Planting crops sure has changed!!!!

JD Seller

Well-known Member
I can remember when the most common corn planter was a 4 row wide. Lots of fellow still used a two row three point planter. Then slowly six row narrow planters came about. About 20 years ago twelve row planters starter selling around here. Now the serious farmers are all 16 row or 24 row around here. The big 36 and 48 row planters are not around me yet. The side draft on the hills is a limiting factor so far.

I was just walking through the shed earlier today. Two sixteen rows setting ready to go. Another sixteen row in the shop getting dressed up for this season.

I bought it a year and a half ago to resell. It was a early fall auction with perfect weather and the combines running. A JD 1770 16 x 30 planter with seed star, liquid fertilizer and individual row shut offs. I gave $13,500 for it. When I got it home I found an invoice in with the monitor showing how the prior owner had spent $25K one year before that on the planter. We got to looking and it was in better shape than one of our planters. So we kept it as a backup until the one planter is worn out and we will sell it. Well last year the weather got wet late so getting the soybeans planted needed to happen fast so I hooked the "spare" planter up without any of the GPS stuff hooked up to it. Soybeans aren't as fussy about over laps on point rows. So my son found the stuff they needed to make it match the other two planters, used online for pennies on the dollar. So what was going to be a summer project got turned into a snowy April one. LOL

We have rented a tractor and bought another finisher. When the weather breaks we can get every thing planted in under a week if the ground is right to plant.

With this modern equipment is hard to believe the amount of acres that can be covered in a short period of time.
 
I guess late 68 me and another guy with a 4 row JD plate less and a diesel D17 AC planted 100 acres in one day. That was putting 300 lb of fertilize to the acre. That was coffee shop talk for days, now plant that much before morning break. Like you say things have changed. Around here like around here the 16 and 24 s are about the limit because our fields are just not as big as you guys have. Lot of 60 & 70 acre fields with some smaller than that.
 
I lost my Dad in 1991, I was born in 71 and all he ever had was a 630 and a 494 plate planter. We were happy getting 30 acres done a day. Still have the 630. chris
 
We have a couple of 36 row planters in my neck of the woods, one of them planted my farm for a couple years so I worked around it mostly tending seed. For one thing, with a 36 row, it's a LONG walk for the tractor driver when he gets out of the cab and goes back around the end of the planter to check the seed depth, something not many people think about. It the marker is down it's a LONG, LONG walk. Even in my neighborhood where we have some 320 acre and bigger fields, but mostly 160 acre, I don't think a 36 row is more efficient considering the transport time between fields that can be planted in two hours and the amount of seed tending equipment and labor to run the tender. When the planter moves to a new field, so does the support equipment. If a couple of guys have to run back to the last field to get a pickup that was left behind, they will be too late getting back to tend the planter. They also need a tremendous amount of horsepower working ground ahead of the planter. That's two tractors and a man in each tractor. A 36 row is impressive to watch for sure but I'm happy with being back to planting my own land with a 12 row. I can barely remember dad planting with a wire but I wasn't very old at the time so we have come a long ways.
 
Had an old 4x30 planter till the mid 70's. Dad bought an allis 6x30 plante. Had it about 3or 4 years, and he got an old IH 58 8x30 planter we were big time then. Most guys were still using 4 row planters around here. What always amazed me was the difference from 6 to eight rows. Seemed like it planted so much faster than a 6 row. Yet the difference didn't seem like much from 4 to 6 rows.
Back when we first got the 8 row planter, we had dairy cows and all us kids were in school. Dad taught school so the labor was replaced with equipment size. As we got out of school, and the cows disappeared the equipment could stay the same size, and still get done.
I thought I planted the world back in the early 80's. Planted a hundred acres with 8 row air planter, moved 3 times filled the planter with 2 5 gallon pails, and went the 3 miles to get fertilizer for the planter by myself before dark. Started after chores that day.
 
Yea all that big equipment has enabled farmers to buy out their neighbors so there are few people left in rural areas and then wonder why the small towns loose population and the
local economy goes in the tank.Progress is great ain't it? Great being a big fish until a bigger fish comes a long.All this so we can sell grain to China for next to nothing.
 
Not many BTOs around here but a family operation is quite large and friends. Was passing by on the way to town and the son (50ish) was side dressing some corn (I guess..had the cultivators on each side of each row of young plants and a tank of some kind of liquid mounted on the tractor) moving at a couple of MPH or so, must have been cultivating 8 rows or so, just perfect. GPS, Laser, I don't know but it sure was like listening to a fine symphony orchestra.....everything in step.
 
Traditional Farmer: Farms have been consolidating in the Midwest since the area was settled. You can rant and rave about it but it will keep going one. I am not a fan of the super large farms either but it is either that or some specialty market. If you put all your efforts/money in to that you can be taken out easily too.

The long and short is farming never was easy and it will never be. It is just the problems change with time.
 
And here I am working on getting my 4 row IH 56 ready for planting.... Paid $300 last year and maybe have an extra $200 in stuff for it. Mostly does the job for the food plot I do for a neighbor, but an upgrade would be nice.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top