This year we upgraded cotton pickers. Goodbye to the days of having to use boll buggies (which temporarily put me out of a job) and module builders, and hello to the JD 7760!
The picker passes over the cotton at a speedy 4mph. As the stalk passes through the heads, cotton is picked off the stalk by spindles (pointy metal things with barbs that spin). The cotton is knocked off the spindles by doffers (flat plastic round things with notches), and then blown into the accumulator basket in the back of the picker. Once the basket is full, it empties into the baling chamber. Cotton is continuously added until the bale reaches 96" round. When the bale is complete, it is wrapped in plastic, and the bale is ejected onto the handler.
The bale is dropped off the handler at a good spot in the field. All this time, still picking cotton and working on another bale. Much more efficient than having to stop and unload into a boll buggy or module builder.
This is a picture of the guys and our very first round bale!
The videos below are of a video screen in the cab, so they are kind of hard to see. They show the cotton being baled and ejected.
We have a loader that picks the bales up and loads them onto our truck with a 4-pronged spear, similar to a hay spear.
Once full, the truck is driven to the cotton gin!
For more information on cotton (or other things we grow) or better explanation of anything I have talked about above click here.
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