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The benefit of the cyclo planter is the single seed hopper. (at least for each 6 or 8 rows). The cyclo 400 I used was heavy, 6 row, my MF-135 would slide sideways on corners with the planter lifted. The bad part of the cyclo planter is that is has those long pipes to the planter shoes from the seed drum. The drum counts pretty accurately, works better in the later ones where there's a ridge between the seed bumps, becuase it turns more smoothly then. But the seed clumps up in the pipes and it plants in bunches between the gaps. Every year I used mine, I had to swab out the pipes to remove the cacoons that would have caused instant pipe plugging. It may be that the pipes need to be new regularly to keep the insides smooth and that would help the bunching, but I've been told that the outer rows on the 8 row are the worst for bunching. One year on my 400 a row plugged up with beans. I never did find out why. Just when I got done, that row pipe was plugged from end to end. When I shook it, beans ran out until it emptied. With the air pressure being critical to performance and with the bunching, there were several years when I'd have made my cyclo 400 the center of a bon fire if there had been enough combustible on it to contribute to the fire. I'm planting with a 7000 JD planter now and growing better crops. Yes its more bother to fill 4 hoppers, but at least I don't have to haul the seed up 8 or ten feet, I can fill them standing on the ground. Those who have used them believe the much later cyclo did much better than the 400 but I see them running White or Great Plains these days. Gerald J.
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