Corn harvesting: Picker or Combine?

I would like to see 20 acres a day with a pull type picker. What is the logic with OP seed? Dry down isn't as good and stalk strength sucks. Uncle did it one bag once. I question your motive are you in to this to be like dad or grandpa and get the nostalgia or as a business venture?

SHAMELESS wrote: OP corn is really making a comeback! I think there is a large dealer in MO for it as there are others across the country! they are trying to get away from Monsanto! and I think there is a pull type picker coming up at auction this week....i'm thinking in KS, will try to find it and let ya'll know! oh...and I've been thinkin bouts the OP corn too for this year!

It really is. There are many reasons for that, including market demand from the same folk demanding more ethically raised meats etc. Organically raised, non GM corn can easily bring $15/bu if it can be sourced at all. And with the cross contamination issues I hesitate to buy seed at all as I really can't say what's in it.

victoryallis wrote: I would like to see 20 acres a day with a pull type picker. What is the logic with OP seed? Dry down isn't as good and stalk strength sucks. Uncle did it one bag once. I question your motive are you in to this to be like dad or grandpa and get the nostalgia or as a business venture?

it's a business venture. The market I am trying to reach is one that wants to buy directly from the producer and one they can trust to provide what they want. I have no clue what is in a bag of seed but I do know what's in my planter if I grew it myself.

Joe(OH) wrote: You could do 20 acres a day with a 2 row, but you would hustling and you better not have any break downs.  Pick some, shell the rest.

Fair enough. That gives me a benchmark.

Around here the local grain elevators wont buy ear corn anymore.

I think I would get hurt badly trying to take corn to the elevator or even feeding out in competition with confinement operations. I am shooting for a specific niche market.

It will store for a long time, but dont put more in a crib with out emptying it first.  If you refill with out emptying you end up with a bad rat infestation.

Mmm...good advice there.

I usually like to pick between 22-25 percent moister.  Another concern is finding a corn that will pick with acceptable shelling loss.  Most of the modern corn shells to easy to pick nice.  Just my 2 cents.

worth much more than that, my friend.

SHAMELESS wrote: you asked about the jd 227 picker....they are easy to take off and put on, but are a tinny picker,

What does that mean?

don't harvest as well as other brand pickers, and create a lot of shelled corn in the loads, the jd 327 picker was better but are hard to find. the 227 picker caused a lot of fires on the tractors too.

what was the cause of the fires?

427435 wrote: If you want to go the mounted picker route, look for an IH picker on an M or later tractor.  Preferably the 2MH, 2 ME pickers or later. Like others have said, a NI pull type is probably your best choice for a lot of reasons.

that seems to be the consensus opinion. I will likely try to get those 227's because I only have to move them a quarter mile, the owner owes me a big favor so I think I can barter a few hogs for them and I want to save them from the scrap yard. But for harvesting, that is what I will be looking for. Any particular model that's best; or, more importantly, which ones to avoid?

The Red Rock Threshers club does ear picking each year, but I have to wonder how much yield there is in bin run corn? The guys say modern varieties of corn tend to overwhelm old machinery. Would bin run yield 50 bu to the acre?
When it comes to shelling, are there any clubs in the area that would do it for a fun club day? That might be a solution to one bottleneck.

Edited by Brian Jasper co. Ia - 30 Dec 2014 at 3:07pm

GM Guy wrote: There is a Gleaner "G" gasoline hydro in NE KS or SE NE on craigslist. kinda rare configuration, but parts would still be easy to get. Comes with both heads for 2500.

I will check that out. Thanks.

CTuckerNWIL wrote: Brian Jasper co. Ia wrote: Would bin run yield 50 bu to the acre? Probably not in the regular grain bin. If however, you are growing open pollinated corn, like Pete is talking about, it looks like you can expect anything from 75-150 bush/acre.

From the trials I have seen and my own experience I think that's about right. I hope toward the upper end once I am following hogs and chickens in the rotation.

MoPete wrote: 427435 wrote: If you want to go the mounted picker route, look for an IH picker on an M or later tractor.  Preferably the 2MH, 2 ME pickers or later. Like others have said, a NI pull type is probably your best choice for a lot of reasons. that seems to be the consensus opinion. I will likely try to get those 227's because I only have to move them a quarter mile, the owner owes me a big favor so I think I can barter a few hogs for them and I want to save them from the scrap yard. But for harvesting, that is what I will be looking for. Any particular model that's best; or, more importantly, which ones to avoid?

Growing up in the good corn country of SW Minnesota (Redwood county), tractors were split about 40% each, JD and IH (the last 20% were everything else).  There were a lot of the mounted IH pickers on the IH tractors, but most of the JD people seemed to use NI pull pickers (or even mounted NI pickers).  I figured there most have been a reason for the lack of JD mounted pickers, but I've never been around one.

when I said tinney...I used the wrong word...should have been "flimsy" and about the fires...the tractors would overheat and the ear corn hair would get in around the engine a lot! if you come across an old 2MH IH picker...they are harder to mount and dismount, and you have to grease every zerk after about 8 hrs of run time, and there's a zillion of them on that picker...takes just a little more than one grease tube each time. those pickers really did the best job of picking over all of them, but you really needed to mount it and leave it on. I still think AC had the best picker, being low profile and easier to mount/dismount, and they did a nice job of picking too, but left a lot of the shucks on the ears.

One time and one time only I planted corn out of the bin. Planted it late and thick as cover crop on about two or three acres that had been used as a feeding area for round bales. I even split the 30" rows and then put some more on at an angle. Wanted it thick. So likely there were 180000 seeds at least per acre. No fertilizer except the manure and hay waste, no herbicide except round up before no tilling the seed. Intended to let it mature and then dry down to clear the nitrate potential, then roll it up, didn't expect it to have an ear. Just wanted something cheap to plant, and green through the summer, able to outgrow and shade out the weeds and make some junk to bale for the cows. Well the deer really liked it for that summer, and it did end up setting ears with corn grain on them. Mowed some but left windrows of ears and corn after the baler went through. Deer liked that too. Ended up running it through the corn head on the combine. Fine little stalks wiggled in pretty well and it made about half or more bushels per acre of what the hybrid corn grown in rows, with herbicide, nitrogen, starter fertilizer etc. Ended up baling those stalks and they were OK.

Better than weeds, but not by much especially for the effort on that little dab and the corn was dirty to run through the air units. Chaff and stuff plugged up the holes in the plates. Just always wanted to try it for cover in those kind of places. Have not done it since, but if I did, I believe I would disk then broadcast the seed and disk again to sow it and probably return the growth to soil with the disk then grow something the cows could graze safely into the fall like oats and turnips.rw

I haven't planted any open pollinated corn but when I've had volunteer hybrid corn in my beans, it has been sterile. There were ears but few or no kernels on those nubbin ears.It might  have been because they were generally single plants only a dozen or so to the acre, but even in clumps there were only a few kernels per ear. Sometimes when walking the beans I figured pulling the corn did more damage to the beans than leaving it.

I know Albert Lea Seedhouse (www.alseed.com) sells open pollinated corn in several varieties and shows yield data in their catalog, at least relative yield data. They won't guarantee 100% pure organic.

There was a seed company in eastern Iowa that had been selling organic open pollinated seed for nearly a century that was having a severe problem with blowing pollen from neighboring GMO fields contaminating their seed. Corn pollen can blow miles so it may come down to having to grow none GMO seed inside greenhouses or on center city roof tops miles from any other corn fields.

Gerald J.

There is an OP corn site on face book . Lots of guys working with OP corn now. Greenfield 114 is one . I want to try some Henry Moore which is high in lysine also so it would be a good hog feed.THere is a good corn picker site online too.The newest NI mounted pickers have a sub frame which makes it easier to mount. The newest style NI pull types have anough angle on the snapping rolls to break off fewer stalks and shell less in the row.On my original farm i used my NI #7 and figured according to the way i was taught to measure it that i lost 14-16 BPA in the rows . The newer NI 325 with 8 roll husking bed broke off fewer stalks and paid for itself in a couple of years through shelled corn savings. You can use or hire someone with a combine to open up the field. Or have a field day and invite guys with pickers. As you will find out on the picker site guys love to get their pickers out and pick a good size field for someone.Some great pics of guys with old pickers mounted,2 rows,1 row and 2 row pulltypes. The only problem is there is so many guys some from what i under stand could only pick in one direction then dead head back but all had fun.One guy had 3-5 oliver pickers there. Some nice restored and maintained pickers. Also sometime guys will have shellers so you can have shelled corn too.My biggest worry with the dang GMO contamination is they can come in and confiscate your crop without any proof that it was contaminated. If you develop you're own line of op corn for your farm they can wait till they want to put small guys under, accuse your crop of contamination then take it and never have to pay you for your effort and time developing the genetics. Some real good facebook and other sites on raising op corn , direct marketing hogs, and some guys creating their own special breeds or crosses of hogs to sell.Ive heard bin run hybrid corn will after a few years go back to its parent lines  while OP corn you can continually improve.  Most guys used to wait till corn was well below 30% moisture to pick. I started if i recollect 26  % on down.. Below 20% you will get more shelling on the snapping rolls.I think the shorter season hybrid corn will work better as picker corn  as it was developed back then for picking and the newer longer season for shelling.Sorry so long a post but this is a couple of my favorite subjects too! =)

Question on your JD 45 combine. What kind of cylinder does it have, spike or rasp? If you have a spike, you'll end up getting kernel and cob anyway! LOL