The Best Farm Accident I Ever Had

The Best Farm Accident I Ever Had MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 18-6-33 What began as an honest mistake turned into a "best accidental idea" for Lockney, Texas, farmer and custom harvester G.L. Hight. "Down corn was a real problem for one of my neighbors this year," says Hight. "There probably wasn't more than one stalk standing every 4 or 5 ft., especially on the outside rows." In a hurry to get to work combining his neighbor's 500 acres of corn, Hight made a mistake changing gathering chains on the IH header he mounts on his L-2 Gleaner combine. "I accidentally put one of the chains on backwards - I'd never done that before in my life - and when I got to the field I noticed how clean one row stayed," explains Hight. "The down corn was feeding smoothly in on that snout without plugging or leaving big wads of crop material in the field. "After I discovered what I'd done, I re-versed the rest of the chains. I thought it was just amazing that something so simple worked so slick. It's a cheap and easy way to handle a bad problem." Hight says the trick should work on any make combine, but should be used only in certain situations. "I wouldn't recommend it for anything less than 50 or 60% down corn because your chains get real aggressive and can grab ears and run them back under the header," he says. "Plus, it's hard on your chains." He recommends that you try reversing the gathering chain on one row of your header first. "If it works, go ahead and swap them all out," Hight says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, G.L. Hight, Rt. 1, Box 192, Lockney, Texas 79241 (ph 806 652-3198).

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