January 18, 2019
For a year, Farm Futures has been following Scott Farms’ progress in Sikeston, Mo., as the family operation expands its use of technology. During a visit in late fall, after 3 inches of rain fell, the mood was still positive for Doug Scott and his sons, Taylor and Jerod.
“We don’t usually finish cotton harvest before the end of November, and we’re almost done here on Nov. 2,” Taylor said.
Earlier this year, the Scotts took home a new CP690 picker, which Jerod has been operating. And that machine may be one reason harvest has gone more smoothly. “I can run at about 5.2 or 5.3 mph versus 4.7 or 4.8 in the previous picker,” Jerod said. “I could lap the older picker in the field.”
“The lapping is good, but not so good for the lappee,” Doug joked.
The new picker operates with a higher header speed, allowing for higher throughput. That extra half-mile-per-hour can add up on a full day of picking.
As with harvest nationwide, this year’s season at the Scotts was about hurry up and wait due to rain. “We would just get going good, and we’d have to park the pickers,” Doug said. “That can be frustrating, but as we look at the yields, this is going to be one of our best cotton crops.”
And Doug has a better handle than ever on that yield, given his use of the John Deere Operation Center system on his desktop computer and smartphone.