Planters Allis chalmers ac 74 series planter units or drill?

BASSFAN07 · Dec 18, 2011

Guys I saw locally some of these individual ac74 units available and I was wondering if I could just purchase them and attach them to an extra tool bar I have and they would function properly. I have never used a row crop planter and the only drill experience I have is with an ancient Oliver superior.
I am wanting to plant <6ac of corn/beans/millet for deer and ducks and was wondering if a 2-3 row planter or a 6-7' drill would be better for my needs.

I read where you could use a drill and just cover the drop openings with magnets to allow for spacing.
Any information or recommendations would be great.

flusher · Dec 18, 2011

BASSFAN07 said:
Guys I saw locally some of these individual ac74 units available and I was wondering if I could just purchase them and attach them to an extra tool bar I have and they would function properly. I have never used a row crop planter and the only drill experience I have is with an ancient Oliver superior.
I am wanting to plant <6ac of corn/beans/millet for deer and ducks and was wondering if a 2-3 row planter or a 6-7' drill would be better for my needs.

I read where you could use a drill and just cover the drop openings with magnets to allow for spacing.
Any information or recommendations would be great.

I planted bell beans and Austrian winter peas (2 acres each) last week using a JD71 2-row Flexi-planter. Worked OK for the bell beans not so well for the peas. Problem was with the double disc openers. The soil where the beans are planted is loam with a fair amount of clay while the soil where the peas are planted is gravely loam which clogged the double disc openers. I got tired of unclogging the openers so I just broadcast the peas and pressed the seed in with my 9-ft cultipacker.

My drill is an restored Minneapolis Moline P3-6 grain drill (10 ft wide, 20 drops, single disc openers). I've used it to plant Kanota oats using the large fertilizer box.

I doubt it would work with corn and bell beans because of the relatively small size of the grooves on the fluted feeds.

Hope this helps.
Good luck.

Briar Hill Brittanys · Dec 18, 2011

BASSFAN07 said:
Guys I saw locally some of these individual ac74 units available and I was wondering if I could just purchase them and attach them to an extra tool bar I have and they would function properly.

I am wanting to plant <6ac of corn/beans/millet for deer and ducks and was wondering if a 2-3 row planter or a 6-7' drill would be better for my needs.

I read where you could use a drill and just cover the drop openings with magnets to allow for spacing.

Allis Chalmers 74 planters are individually driven units, and will work fine on any toolbar you can attach them on. They're tough and easy to set up, too. If you have the plate adaptors, you can use John Deere seed plates. John Deere and Lincoln Ag Products do make a sorghum or milo plate, but I don't know about the millet. The thing that might be an issue is the plant spacing. I don't know the different population settings for an A/C planter. Depending on the drill you use, you may or may not be able to run corn/beans through the feeds, like Flusher said. Heck, why not just get both?

I use both, planter unit for corn and beans, drill for millet, wheat, rye, etc. The millet can be broadcast with good results in a food plot. Just my humble opinion. BTW, I don't have the A/C planter any longer, but it worked great.