2020 Corn Picking Days!

The 2020 Jewell County Corn Picking Days was blessed with beautiful weather. Plus, as JR Vandergiesen, Smith Center, one of the organizers of the event said "The corn is ready!" "Dry, not wet." Participants and observers alike enjoyed the outdoors event. Avenue H west of Jewell was busy with machinery moving back and forth as well as cars and pickups of people just out to see what was going on.

And there was quite a bit going on. Of course, Vandergiesen was in the field with his John Deere 50 and John Deere picker – and with American flags flying on the tractor. Calvin Bohnert, Jewell, the other event organizer and host of the event, had his Case 210 corn picker-silage cutter running. Built only a few years in the 1950s, it is an interesting and rather rare machine but not a practical one. If the corn was dry enough to pick, the silage was too dry. If the silage had some moisture, the corn was too wet.

Off the field there was also activity. The corn picked last year and stored in a corn crib was being ground for feed. A little way further on, two smaller corn cribs were ready for this year's harvest.

Nearby an International 4 Hole Sheller was belted to a 1936 steel wheeled F 12 and was shelling a load of 2020 corn right out of the field. The sheller was built between 1920 and 1934. With no serial numbers, there is no way to give an exact year. The outfit belongs to Gary Sorensen,Denmark, Kan. He came with his 11-year-old grandson, Kale, and Rick Vaupel, Lucas, Kan. Kale was the youngest to pick corn this year. He picked corn using Bohnert's Farmall C.

Vaupel brought the smallest piece of corn machinery to Corn Picking Days, a cob scoop. "Not too many of them around," he said. The cob scoop had a wooden handle with a heavy wire scoop and was used to move the cobs that were the result of shelling corn. The cobs were not a waste product, they were scooped into a cob house and burned throughout the winter for heat.

Thirteen-year old Peter Smith, Scottsville, came last year with his grandfather, Dave Smith. He "caught the bug" for old machinery. This year he came back - with his own tractor. He now owns a Case SC and pulled a Woods Brothers picker owned by Bohnert.

Another group in the field were three generations of Glen Elder's Blain Family. Lenny Blaine was with his son, Merritt Blain, and three-year-old grandson, Porter Blain. The three were picking corn with a 630 John Deere owned by Bohnert.

It wasn't just guys in the field. Haylee Cockroft, Esbon, came with her dad, Brad, and brothers, William and Jacob. She worked in the wagon moving the ear corn around but she also took her turn picking corn driving Bohnert's Farmall C. The only woman to pick corn in 2020.

Craig Ballou of Delphos heard about Corn Picking Days last year "after it was over" but was one of the first to arrive this year. He got into the field with a Massey Ferguson 135 and a red Ford picker.

"Yes," said Robin Edmonds,Stull, Kan. "Ford made corn pickers," Edmonds is a long-time friend of Bohnert's and comes each year to help get ready for the event. Edmonds isn't the only one that comes to "help." Dan Emmett, Beloit, comes to do just that. He brings a wagon, with steps and seats, just to take spectators into the field to get a close up view of the machines at work.

Though most machines were one-row pickers, there were two machines working two rows. A newer machine, an F2 Gleaner with a two-row head, picked and shelled corn. The other two-row machine was drawing a good deal of attention. "Have you ever seen one?" and "I'm waiting to see it run," were comments heard around the field.

The machine getting the attention was a self-propelled Minneapolis Moline. (Referred to as "The Minnie.") New to Corn Picking Days, the machine was a 1959 Uni Tractor with a Uni-Corn Picker. It was part of Minneapolis Moline's "Uni-Harvester System." The system originated in 1951 with the Uni-Tractor, Uni-Combine and Uni-Picker. The tractor was designed to carry instead of pull the attachments. Eventually the Uni-Tractor could also be used with a Uni-Hay Baler, Uni-Picker Sheller, Uni-Swather, Uni-Windrower and Uni-Forage Harvester.

The machine is owned by Brian Freeman of Courtland. He has been the owner for a little more than a month but Corn Picking Days was the second time he had had it in the field. He drove it on Saturday but on Sunday afternoon Randy Aurand of Courtland was the one picking corn.

It is over for this year but the plans are already in the works for next year. The hosts, Calvin and Peg Bohnert (785-738-7589) and JR Vandergiesen (785-282-0591), are the organizers and the ones to call for information about harvesting just like the "good old days" in 2021.