By Cindy Ladage

PERRY, Ga. – One of the most exciting things about attending shows in different parts of the United States is seeing different types of crops. It is even better when antique tractor collectors can witness harvesting techniques with vintage equipment.

That is what happened at the Georgia National Antique Ag Show that took place in Perry at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agri Center on Nov. 11-13.

The Antique Ag Show featured antique tractors, trucks and equipment and offered educational exhibits like peanut threshing, corn grinding and mini tractor pulls. At this event they also offered plowing demonstrations. The show was also held in conjunction with a huge auto swap meet. Combining the two brought a larger crowd and a mixture of those who just love to hear engines roar.

During the Antique Ag show, collector and farmer Hamilton Halford, along with his wife Allison, provided a demonstration of peanut threshing. They used a Turner peanut thresher. This cool machine was built by the C.H. Turner Co. in Statesville, N.C. The Turner thresher was a 1930s version owned by Sonny Stapelton. “It belonged to his daddy,” Hamilton Halford said about this historic machine.

To ensure that the machine would work effectively, Hamilton Halford hooked the thresher up to his 1950s-era Farmall Super M. He needed to be sure that the tractor that ran this thresher kept this machine around 275 rpms, and this Farmall was the right machine for the job.

At the show the Halfords and several volunteers also had a 1950s vintage hay press on hand to form the peanut straw bales after the peanuts had been shelled.

Sonny Stapelton’s son explained that this threshing machine had been used for demonstrations in the past. “My daddy had a show every 3rd Saturday in November.”

He explained that they used to thresh peanuts and bale the hay.  Then Hamilton Halford came up with the idea of doing this at the Antique Ag Show and they decided to use Sonny’s Turner thresher. While they used Sonny’s thresher, it was peanuts from the Halford farm that they harvested and brought to the show.

“In September we stacked peanuts on poles. Then they were six feet high,” Halford said, showing that they had compressed quite a bit as they had dried down. The bales were on poles ready to be placed in the threshing machines using pitch forks.

“Back in the early- to mid-1900s, 400 to 600 peanuts were harvested per acre. Today it is 2-3 tons per acre,” Halford shared.

In the early days, mules were used to pull the poles. The stack of peanuts was then put into the thresher with a pitchfork. The system works by gravity and a whole lot of shaking. The saws destem the peanuts and they eventually fell into a # 3 wash tub. The straw fell out the back and went into a hay press to form a bale. The peanut straw would then be fed to livestock. “Nothing was thrown away. Back then,” Halford said, “It took a lot of people to do this, a lot of farm and animal labor.”

Visitors to the show were able to take peanuts home with them. A few visitors to the show remembered harvesting peanuts with mules in the old days. One 92-year-old gentleman shared stories of doing this back then.

Besides the 1930s threshing version of peanut harvest, Halford also had a newer version of peanut harvest, his John Deere 111 Self-Propelled peanut combine. On the display in one of the buildings, they had some of the John Deere advertising that accompanied this rare machine. “Step up to easier, cleaner peanut harvest with the exclusive 111 Self-Propelled,” the information said. “You’ll escape most of the dust and dirt, plus other inconveniences which often are a part of peanut harvest with pull-type combines, when you go modern and start riding high with the exclusive, time saving John Deere 111 Self-Propelled.”

When Halford first heard about the combine, he didn’t believe it. “I’m from southwest Georgian and I had never seen a peanut combine. Someone said it was made and I did research and saw it.”

He purchased the combine in 1997 and it had last been operated in 1973. “John Deere’s 111 Self-Propelled peanut combine was ahead of its time. During the mid-60s, farmers had trouble with weed control coupled with Deere not yet developing the inverting of the peanut vine row. I’ve heard stories of farmers creeping up to the end of a row where the Moring Glories were so thick and entangled within the peanuts, that once engaged, the combine could remain stopped while the entangled row of vines (peanuts up, and leaved down) was accomplished. It was allowed for quicker drying and easier threshing when consumed by the combine.” Halford explained about the how the interesting John Deere peanut combine worked but still needed some adjusting.

For more information about the show, log onto the website at  gnfa.com.