Haven't grown or harvested personally. Worked for a farm this summer who did, from the sounds of it never wanna be on that crew. One of the guys on my pea crew switched from beans to peas. Said all the machines are 25+ years older. Any questions feel free to ask.

 

Yea 25+ yr old machines would certainly not make it too much fun... Probably open cab machines to right?
We just started last yr and run 3 super jacks, 1 new last yr and the other 2 are '95's.. The 95's were bought from a local farm who wanted out to focus on peas. They run 5 machines. They were very well taken care. Tore down each winter and repaired/bearings replaced.

Before the beans, we harvested peas with another farm. 3 machines, 2 straightframe byron's and a legacy<- what a pile. Peas were constantly messy as well with the juice and peas rotting if the machine wasnt blown off every 10-12 hrs
Were covering a larger area doing beans but noone misses peas. Covering about 50-60 mile radius and about 2400 acres this yr. Have been picking for just under a month and got about 2 more months to go.
Who are you guys harvesting peas for? How many machines? run 24 hrs? How long does your season run, how much acreage?

 

Nah they all have windows.. heat boxes.... I believe its between 7-10 BigJacks.

Was working for Hartung Brothers out of Arena. We were harvesting for Allen Canning co shipping to the Pulaski and Fairwater Wi plants. We had 10 machines this year, three of which were new, all Legacy's no real complaints, would like to drive an FMC in the worst way though, and we had 2 carts chasin us. We started in Spring Green June 21st and finished peas in Sturgeon on Wensday around 10 am. This year we had about 8900 acres of peas but I think we by passed about a 1000 in Spring due to flood damage. We were running on 2 12 hrs shifts, mid night to noon and vice versa. Your damned right on the rotten peas if they werent cleaned everytime 12 hrs er so.

More pics if ya want em

 

We are growing green beans this year for the first time. We planted 2 acres which are all sold for fresh market. We started picking on June 30th this year. I bought a Byron 3pt. mounted 105 harvester this winter with the vibrating table and even feed conveyor for sorting. Any questions just ask

 

I want to see some pics of your Byron, Orange.

 

Where I was in South-east Canada, there they growed and harvested green snap beans. I've no more information for you yet, I'll come back on it later.

 

I worked for Lakeside Foods for four seasons. Starting in 06 and ending in 09. They had alot of old pixall's, but now mostly have superjacks. They still have two big jack that are older models. They just purchased a 2009 superjack, and a 2010 2480. They have only two outdated pixalls left in the fleet. I believe next year those two old machines will be replaced by more superjacks. They planted 16,400 acres last year. They have a majority of acreage in Wisconsin Rapids, another big portion in kewaunee county, and the rest in Manitowoc county. I like driving superjacks, very relaxing, and a good machine, but a haedache to fix. I thought I share my experience with everybody.

 

I spent most of my life until about 15 years ago growing beans. We had a big jack (I think it was an 1989 model) before that we had a chisolm ryder high density machine, before that we had 2 machines that picked 2 36" rows at a time . one was a chisholm ryder and one was called an agmac.
We were involved in a grower owned coop that filed bankruptcy after 30 years. It was then bought up by chaquita for a couple of years until they pulled out . Then it was bought by profac out of New York. They just wanted the markets and not the product and it lasted about 2 or 3 years and I haven't grown a bean since. There are still some grown here for National foods and for Norpac. Nothin near the amount there used to be though.