Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mounted Corn Pickers?

When did you last see one in operation?

Three or four years ago. Our neighbors had a small (2 acre) plot between the creek and the high school that they planted in corn and harvested with one of the later IH pickers (white and red) mounted on a 400 that was more silver than red. Really was neat to see.

I was a bit too young to see them in operation, but there were a couple older one armed guys in the neighborhood who got tangle up in them trying to clear a plug.

My neighbor has a couple. He rebuilds and restores things like this. He had them out this fall, guessing he used them at their club activity.
I was too busy picking my own corn to go watch.

My ‘mounted’ corn picker was my Quarter Horse with a ‘croker sack on each side of the saddle!

I think that every small town in Iowa had a man with a hook acquired in that manner.

We used one back in the mid eighties or so. Mounted on a IH 706 to pick ear corn for grinding for high moisture earlage. Dirty,dirty job sitting up on that tractor in the middle of all those moving parts. Our unit was a bit different than the one pictured as ours also husked the ear.

Most likely 1973. Last year on farm. Think it was a New Idea? Mounted on a 400. Wow. Blast from the past.

Looking at one of those bring back lots of BAD memories. Has anybody ever seen anybody caught in one of those? I have!

IMO, they are among the most dangerous pieces of farm equipment ever made.

Wasn’t sure what a mounted corn picker was so I googled it....

Dont have much corn here.

What corn is grown gets chopped for silage.

Dad had one for his little Ford tractor, and the neighbor down the road had a hook he earned by trying to clear a plug. The neighbor was my uncle's coon-hunting buddy. He could shoot his Nylon 66 as well as anyone else, even with just one good arm.

What little corn picked in the ear here is done with a pull picker.

I'll add, seed corn, and sweet corn is picked with a self propelled.

My Uncle Ben had a two row that he mounted on an M Farmall. He wasn't a very big man and with no power steering, it must have been a chore to steer that thing with all that weight on it.

I remember shucking corn with my Dad and a team of horses when I was very young. Shuck and throw into the wagon until it needed to be moved, then call for the horses to move forward. Unloading was by scoop shovel.

Then we got a one row Woods Brothers corn picker. Pulled it with a 1950 8N at first then later a 1950 B John Deere with the "corn picker gear". I still don't know how that little 8N did it. They were not very powerful and were not geared very low. Still unloaded by shovel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRHrA5BrnvM

Exactly what my uncle had when I was about 10 years old.. In the '70s, I had an IH mounted picker/sheller on my 560D.. Heavy as hell, but it worked fine..

I believe the one my family had was an IH one-row. May have been two. Last time I saw it used was probably the late sixties or early seventies. Uncle had a regular corn-crib. Grandpa had what amounted to a snow fence that wrapped around and allowed you to just pile it on the ground. I remember playing in the corn and feeding ear corn to the hogs.

Very few mounted pickers here, as most all I've seen were the pull type. We had a pull type New Idea, and I kept it for 25 years after I last used it, thinking maybe I would again. Finally put it in an auction here that caters to the local Mennonites. They still use stuff like that.

Farmer I worked for as a kid had one on a Farmall 400.
I think they still use it.
Pull types are more common, and also used yet.
It seems the farmers feeding corn prefer ears.
Those selling corn, shell.

Once in a while I still see one in use.

I hunt a place where the owner picks with a pull behind. A lot of work involved in maintaining bins, cribs, and shellers even before the harvest. The guy makes a profit most years, and never borrows to plant.