That’s amazing this technology was available only as recently as WW2. My great grandmother told me stories of how she picked Cotten during the Great Depression and how much work it was day after day. Now a machine can do it.
really great video. i searched for videos of people picking cotton manually and found my way to this. it's remarkable the amount of suffering this machine has eliminated, and with such technological grace. i think about the slaves that would have been on so many American cotton fields 200 years ago, or even less, and what kind of salvation this would have been. it's only a shame it took man so long to come up with this invention. thank you for uploading this!
Its weird that I came across this video. As an African American male that was born and raised in the South my grandmother absolutely despised these machines
Watched this after watching your 11/01/2020 video! For those of us that have never been around cotton or cotton pickers it was very interesting to hear your explanation and was very understandable!! Thanks for taking time to do that!!
Just a couple of thoughts. Cotton picking machines were introduced in the mid to late 1950's in my teenage years. At that time the spindles were continuously wettened by water to help the cotton fibers to stick to it. Actually, the machines leaves some cotton on the stalk. The economy is in being able to harvest a large quantity in a short time. So a small waste does not substantially subtract from the overall profitability. Thanks for the great video.
I really appreciate this video. Only thing that I would mention is that my understanding is the doffers actually spin in the same direction as the spindles and at a faster speed to ‘unwrap’ the cotton from the spindle barbs. The taper in the spindles also helps this process. The ones I have worked on have the bars coordinated with the ground speed of the picker so the plant ‘sees’ the spindles move in and out of the plant and not pulling or pushing it. I haven’t worked on the round machines so I just assume this is still the case. Thanks again and I’m going to link it on my page. I sure won’t send much traffic your way unfortunately but it is about the best video (perfect length and detail) to show people that are unfamiliar with cotton and probably educational to some that are. Thanks agin... new subscriber.
Being from the far north ive never been around the cotton industry, but I've always been fascinated with it, especially with how the massive cotton pickers work, thanks for this video, you've explained everything perfectly! I would even say much better than most other videos
Great video! I've never seen a cotton picker in action before since I live up north. I'm a field service tech for JD and always wondered how these work so now I see!
This is really cool! We don't have much cotton I have seen where I live , so I didn't even know this machine existed. I didn't even know what a cotton plant looked like!
Praying you have a wonderful high quality crop and plenty of it stay safe out there awesome informative video showing how everything works very good video
Good video - bk in the 50's we had a 2 row stripper mounted on a H Farmall. Blower didn't have enough power to blow it to the back of the trailer - had one man in trailer throwing cotton to the back. Oh yea - no ac on tractor or in trailer.
Thanks for such a great explanation of how these machines work. I always was curious, now I actually understand. Here's to a prosperous and breakdown free year.
I’ve filmed the footage on how a cotton plant develops but haven’t put it all together yet. Probably do that this winter. A time lapse is a good idea but is not possible in reality. The TV show that filmed us tried to do a season long one but it didn’t look good. Between the wind and different lighting each day it just didn’t come together well. And if the professionals couldn’t do it, I sure don’t stand a chance. Only way to do it properly would be to grow cotton indoors and do a time lapse that way. They also tried that but we found cotton won’t grow underneath special growing lamps.
@@griggsfarmsllc I'm astonished by the effort you put into just finding that out! Also, thanks for this video! You have no idea how much time I spent trying to decipher how this could work :)
The genius behind those pickers is huge , then when you see it you're all " that looks so practical " brilliant video 👍🇬🇧🎃 . And I do buy cotton at every opportunity. As I grow through life cotton's comforts become more important . 😁
Aaron O'Shea thank you. I appreciate it! So what topics would you be interested in learning about? If I have the ability to discuss a subject, I can work it in with other videos I have planned.
@@griggsfarmsllc how about the different types of tillage and when they're used? Or maybe what happens to your crop when it goes to the next stage (day trip out filming)?
I grew up in the South but never knew exactly how a cotton picker operated. Thanks for the lesson. Can you do a video about how the raw cotton is then turned into thread?
I can't do that because there are no textile mills in our area. I do have footage recorded of a cotton gin which separates out the seed and the trash from the lint and puts the lint into cotton bales. I have plans to make a video about it eventually.
We had a John Deere 99 and a JD 299 both were 2 row machines they were not very fast ... the New John Deere pickers are way ahead of the new Case IH with the way they put a round baler on there to replace the basket.. it can roll a bale and wrap it , and drop it in the field without stopping.. the Case IH STILL HAS TO STOP TO UNLOAD THE
Picking cotton this way although much much faster, seems like lots of pieces of the branches get chopped up and imbedded into the cotton. Hand picking seems like you have a way cleaner product
While a cotton picker uses spindles to remove just the cotton fiber from the hull, a cotton stripper uses brushes and bats to strip the entire plant of everything but the stalk. It pulls in the lint, hulls, leaves, and unopened bolls. It uses a burr extractor to remove a lot of the excess trash but will still result in trashier, lower grade cotton. Strippers are typically used in drier areas of the country where the cotton is shorter and lower yielding. In lower yielding cotton, strippers will harvest more of the fiber and harvest quicker than a picker. In taller, higher yielding cotton, the picker is much more efficient and can cover more acres per hour.
So the self contained picker with bale maker and everything can cost 900k. How much is one that doesnt? And how much is all the other equipment you need to buy?
John Deere doesn’t even make basket pickers any more. Case IH is the only manufacturer that does but last I heard, they only make about 10 per year. I haven’t priced one but I’d say a Case IH basket picker brand new is probably a little less than half the cost of a new JD baler. Not sure what new module builders are now days or if new ones are even being made anymore. If I had to guess I’d say around $15k. John Deere’s baler picker will eventually force smaller cotton farmers like myself out of business because there won’t be any viable harvest equipment alternatives for us and we won’t have enough acres to justify purchasing one of their machines.
I have notice cotton fields when I am driving thru SE Missouri, TN, MS, AL. In late October many fields look like they have been harvested, but there are no "modules" around in the field, and there appears to be some cotton bolls left on the plant. After doing some research, I figured that the modules have been hauled to a different site, and that there is an acceptable percentage of cotton that goes to waste because it is left on the plant. I learned also that not all farms make the modules and the raw cotton bolls go into a basket truck and down the road to the gin. And I can pick up a few nice pieces of raw cotton along the side of the road!! WHAT is the acceptable % of bolls left on the plant after harvest??
Liked, good explanation and demonstration. Best I've seen. I know all this well. Have run a JD.tractor mount, JD 99, and later the 2-99. All likely built before you were born. The newer machines seem to move through the cotton a lot faster than we did. What's you're target ground speed in good cotton? Thanks in advance.
@@griggsfarmsllc No interest to you. But about 10 years ago they were a several very nice, low hour 99's. 299's and tractor mounts sold for scrap metal.
Having moved to NE Mississippi about 10 years ago I am surprised at how much cotton is left in the fields after the harvest. Seems like some adjustment could be made to equipment to be more efficient. I was told by one farmer when I ask him about that he said he just claimed the loss on his crop insurance. Doesn't make much sense.
A well adjusted and maintained picker typically is 95-99% efficient in harvesting the crop. Also, Some varieties do not pick as clean as other varieties due to the lint being held in the boll a lot tighter. Many times it looks like there’s a lot more cotton left in the field than there really is
Its a fact everybody picked cotton all the way up to the 60s its not a black thing or a white thing everybody picked cotton and it took awhile before even the machines could pick around here ae have steep rough and rocky ground
and i was wondering the whole time if this type of cotton has seeds too, and if the harvester take them out., i know the big ones has but these small i've seen only on farm sim and videos.
Yes, the cotton still has seeds which must be removed before it can be sent to a textile company. Look up a video on 'cotton gin" and you will be amazed.
Should show what happens when the evening dew hits the cotton and it jams up the spindles. Wow you want to talk about time consuming sit on a bucket with a razor knife undoing that mess
The picker usually gets between 90-99% of the lint. No harvester of any kind gets 100% of the crop. A lot depends on machine condition, the variety of cotton, and the weather conditions.
It's faster and seemingly more efficient, but I'm seeing a lot of cotton being wasted. Would be a lot less waste if there were a group of people to walk through the field and do it by hand. Can even call it exercise, proper exercise not like riding a bike and getting in the way of everyone. I know a load of white people and a massive caravan of hard working South Americans who would do it for little money without complaining about a hard days work.
