John Deere Cotton Picker Timeline (2-Row)

[@steveenyart2451]

Fascinating, an area of farm machinery history I knew nothing about.

[@joshs.7453]

I'm glad you enjoyed learning about it!

[@stephensfarms7165]

A great machine. My dad and I use to drive these in the field, great times, I miss these good olde days on the farm with my Dad. Thanks 🙏

[@IMRROcom]

699 & 9900 high Drums and cotton trailers. Spent hours on them with my Dad and Grand dad and uncles. Doing Custom Harvesting in Arizona. Stomping cotton in cotton trailers. we painted the 9900's to look like the newer 9910 at one point so the farmers thought we were running newer equipment. Love the small of fresh cotton

[@joshs.7453]

IMRROcom, thanks for sharing your experiences! Very cool. My grandfather managed a fairly large acre farm from 73-92 and they used a 699 and a 9900 exclusively from about 1980 onwards. I spent a lot of time around and in those pickers and the trailers they filled. Fun memories pulling trailers to the gin with Pappaw.

[@stevenmoss2152]

We had one in the 80's. First cotton picker we had.

[@StarrLeredo]

Great Video, I was very interested in cotton harvesters since I was a kid, and their history!

[@joshs.7453]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!

[@travispressley4860]

When tobacco started going downhill in the early 90s my father and I started growing cotton. At the age of 22 I bought the picker while dad picked up the rest of the equipment. A 1969 model 699 jd 2 row high drum. We only grew for 3 years but I still have the picker and it starts and runs like a new one even after only moving 3 times in 20 years. It would be a great restoration project for someone. In relatively good condition for a 50 year old machine.

[@joshs.7453]

That's a neat story! Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't mind buying the 699 myself if I had the money and a way to get it to my house in NW GA. Is it diesel or propane? The farm my grandfather managed had propane and diesel powered 699s over the years and a diesel 9900 was their newest picker. They quit farming after 1991.

[@travispressley4860]

641 Workmaster diesel

[@randallcrane2704]

Very good video thanks

[@josephaustin7004]

Been searching for a picture of that elusive 9935 for a long time! Grew up with the yellow top 9920. Great picker.

[@josephaustin7004]

My dad drove a 6000 hi-boy and I remember they had an old 699 beside the shop. My uncle worked with a farmer who had the 600 hi-boy without a cab. I'm definitely a fan of the older tractors and equipment.

[@joshs.7453]

Joseph Austin That is pretty cool! I grew up in the Mississippi Delta and used to see lots of old equipment either being used or parked. Now it's almost all gone to the scrapyards. I'm working on a similar IH cotton picker video, but it is less complete and more complicated than the JD 2-row history.

[@joshs.7453]

That's an awesome story! Thanks for sharing. My grandfather managed a farm from 1973 through 1991 that almost exclusively used Ford tractors (the brother of the farm owner was a Ford dealer for a long time) so they had one of most of the bigger Fords made from the late 60s through the late 70s. In 1980 he reduced the size of the farm and quit buying new equipment except for a Massey Ferguson 4880. The 9600 was used mainly for making rows, planting and cultivating, while an 8600 did the final seedbed prep and cultivating. They used a 9700 and a TW-30 for breaking up the ground and disking. At one time they had three 5000s which were used for all sorts of jobs. They had an 8000 and a 9000 that weren't used much at all, along with a 950 and three 850s, all of which were from the mid-50s.

[@chuggaconroyish]

I ran a 699 in 1991-1992. Wonderful times!

[@joshs.7453]

That's neat! Where was that at?

[@mrih1586]

My dad has a 2-99. That ran great when parked in 88 or 89. Aftermarket cab gas engine.

[@joshs.7453]

Awesome! Where is he at? My Grandfather ran a 299 LP cab model occasionally in the 70s. I think they quit using it in 1980 or 81. They used a 699 LP with cab through the 1991 harvest.

[@joshs.7453]

The last time I saw what I call an "old picker convoy" was in the summer of 1994. I was at my grandparent's house on Hwy. 322, southeast of Clarksdale, MS. Three 299s (gas or LP, I don't remember which) came by one after another, heading west to east. I don't know who they belonged to or where they were going, as picking wouldn't begin for a few more months, but that was the last time I ever remember seeing a 299 running, or any more than one "old" picker running at a time. There was another farmer about 12 miles from there who ran a 499 (the only one I've ever been around) up through 1994 or 95. Growing up in the 80s in the Mississippi Delta, it seemed as though for a few years there, the late-80s through mid-90s, one was more likely to see an old two-row picker versus a newer one, as the 4-rows were becoming the norm on larger farms. I remember seeing a lot of newer two rows being sold and replaced by new four rows. This left smaller farmers with older two rows, and the number of small cotton farmers dwindled to practically nothing by 2000 in that area.

[@Patrick-xp8bb]

I wish some body would make these in HO scale

[@robertclark4929]

Walked 100 miles inside a wagon as a teen " packing" cotton being picked by a 9900.

[@joshs.7453]

Thanks for sharing! I packed cotton too, from a 9900 and 699.

[@ΚώσταςΣακκάς-η2φ]

here in GREECE we have only 2 rows

[@joshs.7453]

+κωστας παπαγιαννης Thanks for the comment. Do you own or run any pickers?

[@ΚώσταςΣακκάς-η2φ]

yes my friend I have a 9930 Looking for 9935 but was nowhere.

[@joshs.7453]

+κωστας παπαγιαννης from everything I've heard, 9930s are great pickers. I don't think John Deere made very many 9935s, and that is why people don't see many of them today.

[@ΚώσταςΣακκάς-η2φ]

Dude yes 9930 very good machine. today I did harvest. WHAT cotton-hast

[@mannyu3844]

My family has a lot of money to buy 90 cotton strippers

[@swiftsavvy6786]

Your family doesn’t have 90 cotton stripper