Now that I'm finished with all of my corn harvest for 2016, I finally have some time to post some pictures of my ear corn harvest a few weeks ago. I switched to 30-inch rows in 2012 so I can't use my New Idea mounted picker anymore so I have been looking for a New Idea 3-row pull-type picker since then. I finally found one last winter so we were able to pick some corn again this fall. Everything went pretty smooth (a few glitches with the picker, but that was to be expected) and we picked about 2200 bushels in about a day and a half (it was a 2-mile trip from the field to the cribs). So now I can play with corn sheller next summer after 6 years of no ear corn.
-- Edited by jdtom on Saturday 5th of November 2016 09:16:54 AM
I haven't seen many NI 3-row units down here, mostly JD 3-rows. I take it from your post that those are set up for narrow-row corn. What tractor HP is needed to run that machine? Good grief, if the cribs were closer, that thing would clear a field in short order!
I don't know how much power this picker really takes - both tractors that I had on the picker were plenty big enough to run it. I just switched to the MFWD tractor part-way through because there was a wet spot that we ran into and I decided we were just going to plow thru it, no matter what. (I have been fighting with too much rain here pretty much all season and I didn't care anymore...)
I do miss using the mounted picker, but with my switch to 30" rows this was pretty much my only option for ear corn picking. It was a good feeling to pick ear corn again after not having the opportunity for so many years. My brother even came over to help one of the days - he hasn't done this since we were in high school 30+ years ago! I always have to use the Nu-Bilt flare wagons for picking, just like we did when I was growing up. My son helped for awhile and I have a college guy who works for me in the summer that we introduced to this "fun" as well. He's been working for a BTO on his off days from school this fall and he really liked this change of pace! (he's the one unloading the wagons in a few of the pictures)
-- Edited by jdtom on Sunday 13th of November 2016 11:49:01 PM
