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Cotton Picking with Dale, Page One, 10-15-07 |
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Being raised on a
sugarcane farm was fun and interesting, but now living in north Louisiana
I'm being exposed to a number of different crops. They all have
different growing seasons and requirements and much of the farm equipment is
specialized for the individual crops. Farming is certainly one thing
that the old saying, "If you've seen one, you've seen the all" does not fit. Knowing that I like
to see new things and of course photograph them, our friend Dale offered to
give me a ride on the cotton picker. I was happy to take him up on the
offer. |
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Cotton, just minutes from being harvested. |
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This cotton boll was close to opening, but not quite. |
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| I was surprised at how tall the
cotton plants were. This variety in this particular field was an easy
six feet tall. |
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This is the cotton picker I rode in. |
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| It's amazing how good a job this
machine does and it's even more amazing how fast it does it. |
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TEXT |
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Here's a short video (10 seconds) of that process. |
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| Looking down in front of the
cab, you can see how fast the cotton is being blown through the picker. |
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Here's a short video (9 seconds) of that process. |
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| The cotton ends up in the hopper
behind the cab. It's full when there's 500 pounds of cotton in it. |
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The cotton was air blown into the hopper and waits to be compressed while
more cotton is being added. This is looking down into the hopper
during a brief stop. |
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| The air that carried the cotton
into the hopper rapidly escapes through the top of the hopper, taking a few thin
lengths of cotton fibers with it. This is buildup that is being blown
by the wind created by the machine. |
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| Back at the turn row, or the
head land as it is known in south Louisiana, the hopper is emptied into the
module maker. |
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| Both the cotton picker and the
module maker are huge pieces of equipment. Note the size of Josh, in
the cab of another cotton picker on the left hand side of the picture. |
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Here's a video (1:10) of that process. |
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| Here the cotton is sitting
freshly dumped into the module maker. |
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| While the cotton pickers are
harvesting more cotton, it's time for the module maker to be put to use. |
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| A ram comes down and compacts
the cotton into huge bales called modules. |
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Here's a video (1:32) of that process. |
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| The modules are huge. This
is a minimum of ten feet high. The modules sit directly on the ground
and the tops are covered to prevent moisture being absorbed through the top. |
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A picture of Dale with my dear sweet John, taken from in the cotton picker. |
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| THERE'S MORE! |
If you've
enjoyed these pictures, click here to see
another page of pictures, including close ups of the equipment used. |
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