Contrasts of technology?

[Speed]

Well its getting on towards harvest and this makes me chuckle every year. Had the old McCormick-Deering corn binder out in the field Monday, that my grandpa and great grandpa bought new. I still use it to make cornstalk bundles for the Halloween/ Thanksgiving decorators. View attachment 313298
I did the first 350 bundles and she ran like a top.

Now, here is what I have spent the last two days working on in the shop.

Kind of makes you wonder what the next 80 years will bring to the table doesn't it?

 

[farmer steve]

Well its getting on towards harvest and this makes me chuckle every year. Had the old McCormick-Deering corn binder out in the field Monday, that my grandpa and great grandpa bought new. I still use it to make cornstalk bundles for the Halloween/ Thanksgiving decorators. View attachment 313298
I did the first 350 bundles and she ran like a top.

Now, here is what I have spent the last two days working on in the shop.

Kind of makes you wonder what the next 80 years will bring to the table doesn't it?

like 'em both Speed.is that corn binder ground drive? always lookin for one to do the same thing as you. are you gettin ready to pick beans or corn?

 

[92utownxh]

There was actually a corn binder for sale on my local craigslist today. They said it works as it should and ground driven. I'm not sure I had ever seen one before today, only the one row pickers that send it up to a gravity wagon.

 

[Homelite410]

Well its getting on towards harvest and this makes me chuckle every year. Had the old McCormick-Deering corn binder out in the field Monday, that my grandpa and great grandpa bought new. I still use it to make cornstalk bundles for the Halloween/ Thanksgiving decorators. View attachment 313298
I did the first 350 bundles and she ran like a top.

Now, here is what I have spent the last two days working on in the shop.

Kind of makes you wonder what the next 80 years will bring to the table doesn't it?

Both of them are sexy

 

[Speed]

Yes its ground drive. I like the ground drive for the fact that I can use the little tractor on it and save fuel. There's really no need for a big tractor on it due to the fact it pulls very easy. From what I have been told the John Deeres pulled way harder. There would be an advantage to a PTO driven, if you had it behind a hydrostatic drive tractor and could slow the travel speed way down. Today we are planting at double the population that they did back then, so the knotter is working double time to keep up with the flow of corn coming in. Due to that, my bundles are actually bigger than I'd like, because by the time it knots and kicks the bundle, there is already quite a slug of corn waiting in the throat already.

How much were they asking for the one on craigslist? I've seen them from $600 to $1000.

From what I've heard the Amish are starting to use choppers because there hasn't been any binders built in so long and they are all getting worn out, and they can't find replacements. If that is the case, you may be able to find one easier in Amish country, Steve. We will probably start with beans, when they are ready.

 

[Marco]

no bundle carrier.....been there done that, opened field with a binder cause you only needed to cut one row by hand instead of 2, then we got a brainstorm to shock, deer enjoy cornshocks, then we sent it thru a Rosenthal 40 cornshredder, then we used the stalks for bedding, what a beast to pitch out.

 

[Marco]

What are you running for twine? Binder twine, 16,000 or? Something called recycling twine is close but runs out the outside the ball.

 

[Marco]

Miss the longhopper blower days, you could chop with the old DC, unhook, pull the load up with the Scout and blow it up the silo with the DC on the belt.

 

[Marco]

I'm going to be 40 next winter and have done this in hopes of a return.

 

[Speed]

This one had a bundle carrier and a wagon loader. Dad decided to sell them to some Amish friends in the '70's. Why I'll never know, as we were still shocking corn every year till the mid '90's for winter feed for Dad's draft horses. I couldn't even imagine how many acres its done. When it was new, they filled 5 silos every year plus lots of custom work. It sat idle for maybe 15 yrs before I got the hair brained idea to start selling to stands after I was approached for a 6000 bundle order a few years ago.

As far as opening the field up, that is another reason I like running it on the little Deere. I leave 4-5' around a small field here and can slide right around with no hand cutting, I don't have time for that. I can also drive over bottoms of bundles with it and not damage them because its light.

You mentioned the DC. They always used a Case C on the filler. Story goes that a neighbor bought a Farmall M and thought he could best the little C. Long story short, they snuffed the M with way less load than the C could handle. When it was time for the C to go, they had 5 men feeding the blower and 1 walking it down as it went in. They never snuffed the C, it was sending more than the men in the silo could deal with.

 

[Speed]

Here's the twine I'm using, its just regular binder twine. The local elevator can still get it for me. I think it was just shy of $50 for a 26000 bale, 6 balls.

 

[Homelite410]

I just read your Bio. I posted some of my equipment in the "antique machinery lovers " thread. I too have a love of old machinery and we host an antique gtg every October at my house. I have a 2 hole Sandwich sheller and several one hole shellers, 3 hand fed power shellers, 4" associated, and an 8" IHC burr mills, buzz saw, and 10" David Bradley fixed hammer mill. I pick 3 loads of corn with a Wood Brothers picker and my 1950 John Deere A and all my friends come over and bring food and machinery to play with and we make a day of it. I been doin it for almost ten years now. We even have 2 model steam traction engines show up and one brings a model sawmill.

Love what you're doing keep it up.

 

[Speed]

That sounds like it would be lots of fun. There are a few of us that have been thinking of doing something similar, due to the fact that one local club decided it only wants to parade, the other is only about eating, and the leadership in another has gone so corrupt, that no one wants to participate anymore. I really like the field day stuff where things are expected to work all day, rather than sit in a static display. One of these days, I'd love to go to the half century of progress show. Seems that I always remember it, or hear about it, two days after its done though.:bang:

 

[farmer steve]

Yes its ground drive. I like the ground drive for the fact that I can use the little tractor on it and save fuel. There's really no need for a big tractor on it due to the fact it pulls very easy. From what I have been told the John Deeres pulled way harder. There would be an advantage to a PTO driven, if you had it behind a hydrostatic drive tractor and could slow the travel speed way down. Today we are planting at double the population that they did back then, so the knotter is working double time to keep up with the flow of corn coming in. Due to that, my bundles are actually bigger than I'd like, because by the time it knots and kicks the bundle, there is already quite a slug of corn waiting in the throat already.

How much were they asking for the one on craigslist? I've seen them from $600 to $1000.

From what I've heard the Amish are starting to use choppers because there hasn't been any binders built in so long and they are all getting worn out, and they can't find replacements. If that is the case, you may be able to find one easier in Amish country, Steve. We will probably start with beans, when they are ready.

saw an IH pto binder for sale on my "lancaster farming"newspaper today.$2150:msp_scared:.guess i'll keep lookin.lots of amish and mennonites go to the produce auction i go to. have to ask around.

 

[Speed]

It had better be a two row for that much. Holy cow.

 

[Marco]

Where did all this efficiency go? Farm subsidies and people on food stamps with these great machines. 5 acre fields with good ground growing to brush because big machines won't fit and worthless sand in 160 acre chunks get it run right out of it with irrigation.