WELCOME TO THE TRI-VALLEY BANK
JAY'S BLOG
As of January 15th, 2023 I retired as president; Jon Lorson, our long time
CEO, will now add the long deserved title of president. Camielle
Silence, our incredibly capable CFO, will additionally be senior
executive VP. I will remain as chairman and work a couple of days a
week. So on to the blog:
Changing Ag Technology--Corn harvest
Corn harvest has certainly changed in my lifetime. Not so much since
I started farming. It's been pretty much bigger and faster since then.
Four-row corn heads, wagons and straight trucks were the norm.Now of
course its' eight and twelve-row heads and semi trucks, but the same
principle. There was still quite a bit of ear corn picked when I
began, mostly for cattle feed. The tractor mounted two-row pickers
were giving way to the self-propelled Uni-Harvestors.
The tractor mounted ones were very dangerous--lots of exposed
chains, etc. Many farmers lost hands and worse in them. When I was in
grade school our neighbor had a man running his picker. The man caught
his arm in the machine and had to drive it to the house with it
trapped. They had to take the picker apart to get him out.
Fortunately he didn't bleed to death, but he lost his arm. I guess
people just accepted the risk; the pickers were so much better than
what they had before--picking by hand.
When I was young all the mature farmers recalled picking corn by
hand. A horse or mule walked down the row and the farmer pulled the
ears off the stalk, pulled the husk off and threw the ears in the
wagon. When the wagon was full, you took it to the house and scooped
the ears off. Two forty-bushel wagons a day was a full days' work.
Farmers of any size had to hire extra help. Men came up from the
Ozarks on the railroad to Shenandoah to pick corn.. They stayed with
the family. Grandma had to cook for them and do their laundry. Harvest
ran on for a long time.. There was no Thanksgiving holiday. On
Christmas they came in from the field, ate Christmas dinner and went
back out to harvest. "Shucking the corn" as it was called was really
hard on the hands. They made special gloves that had a metal hook sewn
in the palm to make it easier and quicker to get the husks off. When I
was a kid my great-aunt lived in Shenandoah. Across the alley from her
house was a small factory where they made husking gloves.
So they were all glad when the pickers came in, despite the dangers.
Then they figured out how to put a corn head on a combine. I couldn't
believe it when I saw the first one at the State Fair. Now we have
cabs on the combines, two-way radios in them etc. We are very
fortunate. I wonder what my grandfathers would think.....
Jay
|