First Grain Augers on Farms

in-too-deep · Oct 1, 2014

Always been curious... when did grain augers first become popular on Midwest grain farms? I assume they were used in commercial grain handling first and made their way to the farm. I've seen those tubular elevators with the paddles on a chain, they must be the predecessor.

hd6gtom · Oct 1, 2014

they started coming around Central Iowa in the mid to late 1960's, when corn harvesting with combines got popular.

Tom Railsback · Oct 1, 2014

We had a 21 foot Mayrath auger in NW Kansas by 1950.

IaGary · Oct 1, 2014

We had our first auger to fill bins in 1964. It was a used 6"x45 that was used about 2 times and sold. The old elevator would move grain faster than it would.

The elevator had a fold down hopper that made it easier to get into unloading position as well.

The gravy or side dump wagons brought the augers into use more so in the 70's.

Now most augers have hydraulic lift and swing away hoppers.

Gary

in-too-deep · Oct 1, 2014

Did you mean gravy or gravity? I kinda like gravy wagon, myself : ) Paints a nice picture in my head.

ss55 · Oct 1, 2014

On farms, augers seemed to replaced paddle elevators when farmers upgraded from ear corn pickers and corn cribs to combines and shelled corn bins. This happened between the early 1960's to the early 1980's. Some auger dealers claimed that fan type grain bin distributors worked better with the smooth flow of grain from a auger than they did with the dumps of grain from a paddle elevator. Eight inch augers also had higher capacities than paddle elevators. The elevators were still used for bales and secondary duty for grain.

Russ from MN · Oct 1, 2014

I remember a fairly short 6" on wheels in the early 50's, I used to play on it, was my jungle gym! We later got a small 4" electric powered and then a long pan type with 2 chains and paddles. It worked well for hay bales or small grain.

rusty6 · Oct 1, 2014

Early fifties here. My dad went from nothing to a little four inch utility auger with a tiny cantankerous starting two stroke engine mounted on the top end. In 56 he got his first"real" grain auger. A 27 foot six inch tube with Wisconsin 7 hp engine. I still use it.
This is a 1947 ad for Westgo augers, built in Fargo, N.D. Mayrath and Scoop a Second were other popular names.

ss55 · Oct 1, 2014

Grandma had a gravy boat on her dinner table. She would make a brown gravy that was great on roasts.

in-too-deep · Oct 1, 2014

One of my customers has a Scoop-a-Second in the weeds. Thought about buying it from him. Looked neat.

JMOR · Oct 1, 2014

We had on in mid 1950's which I still have in barn & last used about 1998.

IaGary · Oct 1, 2014

Opps

Gravity

LenND · Oct 1, 2014

My Dad bought a new 21 ft Mayrath in 1947 at the same time he bought a new AC 60 combine.

Mike M · Oct 1, 2014

I seem to think I saw a pretty new one that now had a conveyor belt on it ? Is the new way of doing them ? It would put an end to having the tubes wear out.

MSM · Oct 1, 2014

There is a 1927 tubular paddle elevator powered by a 3 HP john Deere hit miss engine on Ebay right now. item #310309525531

in-too-deep · Oct 1, 2014

Belt conveyors are mostly used for seed and fragile crops like dry beans. They tend to be faster, too. The belt will wear out quicker than flighting or a tube, though.

sd pete · Oct 1, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:10:49 10/01/14) Always been curious... when did grain augers first become popular on Midwest grain farms? I assume they were used in commercial grain handling first and made their way to the farm. I've seen those tubular elevators with the paddles on a chain, they must be the predecessor.

mid 50's

Dick2 · Oct 1, 2014

First augers that I saw were 6", then they kept coming out with larger diameter augers. Neighbor mounted a 12" auger on a Farmall M so it was self propelled with hydraulic lift.

My uncle had 2 tubular paddle units - but they had a horizontal auger to feed the grain into the elevator. Those units were made by JD; they had a heavy wood frame that took a tractor and 4 men to move from bin to bin.

notjustair · Oct 1, 2014

Ours was a 6 inch from the 60's. Not sure of the brand. It had one of the big 8 horse briggs engines with the rope to wind around the pulley. I remember thinking it was odd because the engine drove a belt (that you could disengage) and the driven pulley had a black flexible drive shaft attached that looped around and went to the top where a belt drive the flighting. I thought it was so fascinating that it spun while curved. I never thought about it being like a speedometer cable.

It seemed like the engine was about 10 feet off the ground. I would bring in a load of wheat with the Grain-o-Vator on the Farmall H. I had a bucket to stand on to turn on the fuel to the engine and wind the rope. I jumped off the bucket and pulled the rope. It usually started first time. Then engage that belt and run back to the tractor and start the auger wagon. I had been warned so many times about making sure I watched it in case that auger died. If I would have overflowed the hopper I would have been dead meat. I sat on that H with my foot on the clutch pedal until it was empty. Then shut off the fuel on the auger and take off. I was 8 at the time.

1948CaseVAI · Oct 1, 2014

From hutchinson-mayrath.com:

Martin Mayrath lived on his father's farm near Dodge City, Kansas. As a young man he worked on the family farm and was aware of the strenuous labor associated with shoveling grain. In 1943, Mr. Mayrath invented the portable grain auger. By 1945, patents were issued to Mr. Mayrath for several of the key concepts still used in grain handling today.

fixerupper · Oct 1, 2014

The small grain farmers had them sooner than we ear corn farmers. I don't remember seeing augers around here in NWIA till sometime in the sixties and they were mainly truck augers. Most of us had to have a grain elevator to handle ear corn and hay bales. We just didn't have enough small grain to justify owning an elevator and auger at the same time. Jim

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