Deere Introduces New Picker and Stripper

john deere CP770 Picker

As discussed in this article in the Southeast Farm Press, John Deere has announced its new pickers for 2021. A 75% redesign, the new CP770 has a lot of new features and additions that will make cotton harvest more efficient.

There are two of the features we, as ginners, need to be aware of moving forward. These new machines have a redesigned round module building system. This system makes the rolls 5% denser over the previous machines. This means a tighter module. Testing at gins in the field have not shown any real issues but anything that adds density may impact things like your module feeder bed, unwrapping system and feed head. Although a lot of testing has been done, there are a LOT of systems out there and not all of them could be tested.

The other issue to pay attention to is the fact they can make a 2% larger roll. The current models can make a 94 inch round and these can go to approximately 96. This two inches doesn’t sound like a lot but when module space is already tight in your module truck, it could get worse. Deere has told Southeastern Cotton Ginners that there will be a notification that the operator has to acknowledge that they should check with the gin before going beyond the 94 inch setting (We asked for a ginner lockout but they didn’t add that). Their testing shows no more ‘squat’ than their current machines but of course these haven’t been in mass production yet. In fact, Deere officials have told us that the higher density may help keep the modules from squatting as much as they currently do.

Only a handful of machines will be available this year across the belt. If one of your producers gets these new machines, we’d love to hear from you. What kind of experience do you have with these new machines. Please contact our office with your feed back on this machine.

DSF