when the wagon was loaded. Crude, low-tech, but cost effective.
That's the reason I like your #43 JD sheller, not a huge change from what were doing already. The corn is scooped off the wagon into the grinder/mixer, not a big difference to scoop it off into a sheller. I'm probably not going to shell more than 600 bu/year and not all of that at once.
I used to have a 600 bucrib and a 400 bushel round one. But then i enjoyed scooping ear corn. Shelled corn is a liller tho. lol. Seems you could use the elevator to dump directly into the grinder for the cattle. If you look long enough and hard enough , you should be able to find a sheller for your grinder. Mine is an old michilana grinder,sheller mixer that i need to rebuild. It has a haban sheller on it. They can also be found occasionally on ebay. My straight wd allis powered it ok.
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I used to have a 600 bucrib and a 400 bushel round one. But then i enjoyed scooping ear corn. Shelled corn is a liller tho. lol. Seems you could use the elevator to dump directly into the grinder for the cattle. If you look long enough and hard enough , you should be able to find a sheller for your grinder. Mine is an old michilana grinder,sheller mixer that i need to rebuild. It has a haban sheller on it. They can also be found occasionally on ebay. My straight wd allis powered it ok.
Growing up, the neighboring farm had a New Holland grinder/mixer wiith an attached shelling unit up front. Sadly, both the farm and that machine are gone. I can't remember very well, its been a long time, but I recall that it didn't shell corn in the husk at all. The shucks would plug up the sheller somehow.
I don't grind all the corn at once, just a little at a time. Rarely a whole wagon load, unless somebody is buying it. I imagine shelled corn would be the same way. Shell a wagon-load and grind it off as needed.
The more I look at jdtom's #43 sheller pictures, the more I'm convinced its the size and configuration for us. I don't know about the Haban shellers or how they work, could also be a good choice for me. Very little info out there about them.
I posted a wanted add in the bulletin this month and an old man called and told me that he had one that had been stored in his barn for 20 years. He said he would take $100.00 for it. I'm supposed to go and get it next week. I'll post pictures when I get it.
Yeah - a portable PTO powered Haban sheller would be similar to the JD #43 in the way it works. As far as that goes, if you have some time and a little ingenuity, a sheller attachment for a New Idea picker could be rigged up as a stationary sheller too. It just depends upon what is available in your area.
-- Edited by jdtom on Tuesday 15th of December 2009 07:18:39 AM
There never was a great deal of shelling going on around here, until combining began. I've only seen one NI sheller in my 41 year lifetime.
We raised hogs off ground ear corn spiked with wheat and milo when I was a young man. I realize I could do better with shelled corn. Far more Allis 66/72 combines around here than shellers of any stripe (or at least used to be).