Aimed at the problems in small and scattered corn field, i.e. mainly manual harvest, labor intensity, low productivity in gansu area, the small grain corn stalk harvester is designed and developed, which mainly composed of the transmission system, the cutting device and the grain lifer. Using SolidWorks and ADMAS virtual simulation the whole machine to get harvester performance indicators, and the corn straw harvest experiments are conducted on double ridge sowing fully-mulching dry land. The result show that the total kinetic energy of harvester cutting device axis is 1.547×105 J, and the total impulse is 3 858 N?s. Under the condition without to clear mulch and weeds, the average stubble height is 1.76 cm, and the corn straw qualified rate is reached 95.59%, as well as the device operating coordinatedly, stablly and reliablly. The average work efficiency can reach to 5.10 hm2/h. The kinetic energy and impulse of the rotating shaft can be used as the performance indicators of harvester cutting property.