Cotton picking these days.

[sldva00]

Cotton is still hand picked at times nowadays…

First cotton bale of season arrives at La Feria gin - The Monitor: Local News

 

[Redbug]

That's a really great video. It's wonderful to see such efficiency. I would say that one fourth of the cotton is wasted around here and left on the plant. Sometimes you wonder if the field was harvested, there's so much left.

 

[RaydaKub]

I am a northern boy raised on a farm with corn, soybeans, alfalfa, wheat and oats. When I was a kid the largest combines around were the JD 7700. These handled a 6 row cornhead easily. Today's monster machines handle a 12 row head just as easily with double the yield. The pickers in this video appear to be on a par with the combines I see in fields today, but yet they only harvest 6 rows at a time. I'm just curious why that is. I know nothing about cotton farming. Is cotton that much more difficult to get into the machine?

 

[smstonypoint]

Doing some checking, I believe the pickers are JD 7760s. You can pick a new one up in Texas for only $655K (http://www.tractorhouse.com/list/list.aspx?ETID=1&Manu=JOHN+DEERE&Mdltxt=7760&mdlx=exact).

Steve

 

[bcp]

But safer I'd imagine. Growing up it seems we heard at least once a year, if not more, of a man, woman, or child, that was suffocated because while waiting for the next dump of cotton into the trailer they laid out and took a nap. The operator didn't check and dumped a load of cotton on them.
I admit, it was fun doing flips and dives off the side of the trailer into that soft fresh picked cotton.

You forgot the fun of the once-a-day mad rattlesnake dumped in the trailer with the cotton.

Bruce

 

[AGRIMAN]

Doing some checking, I believe the pickers are JD 7760s. You can pick a new one up in Texas for only $655K (http://www.tractorhouse.com/list/list.aspx?ETID=1&Manu=JOHN+DEERE&Mdltxt=7760&mdlx=exact).

Steve

Yes sir, they are not cheap. CaseIH has a version also, which builds a mini module. They cost about the same. It's nice to have 650k ride that you only drive a few months a year.

 

[oldnslo]

Doing some checking, I believe the pickers are JD 7760s. You can pick a new one up in Texas for only $655K (http://www.tractorhouse.com/list/list.aspx?ETID=1&Manu=JOHN+DEERE&Mdltxt=7760&mdlx=exact).

Steve

Deere website shows the base 7760 is closer $800K list and that is with no bells and whistles....

 

[AGRIMAN]

You forgot the fun of the once-a-day mad rattlesnake dumped in the trailer with the cotton.

Bruce

Never had a rattlesnake in a cotton trailer, but I have had them dumped on me in a peanut trailer. They are usually skin alive by the time they come through the picker and not to happy to meet you in the trailer.

 

[smstonypoint]

Deere website shows the base 7760 is closer $800K list and that is with no bells and whistles....

The picker I cited was listed as a 2012 model: Stk #: CONSIGNMENT; 3 Hours; 500 hp; NEW NEVER USED! HAS POWERGUARD COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE FOR 36 TOTAL MONTHS OR 1000 TOTAL HOURS.

I don't have a clue as to how much JD dealers discount such large ticket items. Also, would EPA regulations (i.e. Tier 3 vs. 4) explain a price increase for the 2013 models?

Steve

 

[Daver1963]

This clip reminded me of a scene in The Heat of the Night, one of my favorite movies -- Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier are driving to the home of a wealthy plantation owner and pass a cotton field that is being picked by hand. Remembering that scene and the accompanying music make me want to order a DVD of the movie.

I'm sure that the hand-picking was for dramatic effect -- any substantial acreage would have been mechanically harvested at the time the movie was set.

Steve

The movie was made in 1967 so I'm not so sure that was for dramatic effect. In those days the fields often had to be picked twice with a mechanical picker and only once with human pickers. It might have been cheaper to have people do it.
Machines are much better today.