In what some call the biggest cotton-harvesting breakthrough since the first mechanical picker hit the fields in 1943, Case IH has introduced a new high-tech picker that not only harvests cotton, but builds modules to boot. And John Deere is also developing a new all-in-one harvesting system.

The new pickers theoretically mean users can leave the boll buggy and tractor to pull it, along with the “old-fashioned” module builder, parked beside the barn or shop.

Case IH’s Module Express 625 is a six-row picker that can build an 8-ft.-wide, 8-ft.-high and 16-ft.-long module. The two half-modules load onto a standard module truck as would a conventional module. It should be available in some areas for this year’s harvest.

John Deere’s new module-building picker will be similar to its 9996 picker six-row unit. It will build smaller round modules, similar to a round bale of hay but larger. Modules will be wrapped in plastic for increased weather protection, ease of handling and loading onto a module truck.

No date other than “in the short term” has been set for its availability to producers. Deere is also expanding its 15-in. cotton system, which is designed to help reduce weed pressure and boost yields.

Module Express 625
Case IH says that, with the Module Express 625, producers will have the option of building modules onboard their cotton picker, which will improve both equipment and labor efficiencies.

"Case IH cotton pickers already can pick more cotton with our two-sided picking system, and we want to make customers even more productive by streamlining the module building process,” says Trent Haggard, director of Case IH global marketing for the cotton industry. “As for transporting and ginning the Case IH modules, there are zero infrastructure changes required to the trucks or feeding system and therefore no capital expenditures that the gin will incur and pass on to the growers.”

The Module Express design started as a collaboration with growers and ginners. “We’ve changed for the better the way cotton will be handled from picker to gin,” Haggard says. “With this picker, it’s one man, one machine for cotton harvest and module building, so you reduce your equipment and labor investment dramatically.”

The system has been tested vigorously across the Cotton Belt, from North Carolina to California. Cotton is picked at the same pace as with a traditional six-row picker, but with the Module Express, modules form simultaneously. Haggard says it takes less time to unload a 10,000-lb. module than to empty 10,000 lbs. of cotton from a traditional harvester basket.

The system is “gin friendly,” he says. “The modules themselves average 10,000 lbs. in an 8-ft. by 8-ft. by 16-ft. format, the same height and width but half the length of a standard module. So other than tarps, they require no alterations in the ginning process.”

The Module Express 625 features the patented Automatic Intelligent Auger Packing System. Using a system of sensors and augers, cotton is automatically moved as the module is being compressed. “The system is fine-tuned to create consistent, domed modules for excellent weatherability and ginning,” Haggard says.

Monitors track percent full, module weight and bales/acre to plan drop-off points around the field that are easily accessed by the gin’s module trucks. The 625 is powered by a new 9.0-liter, 365-hp engine that will run on a B5 biodiesel blend.

Prototype picker
Jamie Flood, John Deere cotton products marketing manager, notes that Deere is nearly ready to launch its module builder units. “It will be in the short term,” he says. “If it was more later than sooner at this point in time, we wouldn’t be talking about it.

“And as with other John Deere equipment, we are putting a product out there that is designed to bring more dollars to the producers’ and ginners’ bottom line.”

Deere’s new prototype picker operates virtually the same as other current John Deere basket pickers “from the duct forward,” Flood says. The rear portion of the picker builds round modules up to 8 ft. in diameter.

Modules can be dropped from a cradle at the end of the row. Four round modules will nearly equal a conventional 32-ft. module. Each contains 3.5 to 4 bales, compared to a conventional module’s 12 to 14 bales. The round modules can be picked up with a conventional module truck or loaded on a flatbed trailer, then unloaded at the gin in the same manner as a conventional module.

"The new process simplifies harvesting, helps preserve fiber quality and reduces waste,” Flood says. “We believe the new module builder will remove the need for the boll buggies, conventional module builders and tractors, and reduce the number of employees [needed].”

The plastic wrap also will reduce waste by keeping cotton in the module and preventing spread of loose cotton often seen after modules are removed from the gin yard. “It also means gins shouldn’t have to be removing damaged cotton from the bottom of modules that stood in water,” Flood says.

He claims that, while a typical picker might spend 70% of its time harvesting and the remainder dumping the basket into a boll buggy at different areas of the field, the new Deere module-builder picker can “increase that percentage to 90%.

"Our new system will allow what we’re calling ‘non-stop harvesting,’” Flood says. “They can carry the module to the end of the field, lay it down and continue picking all the time.”

He says Deere is currently working with gin owners to develop a system for handling the round modules and dealing with the plastic wrap.

Deere is also seeing greater use of its 15-in. cotton system, which features its Pro-12 VRS row unit. “The Pro-12 unit can harvest two rows 15 in. apart and any conventional row spacing,” Flood says.

He says research at North Carolina State University and other locations shows that the 15-in. cotton yields as well as or better than conventional spacing and in many cases sees a 180-plus-lb./acre increase in yields. “Yield increases in lower productivity soils, and with its quicker canopy closure, it helps in weed control and can be three to five weeks earlier than 38-in. rows,” Flood says.

Texas High Plains cotton
While most of the Cotton Belt uses pickers for harvesting, much of Texas — which grows about 25% of the nation’s crop — is still in stripper variety production. Case IH currently doesn’t have a stripper harvester on the market. John Deere does. However, growers in the Texas High Plains region may soon consider switching to pickers due to a shift in varieties.

Up to 75% of the varieties grown on the Texas High Plains are newer picker varieties, says Randy Boman, Texas A&M University Extension cotton agronomist. “These newer varieties are helping our growers produce much higher-quality cotton,” he says. In fact, he says, staple length and strength of Texas Plains cotton averaged higher in 2006 than cotton grown in the Mid-South and southeastern growing areas. But micronaire has been lower in recent years, which shows some fiber is not mature. Boman says that using picker harvesting could bring Mike numbers up because cotton can be harvested a little later.

For more information about new Case IH harvesting systems, go to www.caseih.com. For more information about John Deere harvesting systems, visit www.deere.com/en_US/deerecom/usa_canada.html.

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