Cotton picking these days.

[oldnslo]

Amen to that. Doesn't make any sense to me either. But yields have increased a lot since then too. When I was on the farm, 40 bushels per acre of wheat was a great yield. Nowadays, 40 would be disappointing, and most of them around here seem to be shooting for 50 - 60.

30 -50% increase in crops and 200+% increase in machine costs still doesn't make farming sound like a money making business anymore..

 

[J_J]

Do I ever remember being made to picking cotton, and then that SOB took my money. Sore and cut up fingers, and no lunch. Such a deal I had. I was one angry little kid.

I swore back then I would never be a farmer, not just for the cotton thing, the other things as well such as tobacco. Did everything dealing with tobacco, and hated it all.

I could do it , just didn't like all the crap going on.

Yep, mechanized farming, sho do pick em clean.

 

[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?

Anybody wanna fill me in? Why is 500hp necessary for a 6 row machine?

 

[kneedeep]

Pretty heavy machine loaded and LOTS of stuff has to run off the motor beside the wheels

 

[smstonypoint]

Anybody wanna fill me in? Why is 500hp necessary for a 6 row machine?

Pretty heavy machine loaded and LOTS of stuff has to run off the motor beside the wheels

It looks like the onboard module builder requires some oomph -- JD's conventional picker (7660) has 373 HP.

 

[RaydaKub]

It looks like the onboard module builder requires some oomph -- JD's conventional picker (7660) has 373 HP.

The S690 grain combine has 580hp. The grain tank is 400 bushels and the corn head can be 18 rows (I'm out of date). 400 bushels of corn is 22,400 lbs, assuming it is about 13% moisture, but usually it is 15-18% so it is even heavier. The grain auger to unload is 26 feet long, so they boost the hp to unload on the go. So these aren't small machines. I'm just surprised that a picker only does 6 rows. I'm not disputing it, I really am asking because I'm curious. What does the module builder do? Put it into a big bale of some sort? Do they limit the machine intake because of the overall weight of the harvest?

 

[dusty3030]

The S690 grain combine has 580hp. The grain tank is 400 bushels and the corn head can be 18 rows (I'm out of date). 400 bushels of corn is 22,400 lbs, assuming it is about 13% moisture, but usually it is 15-18% so it is even heavier. The grain auger to unload is 26 feet long, so they boost the hp to unload on the go. So these aren't small machines. I'm just surprised that a picker only does 6 rows. I'm not disputing it, I really am asking because I'm curious. What does the module builder do? Put it into a big bale of some sort? Do they limit the machine intake because of the overall weight of the harvest?

Strippers come wider than 6 and they are more like a combine header and they are easily removed for transport, they strip the entire boll from the stalk.
A picker row unit is heavy and very complicated. It actually picks the lint and seed from the boll. This is not easily remove able for transport. You have to pick just like it was planted, the plant has to be perfectly centered on the row unit. So they plant on 12 you run a 6 row picker. If you plant on 8 you run a 4 row.

The module builder incorporated into the picker makes a tightly compressed "package" of cotton. Regular pickers simply fill a basket (like a combine hopper sort of) full of loose lint, that is in turn dumped into a separate module builder that a crew of one or usually two would build a large rectangular module with. Looks like a freight container with an open top and a hydraulic ram, you operate it with a separate tractor.

The module building picker eliminates the module builder and crew as well as most people used a boll buggy (like a grain cart) to ferry the lint from the picker to the module builder.

 

[dusty3030]

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/files/2011/11/CottonSpindle10August2010FINAL.pdf

This is the best I could find to explain how a row unit works.

 

[bigtiller]

The S690 grain combine has 580hp. The grain tank is 400 bushels and the corn head can be 18 rows (I'm out of date). 400 bushels of corn is 22,400 lbs, assuming it is about 13% moisture, but usually it is 15-18% so it is even heavier. The grain auger to unload is 26 feet long, so they boost the hp to unload on the go. So these aren't small machines. I'm just surprised that a picker only does 6 rows. I'm not disputing it, I really am asking because I'm curious. What does the module builder do? Put it into a big bale of some sort? Do they limit the machine intake because of the overall weight of the harvest?

Weight and width are the enemy. The 6 heads hang several feet in front of the drive axle and they are heavy. If the basket is empty while moving and you stomped on the brakes hard enough, the rear wheels would come off the ground. Deere did do some rearranging and lightening of stuff in the heads so that 6 rows were possible. It wasn't too many years ago that 5 rows was the biggest there was. During that transition the row spacing was narrowed so the picker didn't get so wide that it couldn't cross a bridge on a gravel road.

 

[jinman]

http://lubbock.tamu.edu/files/2011/11/CottonSpindle10August2010FINAL.pdf

This is the best I could find to explain how a row unit works.

Dusty, that document shows just how valuable a conscientious operator is. When we see machines as in your original linked video, it's easy to assume that the operators are just drivers while the "smart" machine is doing all the work. The TAMU document debunks that assumption completely. As with many things we take for granted, the skill of the operators and setup of the equipment changes often to ensure the most efficient operation and crop yields. Even the details of how to prevent cracked or damaged seed is very important for crop continuity. It proves that a strong mind is just as important as a strong back to successful farming.