Shell Ear Corn With Your Combine(And Other Shellers)

Shell Ear Corn With Your Combine(And Other Shellers) COMBINES Corn Pickers(13) 7-4-29 FARM SHOW did some checking to track down suppliers of machines and attachments for shelling cribbed ear corn. We contacted several veteran corn sheller manufacturers who are still "going strong". We also visited with a company that offers a feed grinder-mixer with a factory-installed corn shelling attachment, and tracked down recently-developed attachments that let you shell corn with your self-propelled combine. A spokesman for Deere & Company reports that "the introduction of corn heads for combines and the ease of handling and storing of shelled corn led to the downfall of the stationary sheller." Deere discontinued their No. 43 and No. 71 corn shellers sometime in the late 1950's. Dexter Paulsen, sales planning manager for White Farm Equipment Co., says White discontinued the Model 1210 sheller made by Minneapolis Moline sometime in the early 1970's. He notes that with so few corn cribs and corn pickers, they don't even get requests for shellers. New Idea, manufacturer of corn pickers and self-propelled harvesters, has shellers available for their systems but never has offered a stationary sheller, according to David List, product planning manager for the company. He adds that despite the recent interest in crib filling, the company doesn't have any plans to develop a stationary sheller. The unique "Quick Tatch Corn Conveyor" lets you use your self-propelled combine to shell ear corn. FARM SHOW first reported on the conveyor, invented by Bernard Kersten, Roberts, Wis., in Vol. 6, No. 1, 1982. The attachment fits on most combines in place of the header. It's driven by a hydraulic orbital motor so you can operate the conveyor and combine at separate speeds. A pair of conveyor chains moves ear corn from the crib to a set of paddles that flip the ears into the combine. "The paddles flip the corn into the feeder housing just like the elevator on a corn head does," Kersten points out. The shelling attachment measures 5 1/2 ft. long and 4 ft. wide, and weighs about 400 lbs. It lifts the same as the combine header so you can lift it right up to the crib door and let the corn run into it without shoveling. After the crib is partially emptied,the Quick Tatch Conveyor can be lowered for shoveling in the remainder of the corn, or pushing it in with a tractor loader and bucket. "Three or four men shoveling can't keep up with this unit on a combine," explains Kersten. "I can easily shell out a 300-bu. truckload in a half hour with this unit. It goes really fast when you let corn run out of the crib." He uses the combine grain tank as a temporary holding bin, or just unloads right into a truck with the discharge auger. By placing an elevator behind the combine discharge, cobs and husks are picked up and piled away from the combine with no extra labor required. Kersten is looking for a manufacturer. He feels that the conveyor could be sold for less than $1,500. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Bernard Kersten, Kersten Enterprises, Rt. 1, Box 22, Roberts, Wis. 54023 (ph 715 796-2601).

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