Russ' Vintage Iron

Vintage Harvest Equipment

Russ Quinn
By  Russ Quinn , DTN Staff Reporter
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An Oliver 77 tractor and Model 4 mounted corn picker were on display at Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, Neb., in early September. Vintage iron was present at both the Farm Progress Show and Husker Harvest Days. (DTN photo by Russ Quinn)

This year I was able to attend the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, and Husker Harvest Days just west of Grand Island, Neb., as both shows were within an easy 2-3 hour drive of my home. The shows are the place to see the newest farm equipment at work in the field, although it rained heavily in both locations this year and I didn't actually see any field exhibits.

The trend toward larger farm equipment continues along with the move toward new technologies associated with precision farming. All the gadgets were on display.

There are usually local antique farm collector clubs exhibiting vintage farm equipment at these shows to show people how far farm equipment has come in the last 50-60 years. I think it is a wonderful idea both for the older people who actually used the vintage equipment on display and for the younger folks who may not have ever see it before.

At Farm Progress, several brand specific central Iowa collector clubs displayed their polished old iron. There were groups dedicated to John Deere, Oliver, International, Minneapolis-Moline and Allis-Chalmers with some interesting displays.

Husker Harvest Days didn't have the vintage equipment broken into the different collector clubs, but they did have quite a few pieces of vintage iron. Some were still in their "working clothes" but several others were painted up probably better than when they rolled off the factory floor.

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Since it is part of my job to notice trends in farm machinery when I attend these farm shows, I also see trends with the vintage iron equipment. I see more collectors restoring harvesting equipment in the form of the vintage self-propelled combines, mounted corn pickers and even pull-type combines.

Both shows had restored mounted corn pickers and at Farm Progress someone had fully restored an International self-propelled combine, a model 303. While I have seen photos of the 303, 403 and 503 combines in books, I don't know if I had ever seen one in person before. It was so small (especially compared to the new equipment on display at Farm Progress) it looked like it could have been a scaled-down model but it was indeed a working combine.

At the Husker Harvest Days vintage iron equipment display, someone had brought in an Oliver 77 with a mounted corn picker. As was the case with the International 303 combine, I don't think I had ever seen an Oliver corn picker in person before.

From my online research into Oliver corn pickers, the picker is most likely a Model 4 mounted corn picker. It was extremely muddy around the tractor and picker after heavy rains that day so I could not get very close to it.

According to the one Oliver site, the Model 4 was made from 1951 to 1964 with several different changes and upgrades over its 13-year production run. I also discovered the Model 4 picker was built to mount on row crop versions of the 70, 77 and 88 tractors and a new Model 4 Oliver corn picker in 1957 was priced at $1,950.

I had an uncle and we had also an old neighbor who had several Oliver tractors but as far as I remember I don't know if they ever owned Oliver corn pickers. They could have and by the time I came along they could have stopped using them.

As I think I have probably written about before, I got in on the tail-end of corn picking on my family's farm. I can remember my dad and uncle mounting the John Deere 227 corn picker on the 4010 in probably the very late 1970s to pick some ears to feed to the cows. As it turned out, this was the last time they picked in the ear.

I guess they had a couple different 227 pickers. My grandpa's last tractor, a 1957 John Deere 620 which we still have, was the picker tractor for most of the 1960s. Before that my grandpa had a couple different International 2M corn pickers mounted on his trusty Farmall M, which he bought new right after World War II.

Going to these farm shows you learn about the future of farm equipment at most of the displays you walk by. If you look closely, you can also explore the colorful past of farm machinery.

(CZ)

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