I just bought a Minneapolis Moline model D sheller to shell a little bit of corn for my sheep. I find ear corn makes great feed for my steers. I use enough corn to justify growing what I need but can't just the cost of a combine, bins and a drying system. The guy I bought the sheller from said his local mill was using a Minneapolis Moline model E up until 8 years ago when they decided to stop shelling.
Boy, this brings back memories from childhood (now 71) from northeastern Nebraska. Dad picked everything in the ear, ground some that way for starter cattle-fattening ration, and shelled the rest later in the year. A neighbor had a Moline sheller and did custom work all over the area. We had a corn crib that was half of a building we called "the granary," a wire crib like the one shown here, and we built one crib from snowfence (cribbing) with a plank floor laid on poles. Always had a wooden or wire tunnel through the crib to run the sheller feed apron into and minimize the work required to shell out the crib. We ground the cobs for chickenhouse bedding, and had a "cob house" to store fuel for the old cob-burning cookstove in the house. A big bonus was trying to catch the mice that ran out. There was never more than one rat per crib for some reason, probably the big population of "barn cats." We usually just burned the shucks (another bonus for a little boy). Later most of the cobs were burned as well after we got a new house and modern cookstove. The Moline shortline equipment used to rule. Besides tractors, we had a pull-type combine powered by a V-4 air-cooled Wisconsin engine, an elevator, and a pull-type, PTO-powered two-row cornpicker. Stuff always worked and rarely broke down.
The pile of grain under the cob elevator is evidence the sheller is being underfed. Gotta push those machines to the limit, then they will quit throwing grain out the front. Feed the incline elevator until there are ear cascading back over the flights. Add sides to the incline if you have to so ears don’t fall out. That 1210 was shelling at a rate that the much smaller D I had could have kept up with. Only risk with pushing hard is that husks can plug in front of the husk blower.
I noticed you don't have any cats. We had about four cats and two dogs. We feed the dogs but the cats fed themselves. And we used the waste the same as they do, just that we had shovels and wheelbarrows.
hi. I am from Poland, can I contact you somehow? How long do you keep wet corn in the silo before you thresh? to what moisture content of the grain does this method of drying achieve?
It looks to me that you have a bigger loss of grain than with a combine. I noticed that many of the cobs had grain knocked off before it got to the crib and then there is a lot of loose grain going up the chute to the processor. And then there is grain loss with the cobs. It just look very efficient
@@Bigdaddy1992. I had a bad year as well. We grew silage corn this year for the first time in thirty plus years. I know what having a bad year is. Had many of them over the years. Since my son came back to farm with me he upgraded our equipment. I was out of debt but not any more. But I’m getting up in years and he has to worry about paying for it. I’m just a slave. I know what it’s like running old equipment. I never took equipment to a shop. I don’t have a shop and worked on everything out doors. I ran 800 acres and three hundred head of mother cows. When my three sons left I did it all my self including driving bus 8 hours a day so I could have a income. Did so for 24 years. But I didn’t owe anything. But how glad I was when we got our first self propelled swather, a self propelled sprayer, 3x4 baler, a new combine, a grain truck, a no till drill, and so on. We also lease another 600 acres of irrigated ground. We have about 150 acres of dry farm grain which wasn’t worth cutting because of the drought. So we didn’t have a good year but we made enough to buy other equipment. In my old age this was what I dreamed about. But it wouldn’t have happened unless my son came back. Before he came back we lived comfortably and out of debt. But I’m happy as a clam now. The point I’m telling you is that I had to change my way of thinking. It’s hard to be the boss and then not to be. But my son was right and he has enough energy to make it happen. I don’t know how many acres you run. I don’t know if you have to irrigate as we do every year. We live in the desert. But farming has changed since the equipment your using was brand new. At its time it was the top of the line way to harvest. As my son has repeatedly told me is money is the bottom line. If there is a better way and faster way you save money by updating. I enjoy seeing the way it use to be done, but corn cobs or not there are many ways of getting heat. Oh we just started to build our first shop. Froze my but off for the last time.
