"Buggy" Used To Spray, Pick Sweet Corn

"Buggy" Used To Spray, Pick Sweet Corn COMBINES Corn Pickers(13) 26-5-13 John Lubben and his wife raise sweet corn on a five-acre patch and market it from a roadside stand. At age 72, Lubben was looking for a better way to spray his corn and pick it. His solution was to convert a bean buggy into a 7-ft. tall highboy. "You can buy bean buggies for practically nothing because of the popularity of Roundup beans," says Lubben. "It was really simple to change it over. I just cut the A-Frame off and raised it up six feet." The Crescent City, Illinois farmer reworked the frame of the bean buggy so that the two rear wheels have a 72-in. spread and straddle two rows of corn. A box is suspended between the straddled rows. During the growing season, the 2-ft. wide by 3-ft. long by 2 1/2-ft. high box is big enough to hold a 15-gal. spray tank filled with herbicides or insecticides as needed. He mounts spray nozzles on the two back legs of the buggy. When it comes time to pick the sweet corn, Lubben turns over the driver's seat to a grandchild, while he walks behind the box and selects ripe ears. As an added benefit, he constructed the box for quick unloads. "I can pull out a single steel rod to swing the sides apart. The bottom drops down and the corn spills onto the ground," he explains. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John L. Lubben, Box 248, Crescent City, Ill. 60928 (ph 815 683-2743).

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