MOUNTED corn picker VS. Towed type.M Farmall.WHY ?

mike1972chev · May 9, 2012

Good morning guys,

I see "back in the day" you could have had either a mounted corn picker on your M,or you could buy one that was towed on the drawbar. I have seen A LOT of mounted ones,and fewer towed ones. It seems to me the mounted ones would be confining and a lot of trouble to install/remove??? Seems like the towed one would be easier to use???(I have NO clue about corn picking AT ALL!!! Just curios,as usuall! lol)

Which one was MORE preferred and why???

DanD · May 9, 2012

If a farmer had a wide front tractor 10-20,15-30, W type or a wide front Farmall etc, they would use a pull type picker.

DanD · May 9, 2012

Mounted type was a shorter more manuverable rig. Tractor and wagon opposed to tractor picker and wagon. It would be interesting to know the price difference between the two.

gene bender · May 9, 2012

How are you going to go thru a field for the first time just knock down unpicked corn so you can pic two rows. With the mounted you could go thru anywhere. With the pull picker the tractor would need at least two rows for space to pull the picker. We used to go thru before picking and hand pick two rows throwing them on piles then pull a wagon knocking down the two picked ones and pic up the piles so there would be room for the tractor drawn picker to get thru. Opening up a field took a lot of hand picking just think all around the field then at least two places in the middle so you didnt drive empty clear across to the other side. got it

Brendon-KS · May 9, 2012

One problem with any pull-type harvesting implement is that you have to run down crop to open the field. The self-propelled versions (which a mounted picker essentially is) can begin at any place in the field without running down crop and offer more flexibility in how the field is harvested.

Brendon-KS · May 9, 2012

Looks like you and I had the same thought at the same time!

gene bender · May 9, 2012

Brand of the tractor didnt make any difference not all old tractors had a mounted picker. Ever seen a mounted picker on a hand start John Deere. They had quite a device to start them as there was no way to get at the flywheel to use it for starting with your hands. So they had a wheel with long shaft that would reach thru the picker to the flywheel to start the engine. But we got er done

gene bender · May 9, 2012

I was there and done that and thats the way it was done. Or you could use horses and a wagon then hand pick the down rows they mashed down going thru but then how did you stop the horses from eating their way thru. OH HA they muzzled the horse so he couldnt eat any corn while going thru the field the first time after it was opened the horses drove thru the already picked corn.

IH fan · May 9, 2012

"Back in the day" when picking was in vogue, Dad did a lot of custom picking, including "opening up" fields for farmers, meaning using his mounted picker to go through the field at intervals so the guy did not have to smash down rows when he harvested with his pull type.
Dad had a hand start A with a 226 picker first, then a couple of 60s with 227 pickers. Before that he had a single row JD, think it was a 101 or something like that, on a B. With the hand start A, you added a "hub" to the flywheel that had a cranking twist hole. We used that all the time because the 1940 A had a Behlen 5th/6th gears and that did not leave room for your fingers. Same thing was used with the crank extention gene mentioned.
(Mickey Newbury song "Sweet Memories" has been running through my head lately and these sure are that. I guess when you hit 70 things from your youth come back more and more often.)

James Williams · May 9, 2012

In my younger days on a small beef farm with 20-30 acre fields,dad would send us boys out with a wheel barrow and open the fields up by cutting fodder and feeding it to the cattle in the fields.Where was the farm labor laws than,it wouldnt have mattered dad would have told them to take a hike

jimmy

craigreavley · May 9, 2012

we still have the 2 row mounted picker on a 400 sitting in the shed. It has been 20 years since it was used. It was an all day project to put that picker on the tractor. It was easier to leave it on one and buy another. We discuss every year getting it out and picking with it. As kids we rode in the wagon as the ears fell on us. Those were some of my fondess memories riding in those wagons behind that picker. My uncle had an M burn one year due to corn stalks building up on a 2 row mounted picker. Almost burned the whole field down that year. OSHA would never approve the farmall 2 row picker, there were no guards anywhere and moving parts on all sides of the driver.

agpilot · May 9, 2012

Mike: Using a mounted picker was not always better. Going through wet/muddy areas would tend to plug up the narrow front wheels even if you had mud scrapers on. Using a pull type picker with a tractor using a wide front seemed able to work better in muddy conditions and late Fall when it was getting colder the muddy fields stayed muddy often untill Spring. So just knocking down a few rows with a pull-type picker was not always a clear cut loss if you could get through the rest of the muddy field better then a narrow front mounted picker.. A plugged narrow front under all that sheet metal nose cone was a pia problem..

mike1972chev · May 9, 2012

Loving all of these answers so far! Someone mentioned to me a concern about "engine fire"riding one of those mounted 2 row pickers??? I have seen the steel sediment bowls that were used cause the glass ones would heat up and break.

Sounds like a mounted picker could be dangerous ?? I know MOST farm equipment CAN be dangerous though!

Wilks54 · May 9, 2012

Grandpa had a New Idea 2 row corn picker mounted on his 400. Looking through his notes, looks like it was a 305 with a 316 12 roll corn picker...if that makes sense to anyone. Grandpa used to duct tape all the holes and seams on the tractor so nothing would fall through and catch fire. He always had a long stick, and used it to fling stalks and such off the tractor. I remember him saying it heated up the 400 pretty good, and said it was the warmest spot on the farm on a cold day.

There are still duct tape marks/residue on the sheet metal in places. Can't bring myself to remove it. ...

Duner Wi · May 9, 2012

Mounting picker on M was a bit of a hassle as I remember. This is before we had impact wrenches.
Opening the fields was also a hassle with pull type.

Anonymous-0 · May 9, 2012

The biggest factor was simply traction, in rolling hills dragging a pull type & a loaded wagon uphill in a wet field on a frosty morning was nearly impossible, mounted type put the weight on the tractor, much more traction, most tractors in corn belt were row crop (tricycle) for cultivating. I set-up new IH pickers in SW Iowa for 10 years at dealer from 1960, we got them by the railroad on flat cars.

mkirsch · May 9, 2012

Sorry guys, I sincerely doubt either opening fields or traction was a major concern to farmers.

Farmers ran pull-type forage harvesters (i.e. "choppers") from the 1950's through the 1980's. Lots of rows of corn got run over opening fields.

If losing that one row of product was such a concern, why weren't mounted forage harvesters all the rage? In fact, mounted forage harvesters were so rare as to be nonexistent. IH never made one!

Corn is chopped for silage in WAY worse traction conditions than corn is picked. Yet, pull type forage harvesters dominated the market for decades.

Frankly, I think mounted corn pickers stayed popular because farmers "always did it that way" and refused to change.

Super-H-Mike · May 9, 2012

One thing I didn t see mentioned yet was how LOUD it could be with a mounted picker, sitting right in there like you did. Like others have said, mounted was great for opening fields, manuvering, but a pain to put on and off. I still use my old 1PR one - row IH pull - behind picker every year. Picking corn is one of my favorite jobs of all.

IH fan · May 9, 2012

Answer to the New Idea 2 model numbers... NI had the husking bed mounted behind the tractor with a pair of dolly wheels instead of built into the front part of the picker and there was more than one model to choose from. They had a very good husking set-up, maybe even better than the JD 227.
As to noise... not any worse than it was without a picker, and the advantage was it funneled heat off the engine back to the driver so in the fall and winter it helped a little.
For fire protection... Most had engine screens to help keep trash off the sides of the engine, Dad's JDs had expanded metal screens, plus a replacement fron grill section that enlarged the intake so if some got built up on it, the engine would still cool.
As for "that was the way it was always done"... it was probably the best way at the time as it was much more manuverable, did not have to smash anything down when opening a field, and added traction, as evidenced by a loaded tandem GMC I pulled out of a field that I could not have done with a JD 60 and no added weight.... truck driver could not believe I did that.

Anonymous-0 · May 9, 2012

The choppers were used but it took a crew to chop silage, a picker could be a 1 man operation, he would go out & pick a load or 2, haul in & put in corn crib. I really doubt traction was a problem in August chopping as opposed to November picking. Not much of crop was chopped compared to picked. I also set up & delivered choppers but not in October/November.

El Toro · May 9, 2012

I think it was in 1949 when we had our silos filled by a local farmer using a pull type harvester that did custom work. He had a Farmall M pulling the harvester. We used a 10-20 on the blower. I think it only took 3 days to fill both big silos. The old way using a Papec silage cutter took almost 3 weeks. Hal

M Diesel · May 9, 2012

(quoted from post at 08:03:10 05/09/12)

If losing that one row of product was such a concern, why weren't mounted forage harvesters all the rage? In fact, mounted forage harvesters were so rare as to be nonexistent. IH never made one!

Well, choppers don't exactly lend themselves to being tractor mounted.

How about the two row problem? Most of the pull type pickers in my area were all single row. Were two row models really popular? Or did the mounted two row ones just take over with the advent of row crop tractors?

randy hall · May 9, 2012

until tractors got to be over 100 horsepower a mounted picker would go through muddier conditions much better. when it got muddy with a pull type picker everything would want to drag sideways.

ss55 · May 9, 2012

Cost:
Mounted was probably less expensive than pull type pickers.

Ease to operate:
Easier to stay within 1 to 3 inches of the row looking forward into the rows with a mounted picker, especially on contour planted hills, and in muddy conditions. Front mounted cultivators were popular back then too. Pull types may have been more popular in flat country. I muddy conditions sometimes picking had to be delayed until the fields froze.

Trade-offs:
Mounted pickers put the operator in the center of the dirt and the noise. Mounted pickers were a lot nosier than a tractor alone. Mounted pickers tied-up the "big" tractor until picking was completed.

Most farmers needed to work with a neighbor during harvest as the sons were in school most of the day. The home farmer hauled wagons and disked end rows while the visiting farmer ran the picker.

Kirk Affeldt · May 9, 2012

RPM1941,
I grew up on a diary farm where dad and I used a mounted picker right up until he retired in the early 90s. We still have the New Idea 319 picker and put it on the IH 656 a couple of falls back to "play around" in the corn field. It still works like a charm but it does take time to put on and take off. I have a couple of questions for you about your days of mounting IH pickers. I recently bought a 234 picker in great shape and hoping to mount it this late summer to "play" again this fall.
Did you ever mount the IH 234 picker? Did your dealer ever have a cart for moving around the gathering unit? Do you remember what size of extensions the 234 gathering unit needed for a 706? How did you put the elevator on the husking bed of a 234? This was unattached for storage reasons by the previous owner.

Bud DeLong · May 9, 2012

One of the many troubles of the mounted pickers was the fact they were all the old primitave wide row!! If you think about the JD 300 picker with the 3 343 3 row narrow quick tach corn head then you had something!! Bud.

Super-H-Mike · May 9, 2012

Disagree on the noise. And dustier too as another fella stated. The tractor noise isnt any worse, but the picker is much louder than a pull type unit.

Heat Houser · May 9, 2012

I for one was very happy when we got a 2MH mounted picker. I was tired of hand picking corn to open up the fields for the old Woods Bros one row pull type. If it got late, dad would run down two rows to start picking and then we would have to pick those rows stooped over. The only reason we went to mounted was that "The boys" started to leave home. That left Dad to hand pick....2MH didn't take long to arrive.

Bkpigs · May 9, 2012

The biggest advantage is that with a mounted picker you would go back and forth. With a towed picker you went round and round, wasting time and fuel traveling the headlands.

Paul from MI · May 9, 2012

We picked corn with a one row Oliver picker, my cousin owned it no idea what model. What I do know is that one of my least favorite jobs was hand picking corn to open up the fields. Years later when I was growing corn I didn't mind the job at all. Spending a couple of hours after work by myself, just me and the dog, hand picking corn was a lot more enjoyable than it was when I was 16. Towards the end of the corn picking era there were a lot of two row mounted pickers that were left on a tractor, never taken off. It was just too much trouble and an older tractor wasn't that expensive. Lots easier to just get it out in the fall charge the battery, grease it and go.

LMack · May 9, 2012

I did both mounted and pull behind and ease of operation for the mounted picker was a big plus. We had a one row mounted on a 200 and I could remove the 2 point assembly and mount the picker in an afternoon after school. To reverse the operation took about the same amount of time. My dad and uncle started with a one row pull behind doing custom corn picking. After one year the pull behind was traded for a one row mounted picker on a C (we still have the picker). Because of the one row we had an issue opening fields. I tended to knock down a row and "pick it back wards" to recover some of the corn and the rest the cows got forging the fields. My dad would often hand pick the opening row moving up the picker when it was too far to carry his bag of corn. For relatively short rows common in my part of the country there was no comparison in operation efficiency. My Brother in law had long rows (almost a full mile) and never owned a mounted picker. I do not recall heat being a problem unless care was not taken to keep the radiator clear and all the shields and screens in place. It was a little dusty but picking corn with a mounted picker was probably my favorite farm task. As far as ensilage was concerned, enough was cut to fill the pit or silo which was a fraction of the total crop and usualy only the dairy farmers did even that. All the corn had to be picked so it made sense that a more efficient machine would be needed.

IH fan · May 9, 2012

(quoted from post at 20:09:38 05/09/12) Disagree on the noise. And dustier too as another fella stated. The tractor noise isnt any worse, but the picker is much louder than a pull type unit.

I'm sure I don't remember how noisy they were because as a kid, it didn't bother me.... I just enjoyed being in the field on a tractor. Only pull type I ever used was a Woods Bros. single row behind a Super C the first couple of years after Dad downsized and before he bought his second mounted set-up.
Being in NE Iowa, we picked a lot when it was frozen and I remember the heat funneled back between the husking beds sure was welcome. The platform would be fairly warm from the transmission so your feet did not get cold. Worst thing was greasing it in the morning when it was really cold, but that would be the same with any of them, pull or mounted.
Seems strange now that my wifes cousin here in Kansas uses a 16 row JD combine and hauls everything in semis.... man, how it's changed.

willie in mn · May 10, 2012

Couple topics.
When Dad was still alive & us boys home there weren't many tractors that could spin a 2 row chopper. Live PTO just coming on line, lots of choppers still had their own engines.
Dad had a single row pull type picker. Only 2 or 3 mounted pickers in neighborhood. He would hire neighbor to open up field. Rented farm on shares, landlord got half on corn. Hire headlands picked, count rows & put up flags where he wanted another land started, I think every 40 rows. Due to varying field conditions, pick half of each land for our share, all of our share first, then move elevator to other crib & pick landlord's share. Alternate years landlord's share got picked first. That averaged out weather & moisture conditions.
When we got old enough to pull wagons & unload, brother & I each took a week off from school to help.
Willie

Anonymous-0 · May 10, 2012

The 234 could be had with hitch lift or hyd cyl lift, most of them were hitch that I set-up, 234 had a lot easier/quicker set-up to take the processing units off, they advertised use the tractor for chores in morning & pick corn in afternoon. Problem was that the mounts for tractor were very specific for each model, not much fit a IH 656 or over to 706, they were factory made to each tractor. To set-up all equipment we had a 706 with 2000 IH loader & fork lift attachment. I am not sure what extensions you are asking about, the elevator we just man-handled it on or lifted with loader/706.

Siefring Red Farmer · May 10, 2012

I ran a NI mounted on a 300 for a couple of years while we could get corn shelled at our feed mill. The tractor+ picker is 100% noisier. There are all those chains and gears rotating and whirling along with the picker itself holding in the tractor noise.

Definitely dirty, hot machines to run with all that corn dust being stirred up and sent back at you by the radiator fan, especially on warm September afternoons in Ohio.

We broke the rear axle several times with the added weight of the picker.

Mounted pickers only came in wide row varieties, unless they were 1 row pickers. I think that lead to their disuse over the years more than anything else.

All that said, I think I would rather pick with a mounted unit vs pull type if I was still picking corn.

SRF

IH fan · May 10, 2012

(quoted from post at 11:07:07 05/10/12) I ran a NI mounted on a 300 for a couple of years while we could get corn shelled at our feed mill. The tractor+ picker is 100% noisier. There are all those chains and gears rotating and whirling along with the picker itself holding in the tractor noise.

Definitely dirty, hot machines to run with all that corn dust being stirred up and sent back at you by the radiator fan, especially on warm September afternoons in Ohio.

We broke the rear axle several times with the added weight of the picker.

Mounted pickers only came in wide row varieties, unless they were 1 row pickers. I think that lead to their disuse over the years more than anything else.

All that said, I think I would rather pick with a mounted unit vs pull type if I was still picking corn.

SRF

We never picked corn until early November when I was a kid, because we stored ear corn and it needed to dry in the field instead of burning a bunch of propane to get it dried. Batch driers came into use about the time I left home for the service, so we didn't shell corn until we needed it for feed. Then had a 1000 bu. steel bin we would fill until we needed to shell more. Picked a whole lot more corn when I needed to stay warm than to get cool. Now with combines they need to harvest when it's still high moisture and burn up a bunch of propane or natural gas to dry it or it will crack too many kernals (or so I've heard). Doesn't always seem like progress to me, but I suppose over all it is more efficient.
The way the weather patterns have changed, maybe November in northern Iowa is to warm.

mike1972chev · May 10, 2012

To ALL:

Really enjoyed reading your storys.I SO wish I could go back in time for a few weeks and do some of this stuff with my Great Grandfathers!!!! I missed out on some COOL things.

MOUNTED corn picker VS. Towed type.M Farmall.WHY ?

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