Texas Plains farmer and modeler John Ross recently sent these photos with a note that "..it's cotton harvest time again." Those stacks of white "stuff" in these photos are scale models of harvested cotton "modules" with yellow plastic weatherproofing covers. The Peterbilt 378 was built using a Jacobs Models cab with the sleeper removed and mounted on a scratchbuilt frame with Dennis Aust suspension and front axle. The fuel tanks and steps, sun visor, exhaust and the bed are all built from scratch. The cotton module builder (in the background, right) is a copy of John's real one being pulled by an Ertl John Deere 8300. The modules are in real life 32 feet long and weigh about 18,000 to 20,000 pounds each. The writing on the modules lets farmers and processors keep track of the farm number and whether they were harvested from irrigated or dry (non-irrigated) land. As John so succinctly puts it, "So this is your farm tutorial for today!"

Posted December 10, 2013