'New' corn planter.

DeltaRed

Well-known Member
It is looking like the JD 7100 will NOT be comming to 'live' here. :( Because of low corn prices and other issues,there simply is not enough money for a planter(or any other 'iron').I guess the old 70 will just have to go another season.Thanks for all the good advise on the matter.Maybe next year.... Steve
 
You know your financial situation best but I will say you will not find anything cheaper. I also think you would gain production on improved seed placement. Dad did not see the need for me to go from the 7000 planter to the 1750 but with the zone-till attachment there was no way I could put a down pressure system on without stressing the 5x7 frame. I plant very evenly spaced corn with the 1750 without having to work the ground to powder of which the time was not there to do so the past two seasons. It's not that I did not have other financial needs but the planter change had the most immediate payback and that is what farming is about. Looking at several propositions when money is limited and figuring out what is going to have the best and most immediate payback.
 
A 1750 is the cats meow. I just got one this spring and am so very impressed with the way it planted. I went from a 435 minimum till to that - a 1750 and a 750 drill. It is hard to get used to a 15 foot drill after having a 36 foot drill but the two of them work very well.

If your old 70 still works well there is nothing wrong with using it again. I know that your ground needs to be well worked and you like the three point planters - you may just be best off keeping that 70. I don't know anything about the 7100 but if they are as good as the 7000 there will still be a good one when you are ready. I tried to get a 7000 conservation but they are pretty rare around here. I didn't like the price tag on the 1750 but I needed to move forward to new techniques for much of my ground. You don't need to change tillage methods so keep running what works!
 
I did better than average on my purchase cost of the 1750. My 7000 did alright when the soil conditions were above average but when the rain was chasing me the time was not there to get the seedbed conditioned the way I wanted plus I found out there were limits to the zone-till as far as breaking up the soil. The cost of planting corn made it too hard to ignore fields that were anything but perfect in terms of seed placement and ultimately growing population.
 
Steve I know how it is to be tight on money. This planter deal is the one thing I would strongly recommend you do even if you have to borrow the funds with a couple of years of payments. I HATE payments too.

The simple fact is you will get much better yields with the better planter.

You can NOT get as good of seed placement with a JD 70 as a JD 7000. It just is not possible with the differences in technology.

So with the high cost of good seed you can soon repay the cost of the planter.

You have to have good seed placement to have a great crop. You are limiting your yield from day one with poorer seed placement.

So with the planter sounding like a good deal and the fact you WILL get better yields I would not pass up the opportunity.

You can harvest with just about any machine and make do. You can work the ground with just about any tractor as long as it moves. You CAN NOT raise a good corn crop with a poor planter. I do not care what some will tell you on this site the JD 7000 is a far superior planter than the JD 70 units ever where.

I am willing to bet that few have raised as many higher yielding corn crops on here as I have. I am not trying to brag. I am blessed with the ground and climate that can maximize corn yields. So please listen to me and make this investment. It is much easier to have a successful corn crop with a good stand, period!!!
 
I had a neighbor who said the most important job of the year is planting. You get only ONE chance each year. Everything goes downhill after that. I like your comment about paying for one. Makes a lot of sense.
 
I agree 100%. I went through the same exercise several years ago when I bought a 7000 planter. Wondered if I could afford it. I finally decided to go ahead and get it. Afterward, I wondered why I waited so long. Corn yields went up more than enough to pay for the planter. Like was said, you are making payments on a better planter, one way or the other. The planter is the last piece of equipment a person should "poor boy", in my opinion. Buy the best planter you can afford because it will treat you well. Better spacing, better depth control, more even maturity at harvest and many other things on the "plus" side. Mike
 
Steve, here are some figures for you. I believe you said your planter would cost in the low $2000 range. Let's say for easy figuring you will have $3000 in the planter by the time you are done. If you amortize this over a 3-year period, let's say, then you have an obvious $1000 payment per year. On your 70 acres that comes up to around $14.29 per acre. Divide that by your expected corn price (let's use $3.50) and that figures to 4.08 bushels of corn per acre it will cost to pay for the planter in three years. After that, it's all profit. You will likely save that much in seed savings alone ($240 per bag corn is $3 per thousand kernels) by not doubling as much. I know it's hard to justify buying machinery sometimes but there is a definite payback to a good planter. And you are buying a good one for a reasonable price so the payback period is a short one. Mike
 
Steve, even if you have to borrow the money, get that 7100. The seed placement is much better than the older units and it looks like you placed them by hand. Even if it doesn't quite write out in one year, it will in two. You'll love that planter in no time. There are few skips with the 7000's and they can be set for higher populations which the seed companies recommend for maximum yield. The days of 20,000 ppa are gone. Don't hamstring yourself by trying to plant corn on the cheap- it won't work.....
 
I'll add that if the planter in question does not have anti-bounce springs it would be well worth the money to put them on. Shoup carries them at a very reasonable cost.
 
I'd have to agree with the others... get the planter if at all possible.

It's easy to "get by" with harvest stuff, and we all know you know how to do that. But a decent planter will pay big dividends.

Yes prices are ugly... but keep in mind, less than 10 years ago there were cash prices in the Midwest less than $1.50. Interest is the one thing that hasn't gone up!

Good luck!
 
I don't know how big your 70 is but if it is a four row, cut it in two and make two-two row planters and your 7100 will be half paid for. Biggest single yeild improvement I ever made was in 1993 when I traded my White 543 plate planter for a cherry JD 7000. Now have a 12 row JD 1760 but still kept the 7000 to plant 12 acres of sweet corn per year and also to help me remember where I came from and to have a plan in place if I ever had to start over!
 
Rented my bosses JD 7000 to plant corn in a 10 acre field i had rented. Wondered how this "superplanter" would work. soils had been worked good. For some reason it would skip and just plain stop planting in one row(but never the same row) all the way across the field.we could never figure out what caused it. Thats when i bought my 78 or 79 352 ford planter.Never had any probs with it But if I had know how things was going to go , I woulld have stuck with my old 2 row blackhawk! Too old too soon, too wise too late! :D
 

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