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Economic Data on New Pickers Released
Here’s a tease. The cover story for the July issue of Cotton Grower is about to go to press and the cover story focuses on economic data for the new on-board, module-building cotton pickers from Case IH and John Deere.
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Case IH Module Express 625 |
These two machines take cotton harvesting to new levels. When the Case IH Module Express 625 was unveiled on his farm near Gunnison, MS, in 2006, Kenneth Hood said: “We used to run 12 cotton pickers with 12 drivers. We had 12 module builders, with 12 tractors hooked to them, with 12 drivers. We had a Mule Boy (boll buggy) for each picker – so that was 12 more pieces of equipment, with 12 tractors hooked to them, and 12 more drivers.
To run those 12 pickers that I use 45 to 60 days a year takes 36 people, 24 tractors and 24 other pieces of equipment. With that much, I’m supposed to go broke. An on-board, module-building picker will replace a lot of that.”
The John Deere 7760 does that, too.
The data was released at Cotton Incorporated’s Annual Engineered Fiber Selection Conference in Memphis last week. Does that data confirm Hood’s statement? You’ll see.
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It’s with a great deal of pleasure that I welcome Beck Barnes to our staff. He is an Ole Miss graduate with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in English.
Beck grew up near Leland, MS, and has some pretty significant ties to the cotton industry. For those of you who understand the dynamics of the Mississippi Delta, you know what I mean when I say that it is a community rather than a scattering of small towns. Everyone knows everybody, and Beck is most definitely a part of that.
Welcome aboard, Beck. |
