OK,I spent a lot time on my uncles farm and live in a farming community. Dad own the store where all the farmers bought. A few years ago I heard you could make a living traveling around with a picker and pick crops. Is this still a good idea?
If you had anything less than 12 -16 row bit time shiny for the bankers and magazine stuff , you would starve. Most people with small patches dont want to pay what its costs you at least with hay htey dont. but we can dream. I could have used a custom farmer for a few years but the ones there didnt want to . too busy with their own.
I think the only way you might make any money with one is to plant an acre and sell the ear corn as bird/squirrel feed, a few ears at a time.
You buy a picker and try to go into the custom 'harvesting business, and if something breaks, you are basically SOL, as there are NOT any readily found replacement parts out there.
YOU DO NOT NEED NEW EQUIPMENT TO DO ANY CUSTOM WORK. JUST GOOD EQUIPMENT IN GOOD REPAIR, DEPENDABLE, AND READY TO WORK. IF YOU START TO SINK ALOT OF MONEY IN NEW PAINT YOU WILL GO BROKE IN HURRY UNLESS YOU HAVE ENOUGH ACRES TO MAKE IT PAY. RIGHT NOW I AM CHARGING $25.00 TO 30.00 PER ACRE FOR COMBINING OR PICKING CORN IN N.W.PENNA. IF YOU DECIDE TO COMBINE SMALL GRAIN MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT THE FIELD FIRST. ALOT OF WEEDS CHARGE BY THE HOUR. BILL
I don't think there's many people out there wanting a custom picker, as it seems everyone still using ear corn has their own machine. . . . another problem you may run into with custom picking is row width. I know of one family in Lancaster County PA still offering custom picking, and they use a late model Uni-System picker with JD head adapter that lets them offer wide or narrow rows. Same heads go on their JD combine which they custom shell with, so some cost is spread out between both systems.
SHOP AROUND YOU CAN FIND A GOOD JOHN DEERE 300 PICKER AND RUN 244 WIDE HEAD, 243 NARROW HEAD, OR A 343 NARROW 3 ROW HEAD. WITH THIS OUTFIT YOU CAN CHANGE HEADS FOR THE ROW WIDTH. AS TIME GOES BY THERE WILL BE MORE CUSTOM PICKING DONE AS THE OLDER EQUIPMENT STARTS TO WEAR OUT AND REPLACEMENT PARTS CANT BE FOUND. WITH A 300 AND THESE HEADS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GET PARTS FOR A LONG TIME YET.THE HEADS ARE OFF A SMALL JD COMBINE AND PARTS CAN BE PURCHASED AT ANY JD DEALER. SOME PEOPLE WOULD RATHER HIRE CUSTOM OPERATORS THEN HAVE A PICKER SITTING AROUND FOR 10 ACRES OR SO.
THE WORK IS OUT THERE IF YOU ARE WILLING TO GO OUT AND FIND IT.
BILL
-- Edited by COOT on Saturday 19th of December 2009 07:59:49 PM
-- Edited by COOT on Saturday 19th of December 2009 08:38:55 PM
