Potato Harvesting

Tim Butcher posted a Wikimedia photo

I always though of potatoes coming from Idaho, but I guess they used to be grown in Michigan also.

Kevin Sopocy Like a trip thru time in Montcalm county Michigan.

Jeremy Aasen That was a common sight back in the days around here. My father in law raised potatoes and a lot of his neighbors had those Dahlman harvesters, there was a place in town that put the tractors up on them for you. He said come fall there'd be a line of farmers pulling their harvesters to town to get their tractors mounted up on them for harvest season.

Thomas R. Cassan I had a Chev truck like that. 292 six with a 4 speed and low gear was LOW.

When I drove my Grandfather's 1940s Dodge truck, it also had four gears. (This was in the 1960s, but the truck lasted a long time because it was only used a week or so a year during wheat harvest.) I was told not to use the lowest gear because that was the "granddaddy" gear, and it was not normally needed. Then one time I was driving it in the wheat field so the combine could unload into it. (A job normally done by my Grandmother.) I learned that the granddaddy gear was useful when starting an almost full truck in the field.

Tim Butcher posted a Wikimedia photo

The comments point out that there are no front wheels on the 560. The beam on the digger extends forward to support the weight of the tractor. This articulated design puts more weight on the traction tires. It also means that the digger weighs more than the tractor and the wheels on the rear must be steering the harvester.


Update: a video of a modern 16-row operation using a combination of windrowers and harvesters.

Gary Biewer posted three pictures of a IH 2-row harvester that he wants to sell for $750.

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And you can't harvest them unless you have first planted them. He posted three pictures of a 2-row planter for which he is asking $350.

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Edwin de Jonge posted
Un Loading potatoes

Kevin Norwood posted
At a south Idaho museum.. What is it?
Clay Saling Harvesters dig and load the wagon 
That looks like an International digger

Video of potatoes in Maine. I wonder how they separate the rocks from the potatoes? Do potatoes float? In the end, it takes people to do the final cleaning.

Video of potatoes in Idaho.

16-row potato harvesting with Spudnick 6640