Corn picking days are a blast from the past

Calvin Bohnert's love of the old-time corn pickers began more than 50 years ago, when he was a kid.

"My father let me run the corn picker a couple of times when he hauled a wagon of corn back to the farm and I thought it was an awful lot of fun," recalled the Jewell, Kansas farmer.

Several years ago, Bohnert began talking with friends about hosting a corn picking field day. "Finally I said ‘we’re done talking. It's time to do it,’" Bohnert recalled. "A few of us got together and we ended up with four or five pickers."

This year's Jewell County Corn Picking days, held Nov. 11 and 12, just west of Jewell, was the third annual affair. There were seven pickers and tractor combinations, with enough wagons to support the harvesting equipment. More than a dozen volunteers helped keep machines in the field and many more onlookers took in the activities.

"A lot of people my age have never seen corn picking before," Bohnert said. "It was good to bring back the history. I’ve got grandkids who have seen this done now, and there were a lot of kids here today."

Jewell County Corn Picking days were held Nov. 11 and 12, just west of Jewell, Kansas. (Videos by Bill Spiegel.)

Machines in the field included a John Deere 50 tractor and 101 corn picker, owned by Junior Vandergiesen, Smith Center; a Farmall 300 tractor with McCormick 1PR picker with no corn husking bed, owned by Nelson Tramblay of Campbell, Nebraska, and a Farmall H tractor and Woods Brother Model 16 picker, owned by Danny Topliff of Jewell. Dennis Ratliff of Agra, Kansas brought a John Deere B tractor mated to a rare two-row Case picker-sheller. Bohnert provided three combinations: a Farmall C with Minneapolis Moline No. 5 picker, a John Deere 60 with a New Idea Model 10 and a John Deere M with Woods Brothers picker without a husking bed. In addition, Dan Emmot, Beloit, Kansas, brought a John Deere AR with a people hauler wagon, and Tom Schwerman, Jewell, brought an elevator to load picked corn into a corn crib, just like the old-timers.

"There was lots of help," Bohnert said.

Bohnert owns several antique tractors, but he likes to see them in action. "I want to do something with them. I want to see them work," he said.

And work, they did. The Corn Picking Days required a lot of volunteer help and manpower to keep things going. What took more than a day to harvest with one-row corn pickers could easily be done in an hour or two with a modern combine.

"I’d rather sit in that combine over there with the air-conditioned cab and pick six or eight rows," Bohnert admitted. "But for a day or two, it sure is fun."

If you missed it, don't fret. Bohnert is already making plans to host Jewell County Corn Picking Days on the opening weekend of pheasant hunting season in 2018.

Bill Spiegel can be reached at 785-587-7796 or [email protected].

An old-fashioned corn picking event isn't complete without a sheller. Fortunately for the folks at the Jewell County Corn Picking Days, Denmark, Kansas farmer Gary Sorenson had just finished restoring a 1923 McCormick Deering sheller and brought it up to Jewell, Kansas, for the weekend.

"This is the first time we’ve used it," said Sorenson, who brought his father, Abraham and grandson, Kale, to the event. He found the old McCormick in the weeds at a neighbor's farm, and spent nearly a year restoring it. Some parts had to be built from scratch, but it was a labor of love for Gary, whose father used a similar sheller when he was much younger.

"When I was a kid in the 30s, every Saturday we shelled corn to feed to the cattle and chickens," Abe recalled.

The McCormick sheller—the paint of which was just finished a few days before the corn picking field day—is a "four hole," Abe said, meaning the conveyor has room for four ears of corn to be shelled at one time. "It’d keep two men busy to keep it going," he added.

A hit-and-miss engine, connected with a belt pulley, powers the sheller. "Oh, everyone had a hit-and-miss," Abe said.

Spectators marveled at the machine's complexity, from the pulley and driveshaft, which can swivel to accommodate a tractor or stationary engine; to the threshing system that separates corn kernels from cob and husk. The McCormick uses a cast iron disk with teeth that rolls against a grate. The threshed corn is cleaner than some of today's modern harvesters, spectators observed.

Everyone who loves old tractors can trace his passion back to a specific model or two from his youth. For Paul Nystuen it was a John Deere A a…

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