Planter Questions

I have run a 1240 John Deere plate planter several years, and have been told by the seed dealer that I could increase my yeilds by going to 7000 Deere with meters or a Cyclo Case IH due to better seed placement. Is there enough truth to this to speed $4000-7000 on a planter to farm 180-220 acres?

The actual finger pickup mechanism on your 1240 is virtually identical to the 7000. Big, big difference will be in depth control, which has a direct effect on even emergence, but there are a host of other improvements, and a huge market of specialized, aftermarket attachments worth considering.

How can you hope for maximum yield if your seed doesn't get the best possible start? Biggest challenge may be in finding a 4 row 7000. I suppose it depends on the area.

If you do decide to go red, I think most on this site would advise against the 400 cyclo- not much improvement over what you have. Go for at least the 800.

He said he's got a plate 1240 planter- not a plateless 1240. We've got a 495A planter that for the most part is pretty similar to the later 1240 planters. We noticed one bolt that was loose this year on the drive mechanism for one of the planter units, and that was enough to fix a problem we've been noticing for the last few years. Our germination and spacing really seems to be pretty accurate, you just need to drive SLOW with those older planters.

When you speed up the accuracy goes way down with those old planters.

We were considering getting a newer 7000 planter but now it works pretty good again.

Donovan from Wisconsin

The biggest single improvement I have ever made in growing corn was going to a JD 7000 planter, that was back in 1993. Previously had JD 494a, 1240, IH 56 and White 543. Absolutely no comparison. Do the math, if you gain 10 bpa on 100 acres per year it won't take long to make up 4-7k.

John Deere 7000 4 rows in Eastern Iowa are bargain buys. Without liquid and dry fertilizer attachments and NO no-till coulters I have seen them sell for $375.00 in good shape. Most of the time stripped down 7000's run about $700. Alot of planter for $700 I think. Some even have the no-till coulters for that price. With dry or liquid fertilizer boxes/openers and no till coulters most can be bought for under $1500.00 privately. Dealers are between $1500 and $3000 for the same planter. At one time the planting units were highly sought after to make bean planters. That has slowed a great deal dropping the prices sharply. I had one with the no-till coulters on the planter unit and one with the coulters coming down from the main frame. I really do not see a big difference at all. The ones on the planting unit will bring more money. Actually in rocky, hard, tough soils I think the ones on the main frame would be better. I have seen units bent when the no till coulter hits something when it is attached to the planting unit itself. Great planter for the money. I still have two. Like you I am a small farmer and have a 4 row, 30" "Conservation" planter for corn and a 7 row, 19" planter for soybeans. The bean planter has splitters on it. The "Conservation" planter has a larger main frame. Seed spacing and depth is amazing. I can plant soybeans 1/8" to 1/4" deep.

Quite a few years back I went from a JD494A in excellent condition to a used White 5100 air. The White needed a lot of work,and I paid too much for it. That all soon disappeared, as my yields shot up dramatically. I used the White(4x30 no-till,dry fert.insect.monitor) the last time this past spring as I bought a new JD1750 6 row vacuum. I would have stayed with White if there was a dealer nearby.

Thanks for the advice fellas, I've been considering a 7000 Deere or 900-950 CIH. Just wiating to find the right machine, like you say 10 bu to the acre makes it pay in a hurry. Thanks!

I went from a way worn out plate planter with poor depth control to a JD 7000 with starter fertilizer.

Made a heck of a difference. But - your 1240 might be a lot more than my old relic Case was.

--->Paul

My crops were much better with the 7000 than the 400. I paid $1500 for a 4 row wide, then spent bucks on narrowing the wheel frame, rebuilding the finger units, and adding Kinze bean units plus Dawn trash whippers. I'll put it up against any new planter for planting quality. This year I rented out the land so I could do other things so I should be working on selling my planter. I'll do that in a year or two. Want to keep it to keep pressure on the tenant.

The 7000 planter is very nearly as good as the latest planters but you have to check it for wear. The main wear spots are the gauge wheel arms and the tail piece bushings. The gauge wheels should be tight against the opener disks and without side shake. Opener disks wear too. The tail piece should only move up and down, not side to side. All these bits are replaceable or repairable, both from deere and from after market makers, like Shoup and RK products.

Gerald J.

A planter and sprayer are the most important pieces of machinery if you raise conventional corn. If organic, then only the planter and very timely tillage passes. Seems a more likely range would be $2500 to $4500 for a good 7000 or a CIH 900. A CIH 800 could probably be bought for under $2500, at least in this area.

Seed spacing is not as important as seed depth control which is a must if you don't have perfectly flat fields. However this assumes you have a planter which doesn't continuely drop multiple seeds. If you have a planter that does this poor of seed singulation, then something is definitely wrong and needs fixed or adjusted.

$4000? My jd 7000 6 row was $3100 delivered from a dealer lot, freight included.