Growing Corn

[lrunge]

Ok, we now have a New Idea 323 single row corn picker. We can plant it and pick it. We can always store the ears and shell the corn a little at a time. So far, the used equipment costs slightly exceed the value of the corn for the first year and it's not even planted yet.

 

[CATMAN]

To all members who haven't grown grown up around corn-pickers or combines: NEVER, EVER grab a corn stalk that is wiggling around in the snapping rolls while the machine is running or idling. You may think you can tug on that stalk and pull it out, THEN in an instant those snapping rolls grab it and down it goes and your arm goes right in there,too! If I remember correctly reading the owners manual on Dad's old cornpicker, I believe the snapping rolls take a 1000 ft per minute. That is 16.6 feet per second, even if your reaction time (to release your grip) was .300 seconds(fast), those snapping rolls already took 5 feet of stalk or your arm into it. Please be safe.

 

[MossRoad]

To all members who haven't grown grown up around corn-pickers or combines: NEVER, EVER grab a corn stalk that is wiggling around in the snapping rolls while the machine is running or idling. You may think you can tug on that stalk and pull it out, THEN in an instant those snapping rolls grab it and down it goes and your arm goes right in there,too! If I remember correctly reading the owners manual on Dad's old cornpicker, I believe the snapping rolls take a 1000 ft per minute. That is 16.6 feet per second, even if your reaction time (to release your grip) was .300 seconds(fast), those snapping rolls already took 5 feet of stalk or your arm into it. Please be safe.

I have an acquaintance that lost an arm in one of those when he was young.

 

[mjarrels]

My High School Ag safety instructor lost both legs to corn picker! They can get you fast. He was also hit by a train while crossing the track on a tractor. Great Ag safety instructor because he tought by example!

mark

 

[CATMAN]

On PBS(couple of years ago); There was a documentary about the loss/decline of the small family farms. It was filmed not too far from where I grew up.

One of the photos that they showed was the filmmaker's dad(the actual farmer) sitting on a JD tractor-mounted cornpicker on the final day of cornpicking, he drove in the driveway and held up both hands and fingers to show the camera that he still had all ten fingers after yet another harvest.​

I believe the film was called "Troublesome Creek". The Troublesome Creek road is only three miles from my Dad's farm in Iowa. Dad knows the family. If you have ever sat in a tractor-mounted cornpicker, you could probably understand why/how so many people/farmers/farmkids got hurt with these units. Dad wouldn't let us boys use it at all=never. Later, he got a pull-type New Idea picker, then finally a combine. We got to use the latter two.

 

[lrunge]

I read several safety cautions on the corn picker and a couple of injury stories of someone trying to get there picker unplugged with the pto engaged. If it clogs it will be shut down. For those who haven't seen a New Idea corn picker in action here's a couple of videos.

YouTube - Picking Corn

YouTube - Picking Corn 2

 

[charlz]

Does that New Idea picker also take the husk off? hard to tell in those videos.

 

[lrunge]

Yes, the picker takes the husk off and drops the cleaned ear into the wagon.

 

[egglebl]

Looks like you have all the pieces coming together. The part I'm having trouble with is, once the corn is picked you store it on the cob for drying. How do you remove the kernals?

I have found multiple sources for the single ear at a time hand cranked sheller. Isn't there a better way to shell corn? Doesn't anybody make a motorized corn sheller? A PTO driven machine would also be nice.

 

[Egon]

It would seem your corn growing concerns have all been covered. What are your plans for the Baseball Field??