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Old time farming in Illinois

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Sam F.

11-12-2006 08:11:58




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I am in the process of buying a place in WATSEKA, llinois. I want to grow POPCORN and farm the ground with all OLD tractors and equipment, both Red and Green. Will a regular corn picker work for the smaller eared popcorn ??? Anybody know of any clubs that play farming like this ??? I'm not looking to make money, would be OK tho, but to have fun in the dirt.




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toolz

11-12-2006 18:23:57




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 Re: Old time farming in Illinois in reply to Sam F., 11-12-2006 08:11:58  
My father put in about 20 acres of popcorn when I was about 14 years old (I'm 48 now). It was sold on the cob to a commercial processer. We picked it with a New Idea mounted on a 1600 Oliver. I don't recall modifications to the snap rolls, but there probably were. We had to install special husking rolls in the husking bed due to the small ears. After harvest, it was the kid's job to walk the field and pick up lost ears (there were a lot) for our own use, and give-aways to everybody we knew. Dad had a contract with the processer with a guaranteed yield figure, so it paid pretty well. I don't think we did it more than 1 year- it was kind of a pain. Good luck with your farm.

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1936

11-12-2006 16:45:04




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 Re: Old time farming in Illinois in reply to Sam F., 11-12-2006 08:11:58  
Sweet corn capitol is a few clicks down the dixie south. Lots of sand in Iroquois county. Want was the price for 8 acres??



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Farmallb

11-12-2006 13:21:41




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 Re: I farm the old way in reply to Sam F., 11-12-2006 08:11:58  
I use a 48 B Farmall, 1934 CC Case, and am SLOWLY working on a 32 F-20. I have 2 1 bottom 16' tractor plows, one a IHC, one a AC, a 2 bottom 14' IHC, and a 3 bottom converted to 2 Case, all steel wheeled and impossible to get shares for. a 16ft IHC wing disc without the wings, a IHC rotery hoe, 3 section harrow, a horse disc, 2 horse mowers, one IHC #9, and a MH #33, 2 side rakes, a JD. and a Case, one dump rake. A side wheel bale loader, and a NI loose hay loader. A IHC Grain drill, and 2 IHC corn planters, one horse, one tractor. a buzzsaw made in Kansas, a Hammermill, the name escapes me now, narrow, orange. a high wheeled steel wagon gear and box, 4 other running gears, one of them a thresher running gear, a tractor mounted buzz saw, a Kelly Ryan grain elevator, an aluminum portable elevator, a IHC horse 2 row cultivator, a 2 row Case cultivator, a brillion rollar packer, a steel wheeled horse grader, a Case W140 baler, a AC 66 combine, an 1 row IHC picker. I put out 8 acres of field corn, 15 acres hay and 8 acres oats. Wish they had a room here so that, if there were enough old time farmers in here, we would have a seperate place to talk our kind of farming

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Sam F.

11-12-2006 13:29:14




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 Re: I farm the old way in reply to Farmallb, 11-12-2006 13:21:41  
Let me ask you this. With 8 acres of field corn, do you have one of them corn burning heating stoves or do you heat with wood ?? I had never seen a corn/soybean burning stove before this year. If you use one, how is it ?? Do you like it ?? Would you reinstall one if you had it to do over ??? Thanks SAM



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msb

11-12-2006 11:13:07




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 Re: Old time farming in Illinois in reply to Sam F., 11-12-2006 08:11:58  
Depends on which variety of popcorn you raise.I planted about 1/3 acre to Purdue Yellow Hybrid about 7 years ago.People rave about it. Say its the best popcorn they ever ate.Huge kernels, very,very few old maids.
Picked it with a borrowed 2 row New Idea picker. It did a fine job of picking.I left the popcorn on the wagon for a couple of months so it would dry naturally.
Have an old sheller with an electric motor on it.That didn't get it all off the cob, but after a while of reshelling it,we gave up and were satisfied with what we got.
I simply poured it from bucket to bucket in front of a box fan set uo in the garage.It cleaned up real nice that way.We wound up with about 30 bushels .Gave some of it away,donated some, popped some for ourselves and we still have a whole bunch stored in plastic totes and plastic ice cream pails.Had a lot of fun raising and processing it. Very surprized that insects have never been a problem.

Isn't Watseka the town that used to be the sweet corn capital of the Midwest.They still have a sweet corn festival every summer?

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kd mcdaniel

02-04-2007 07:54:18




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 Re: Old time farming in Illinois in reply to msb, 11-12-2006 11:13:07  
DO YOU KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A PICKER FOR SWEET CORN IN ILLNOIS OR NEARBY STATES?



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wayne from wi

11-12-2006 10:04:37




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 Re: Old time farming in Illinois in reply to Sam F., 11-12-2006 08:11:58  
A corn picker with snapping rolls will crush popcorn cobs because of the small size of the cobs and shell right through onto the ground. A stipper corn head like on a modern combine can pick the popcorn, but if you shell it through a combine, the kernels will be scuffed and not pop as well as if run through a sheller. I dried it on the cob, and shelled through an old IHC hand sheller with an electric motor on it, and then ran it through a fanning mill to get the bees wings out. Moisture content of the kernels is critical.

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JOHN HARMON

11-12-2006 08:56:16




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 Re: Old time farming in Illinois in reply to Sam F., 11-12-2006 08:11:58  
Go to Indiana in the Popcorn growing area and check out what is the norm there for such Corn as you wish to raise. Better yet ,give some Clydsdales or Belgiums a place to work off thier room and board. You would be surprised at the possibilitys of Farming a few acres when monetary gain is a non issue. Hook your high side wagon with a "Bang Board " behind a Team of pretty Clydsdales, invite a crowd to an old fashioned"Corn Husking Bee" and later on have a winter "Corn Shucking Bee in the Barn". The old days are not gone, they are just dormant waiting for an oppurtunity to resurface with out the ugly head of "King Profit" in the way. Of course you have a good day job and time to further all this, right? Good luck , John

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