John Deere 247 Corn Picker

Corn pickers reached their peak in the 1950's.  Mechanical corn pickers use a pair of snapping rolls that pull the stalk down through and snap the ear off as it hits the roll. The ear is then conveyed back to a husking bed where paired rubber rolls remove the shucks.  A fan blows away the silks and some husks as the ear drops into elevator that conveys the corn to the wagon.  Many farmers preferred mounted pickers over drawn units because vision was much better  for staying on the row and getting under the stalk.  Mounted Pickers were more maneuverable and more mobile in soft fields because most of the pickers weight rests on the tractors drive wheels.  The largest draw back of a mounted picker was that it was difficult to take on and off a tractor, so during corm harvest the tractor could not be used for other jobs.  John Deere's 237 picker was a popular picker in the corn belt.  The picker was designed for speeds up to 5 mph and yields of 100 bushels per acre.  Spiral fluted snapping rolls cut shelling losses in half.  With the introduction of corn head by John Deere in 1955 237 picker sales declined over the next decade. The advent of the Sound-Guard cab in 1973 mounted pickers were not feasible because there was no room to open cab doors.  Ertl released a Precision Classic 4020 with a 237 picker in 1999.  In the fall of 2000 Ertl introduced a 1/64 630 tractor with a 237 mounted picker. In July 2002 Ertl updated the 237 picker set with a 4010 tractor and barge wagon.

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