First Day of Picking Corn! Harvest 2023 

When I was growing up in eastern Nebraska it was my job to haul the wagons home to unload them into the crib. Our corn crib was a converted church moved to the farm in 1950. When it was converted , it had a 9 foot crib on one side and a 8 foot crib on the other side with overhead oats bins above the driveway. Ever so often the elevator spout’s bolts would come loose and we dump a couple of loads of ear corn on top of the oats. It was a pain pitching all ear corn over into the crib. The church was build in the 1880’s and is still standing on the farm. My dad always expected me to be back in time with the empty wagon before he had the current wagon filled. That was tough when he was 1/2 mile away picking. He had a pull release hitch on the picker so he pull the rope drive ahead and wait for me to pull behind him, then get off and pull the empty wagon pin get back on and move the tractor then get off to hold the wagon tongue so he back in and the release hitch would snap around the wagon pin. Then as he pulled away, I was back on the tractor to back up to hitch the full wagon which meant to get off again to put in the wagon pin. Then off for home. Due to the rolling hills we did not use gravity boxes but regular barge wagons. In the later years the wagons has hydraulic hoists under them to tilt the wagons so the corn would roll out into the elevator hopper. It was still a pain cleaning out the corners with a pitchfork. I always wished we had a wagon box that corner pins where the whole rear end of the box would swing open to clean out the corners. In the earlier years we ran the elevator with a speed jack and a tumbling rod. The speed jack ran off the belt pulley on the tractor and slowed the speed down with gears to run the elevator We fed feeder cattle in those days and ground ear corn was considered great feed as the cobs were the roughage. Even when we went to the combine in 1972 we picked ear corn until we stopped feeding cattle a few years later. We had an Allis Chalmers WD with a mounted Allis model 33 snapper picker. It did not have a husking bed. Later we went to an Allis Chalmers D17 (which we still own) with a 2 row Ford 602 picker. It did a great job of not shelling corn from the snapping rollers but the husking bed could not handle 100 bu corn. In the 1990’s sweet corn farmers from Idaho were in the area buying any ford picker they could find as the snapping unit was the best for harvesting fresh sweet corn. They took everything but the husking unit which was later sold for scrap. Harvesting ear corn was a lot of work, but we considered it a good crop year when we had to build temporary cribs out of snow fencing. The temporary cribs were called 3 ring piles as you would use 3 rolls of fencing to build the temporary crib. You needed to shell the piles before spring since the corn was either on the ground or on 12” wide wood planks. We had U shaped metal tunnels to make the temporary trough for the sheller drag. When shelling the piles often we use the tractor loader snow scoop to dump the corn into the sheller. One Spring the ground was a bit soft and the scoop picked up too much dirt which was damp. The dirt got into the theMinneapolis MOLENE 1200 sheller and plugged the sheller cage and got too full and killed the Allis D17 running it. We had to wait a few days for the dirt to dry out and clean out the cage using splat blade screw divers reaching through the access holes on the side of the sheller. Corn harvest changed in the 1970’s and now all combines and large gain bins. Not near the like in 1960’s.

I like old equipment... Its a perfect example of how they were built to last a life time .. I watch Just a Few Acres Farm & that guy tears them down to the nuts & bolts & restores them , then uses them... I think thats great...

Hey youngster, we must let you know Dad has moved up the ladder in the ranks for top videographer on this channel, we need to hear more from the other announcer too.

I really like the way you never know who's going to be doing the videos. Keeps it interesting getting different prospective on everything

There’s only a few channels that if I fall asleep watching that I will go back and rewatch. This is definitely #1 on that list. Really like that corn picker.

Seeing all the chains on the picker. I use chainsaw bar/chain oil on all chains I find it the best. Always keep some in a door latch oil can.

Corn pickers are a bitter/sweet memory. We picked and cribbed all our corn in the early 60s. It is sweet to remember the times of good yields and then prepping for next year. We also walked the rows to retrieve field loss corn.. the bitter memory is of dad losing his right arm in the husking rollers of the picker. I will never forget that day in 1961.

I still fill corn cribs! I grind it for feeder beef. Works great. Get in field early. No drying cost. Wire cribs do the drying free! Corn for the whole year!

Nice full ears . Nice to see Oly out stretching her legs . 👍 Great video What a view .

my grandpa had the same tractor 300 Farmal with the same kind of picker in 60 and 70 in ind picked 20 acres a year

I love watching corn snappers in action

New subscriber love the old equipment. Low inputs = mo 💵👍🤞

1:56..............excellent explanation of the difference in corn from when that picker was built to today's corn.

I can remember back in the mid 70s GREEN GIANT IN LE SUEUR MN USED TWO ROW PICKERS ON TRACTORS !!!!! AROUND 76 THEY WENT TO THE NEW IDEA UNI HARVESTOR AND PICKED 4 ROWS !!! GREAT JOB !!!!!! DAD ❤❤❤😊😊😊

Wow that was cool footage ..looking up the crib with corn falling..in

Mom has skills with the camera

Good morning Mary?? Glad yo hear you once in awhile too. Fresh corn in the crib is such a pretty yellow.

Much better than watching a 24 row head on an x9. Keep it all going.

Yup, certainly brings back memories. We used to walk up the elevator to check the top of the crib. That was a kid job that I actually liked to do.

I can remember the sound ears of corn as they hit the metal of the gravity box. so different from corn as it hits the wooden floor of the corn cribs. The nostalgia of that for me was powerful. Thank you for letting me relive a lost memory one more time.

George- we are jealous of the views you have while working! Beautiful.

Corn must be dry!! Really comes out of box good.Always helps when you don't have to get in the wagon and push wet corn out.Gee,all the kids are gone so poor OLD Mom and Dad have to work alone. Boy I miss working with my great wife on the farm!! The good OLD days!! Harvest days are some of the longest days on the farm. You get up early,do chores,pick all day,do chores late,maybe eat once that day and hit the hay dead tired 😴. Yep,fun on the farm!! Thanks 😊.

If you block off half of the crib doorway with a sheet of plywood before you fill it, it will eliminate the spillage into your grinder/mixer auger. Unloading ear corn was my absolute favorite thing to do, particularly when it was good and dry. All you had to do was stand there and watch it slide out of the wagon and go up the elevator. Then drive the tractor around in the beautiful fall weather. Love the videos. You guys have a beautiful operation. Thanks for sharing!

Nice to see the vintage Machinery still working. Dad did a great job he made some nice shots of the picker aswell.

Great video. Back in the 1960's we had a 2 row IH picker. It did not shuck the ear of corn so we did not have very much kernel loss. When I was old enough I was put in a flat bottom wooden trailer with sideboards and in one corner a scoop board was proped up against an endgate most times and my job was to throw out stalks that made their way to the trailer and I also pulled the ears into the corners of the trailer box to get as much as Dad thought the tires could handle. Fun times. Takecare folks

As a kid we had a Wood Brothers 1 row pulled with a Ford 2N, when I started farming in the 70's bought a Deer 227 mounted it on a JD A run a lot o corn thru those pickers.

Always enjoy your videos. Hope the yield is as good as you thought it might be. Remember Aaron showing a picture of you with the caption, 'One of the hardest working men I know'. Think you are all hard workers. Take care.

Love watching your I Video. We used a 1row pull behind picker. It took awhile to get a wagon load but I loved unloading the loads.

Thanks for taking the time to bring us along.

I see you’re in your tee shirt! I remember picking on those nice sunny days. But I also remember having to thaw everything out in the morning before picking started. Keep those videos coming and have a safe and wonderful harvest.

I always enjoyed picking corn.. l had a I.H. 234 mounted picker, it was first on a Ford 4000, then l put in on a Super MTA, then a 856.

Great job running the corn picker and unloading the ear corn 🌽

Great job hauling in the ear corn 🌽

As a youngster I used haul loads in listening to the Badgers. Granted they were very good in the late 80's but loved every minute of it. We had an M with a IH 234.

I miss picking corn with a 2 row picker but I can remember as a young man just how many farmers that I shook hands with that were missing 2 or more fingers from using one.

great video

i like seeing this style of harvesting of corn

You might loose a couple bushels to shelling but if you had to dry shelled corn in a bin it would cost money and if you had to haul it to somewhere else to store then you would have trucking, wait in line, pay for drying and storage, and they would make the standard deduction for FM and shrink and take more than they really lose to those things in reality

Love this video. Great to see old school stuff at work.

Just impressive and very sound business logic. Making do with the tools you have makes perfect sense.

Running older equipment that is paid off is one of the keys to successful small farming. I remember my Dad picking corn in the early 60's with a 2 row corn picker mounted on a Farmall 560. I even remember riding in the wagon while he picked. It was an end dump flat bottom wagon, in case you are wondering how I was able to ride in it.

Great video Gierok Farms

Enjoyed watching the video guy's 😊

Aaron, you better be careful. I think dad’s going to take over your channel. Great job sir.

Enjoyed watching the video guy's

Another great video! Thanks!

I love watching these old mounted pickers working in the field ! I grew up dodging ears of corn in the back of a wagon but I never got to run a mounted picker . My grandpa had a New Idea picker on a Farmall M but you got the Cadillac of a tractors picking lol . There is a big difference in shelling the new hybrids vs old O.P. corn . I grow a patch of O.P. corn that I have been breeding and I shell it out by hand and when we gleaned the farmers field beside us I couldn't believe how easy it came off the ear. . It just fell off with ease unlike my corn I got to fight getting off the ear . Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend !

We congratulate you, you are introducing us to the village and country life in a pure and clear way, with a nice level of sincerity.thank you

Hey guys,,some really great footage. Keep it up!!

all I know is you guys are some strong and tough guys. People in todays world have no idea how hard work is. This is 60's and 70's type of tough work. I commend you all.

George Gierok,,corn picking master class.

Brings back lot of memories. I remember some years it was sunny an warm made it enjoyable other years it was cold an windy with flurries.

I love hard work. I could watch it all day 😏😉

I wish someone would start making brand new New Idea cornpickers…. My neighbor used a John Deere 2 row pull type corn picker and had so much stalks in the corn his milk production went down

Work has to get done regardless

Very interesting watching you get it done with the older equipment 👍🏼

This takes my back 60 years. Thanks for the memories when I was a teenager. Our neighbor did the corn picking and my job was unloading the wagons in the evening after school. I wish I could remember if my neighbor had a picker like yours or a pull behind picker. I do remember that it was late fall and really cold, some times snowing. Thanks for sharing your farm chores with me. I watch every post you do.

This video has blown up! Good job man ... very cool to see this old-school approach

Camera work is the best. Thanks for filming.

Oh the memories! We had a NI picker but husking bed was different, rollers much more exposed. We had 2 and a half wooden cribs, 30X40 to fill, plus a 100x 30 thar was retired before I started running the picker. My grandfather put up 2 bins and he and Dad bought a MF 300 with 2 row head. Meanwhile, my brother and I would fill the remaining cribs using a Case 400 on the picker, a Massey 44 to haul wagons, and a Ferguson 30 to run the elevators. We had 2 hydraulic dump wagons that replaced the old mechanical wagon lift. The fancy crib at my place had an internal elevator driven by a 3 hp electric motor and several sets of chains. It also had electric lights so we could unload at night. One big difference was that we had everything set up to save the shelled corn-no slots open on outside elevators and wire mesh lining lower 5 feet of cribs. We would grind feed as needed and shell out the rest in early summer. Fun memories but I would not want to do it again.

Best times growing up as kid!! Life was so much simpler & enjoyable.

It’s great to see the old equipment at work! I also agree with your outlook on field loss! Thank you

Right on, that's how I always try to think of it using old smaller machines. Like you said 4 days, now if you spend all that money on a combine 4 days of the year and the other 361 sitting in a shed. At least the tractor can do more than one job. Great video, i always enjoy watching. Corn picking it's one off my favorites.

I really like to see the older equipment being used great video

Love ❤your entire farming operation. Farming diversification the way it should be.

Awesome video. Really enjoyed watching the old equipment working. I hay some steep hills on my property but I’ve got 4wd, you had my butt clinched side hilling with tricycle tractor 😮. Great job, stay safe and God Blees

Beautiful weather to be working outdoors. Picking corn in cold/blustery weather can be a challenge.

I love seeing the old picker in action, the operator is certainly living in the moment and is in the heart of the action. Glad to see George is wearing hearing protection, I'm sure that corn pickers are responsible for the loss of hearing for many farmers. Is it just me or does anyone else see a young George in Mason? Thanks for another great trip into the life of a small dairy farm.

That sure is a nice picking setup. I would love to have that kind of corn to run through my big Moline belt driven sheller. I enjoy you picking videos each year.

My favorite time of year was picking corn. All your videos bring back the best memories of my life. We had a 1 row 323 New Idea. A neighbor I helped as a kid had an Oliver mounted picker on a Super 88 Diesel. He used to open our fields along fence rows and through the middle.

Ollie’s back in business! No farm should be without an Oliver. With luck, it’ll be working there for another 40 years. Also, you just can’t beat picking corn. Faster isn’t always better. And it’s just plain cooler than a combine.

Man! Wish I lived closer I would help you out! Brings back memories of helping our neighbor growing up in 70's. He picked corn with a New Idea two row picker pulled with a 1466 International. My brother and I would haul gravity wagons back and forth to the corn crib with a Farmall 400. Unloaded them into an elevator like yours. Good memories! Keep up the good work!

Just goes to show. You don't need a half million dollar combine to pick corn. Keep the old stuff running. Although break downs you don't need the payments. Stay small and keep it all. The money that is. Great video.

Great video of picking and putting up ear corn. Brings back fond memories of doing this same work on an Indiana farm in the 50's when I was a kid in school. You have great weather for picking. Sure beats freezing temps and snow later in the fall. We had an Oliver mounted picker and also a New Idea pull type. The New Idea was more reliable. I watch most of your videos and love them. Keep up the good work!

U guys r awesome video guys very nice job love you guys ❤

Great video, nice looking corn for a dry year. Love the different angle shots, like I'm there.

Yeehaw what a great harvest year keep up the great work y’all

Thanks for the ride along.

Very cool video

Good to see the mom and dad team

I really thank you for the wonderful memories of picking corn in the ear. My son and I were in a field yesterday that my dad and I were picking ear corn 60 years ago. We were using a Massey Harris Self Propelled picker. 2 row. Son was using a JD 8 row machine. He was shelling more in 1 hour than we would pick all day. Times have changed. Memories. Thank You and Your Family. Memories

Great footage. You guys sure stay hooked up running a dairy. I was raised on and still operate a beef farm, but that dairy life seems to be non stop. It’s nice to see great care and pride that you all have for your family business. Have a prosperous and safe harvest!

Birdie Birdie up so high-Sends a message from the sky- Farmer Brown wipes his eye - says " Good things cows can't fly".

Great video!!

Hi George,, I’m only picking 35 acres this season, filled 2 wire cribs and some in my old wooden drive thru, park the picker and grinder in it, using an old new ideas 2 row does good job,, good video on the picking,,, have a good day,, ps my work hoarse is a 856

Back when we were picking we would use a regular spade dirt shovel to control the amount of corn going into the elevator. Easier than using your hands and arms and not as dangerous

Very interesting video. My non-farm experience brings back some memories of how it was done in the small town I grew up in back in the late 50's and 60's. Thanks for sharing.....

cool

I love the camera work and angles you use to make your videos. Great stuff. Also love the farming content!

I'm 73 years old and I've known the beginnings of large-scale corn growing in France since 1956, with your Wisconsin toothed-grain varieties, which were a little late for us. They were harvested on the cob at 40% water, and we dried them in cribs (a column 3 feet wide, 13 feet high and 160 to 300 feet long). No ginning problems with a New-idea n°7, and 323. Genetic progress with French breeders, and in 1960 1800 GDU varieties, harvested at 37%, again with N-Idea.but very wet autumns with an off-center hitch and a trailer hitched to the corn picker and you were "crabbing" along, and sometimes waiting and aggravated weather! and lost corn, not harvested until winter. The N-I with a 2nd superimposed chain raised the stalks well.So we've seen N-Idea 325s adapted with a hydraulic tipping hopper on the drawbar. But 2 French manufacturers opted for a tractor-mounted corn-picker with a hopper scaffolded above the tractor, and on our first 4x4 tractors in 1964 they were all the rage! On the one hand, they did a better job of stripping the spathes (rubberized hedgehogs, rubber rollers); on the other hand, they didn't use chains (apart from the 2 for picking), which meant that the return boxes contained grease. Low maintenance. As earliness was improved, at 32% the N-I déa egrenait too much the bottom of the ears. With a Bénac fitted with 2 chains and 2 adjustable plates before the roller, ginning was a thing of the past and American models disappeared. Since 1980, the corn picker has remained in the garage, replaced by self-propelled shellers and, in 1990, the combine harvester. cuckoo,hello Americans. 🌽 🌽 🚜🚜🚜

You guys have a perfect size dream farm! Man it was always a dream to have a small dairy with 40 milk cows. Now I’m 47 and it’s just merely a dream. I live my dream watching you guys, thanks for the content!

Harvest is such a beautiful time and you all have done a wonderful job capturing it. Thank you so much for taking the time to make and share these. Please stay safe, and God bless.

Great memories from years ago. We did not have gravity boxes, but hay wagons that we put sides on and had to shovel everything off onto the elevator. We used an old Woods one row picker and the WD45. Picking corn was usually the last harvest job that was done, and I can remember the snow flying and long days and nights.

It's always a pleasure watching you work your machinery , little nuggets of wisdom , all good stuff . Great video 👍🇬🇧

I remember them days, we had a New Idea picker on an international 560. Had one crib that held 2500 bushels and a pole crib that held 3500 bushels. Have a safe and good harvest.

Great job love the equipment you guys are one great family

Amazing video with all the great shots from so many different angles and views. You folks really do think about how to make it real for us the viewers. I grew up on a dairy farm and remember corn picking like you are doing. The video is exactly how I remember seeing it! Love the vintage equipment too. Thank you to all who took part in the making, love you all.

The corn picking is looking good and great weather to harvest

My back is aching just watching you unload the gravity boxes,is not hard work but always in and uncomfortable position at least for me,we use to take 4 random cobs and throw them in the cow water tank, if 3 floated it was ready to crib

Can’t wait to see the fall colors 🍻🇺🇸