follow up on JD 71 planters

We are certified organic. One of the most challenging aspects of this is that we cannot spray down before planting. We plow, disk, then till. In a wet year, like this one, we cannot get ahead and end up planting into marginal ground. Maybe cloddy, maybe some grass residue. There is nothing worse than stopping the tractor every 20 feet or even less to clean the seeders. Local commodities farmers run maxemerge and big JDs, I really envy their stands of corn. Their seeders have a similar system for opening the ground to the 71s. Hoping the 71s will solve some problems for us, allow us to plant into these conditions more easily, and save us from thinning corn.

Riverbend, you mentioned getting another unit if they are real cheap. Whats real cheap? These where taken on trade at a local dealership so I expect to pay a bit more than private sale. Shipping and buying sight unseen is not really my cup of tea, and the 71s where never a real popular planter around here.

Thanks fellas
Mike Peroni

I have a four row (9" centers) for greens and radishes and a two row for corn and beans. I like the 71s (70s in my case) because they are easy to set up for various seeds.

It sounds like you are thinking of planting corn and beans with yours. Get corn plates that fit your seed and fiddle the sprockets to get the spacing right. Without too much effort you can get one corn seed every 6, 8, or 12 inches.

If your green bean seed is all relatively uniformly sized, you can use a soybean plate and adjust the gearing to get 8 seeds per foot pretty easily. I want to find the right set of plates so I can leave the gearing the same and plant sweet corn, green beans, peas and shell beans.

It sounds like we are in the same boat. On Father's Day, neighbor Marty and I plowed down some flowering yellow blossom sweet cover and hairy vetch mix. What a mess. It wanted to plug up as soon as we dropped the plows. Once we got going, it was not too bad. I pulled out the gobs that were the size of hay bales with the field cultivator and disked it. This past Sunday I planted soybeans for a green manure crop. The 70s never missed a beat. The openers work great.

The worst stuff is old eggplant roots. They get caught on the covering arms, but even that does not cause too much trouble.

I paid $650 for a nine row set up, and some of them were not the best. Also, they are model 70 units. If you can get decent units for $175 each, you might not need any parts. It has been mostly the little parts that I have needed. Once they are working, the only thing that I have bought was depth bands.

Greg

I remember your input this winter about seeder choices. Great advice. Thanks for the posts on these 71s. As luck would have it these seeders(8 gang) have been sitting at the dealer for two months. I called on them friday, called again to confirm today and the dealer sold all but two or three over the weekend, guess I'll check out the runts of the litter. But wait, theres more. He has new ones for a mere $985/row.
All the best,
Mike

Greg

They are simple of design, VERY accurate (for a plate planter) and relatively inexpensive to operate. (parts are not that expensive, and with FEW moving parts, they just don't need many)

I see them on the internet during the "off season" for as low as $150 per row unit. Complete 2-row planters sell commonly for around $450. I've seen 'em sell for as much as $350 per unit and/or $750 for a complete 2-row planter.(in extremely good condition...)

If you're REALLY interested, Yetter Manufacturing made the #71 unit for Deere during it's production run. When Deere dropped the #71 from it's line, Yetter bought the rights to SELL them from Mother Deere. Yetter now markets their own #71 planter. You can get complete 2 or 4 row planters from them. (Just not that cheap)

Good luck with your crops!

Gratefully
Mike Peroni

Tha response you gave me was a major reason for jumping on it.

Keith