Planters Planter Types and Brands and Pictures

SCDolphin · Mar 9, 2008

Now that I started messing with a JD 71 flexi-planter I wonder if any of you real farmers would give a review, pictures features, and years manufactured of other planters with pro's cons. I would be curious if the seed plates might fit other planters. For instance if seed plates from JD 71 would fit JD 7000. Is a JD 7000 a later or earlier model.

Tritonman · Mar 9, 2008

The plates from a 71 planter unit will fit the 70 planter units and the 7000 JD plate planter. There are also finger planters in the 7000 model which is a different set up.

The Milton planters are nice for gardening and planting small seeds. Much more precise plates, etc but are more expensive.

Farmwithjunk · Mar 9, 2008

Tritonman said:
The plates from a 71 planter unit will fit the 70 planter units and the 7000 JD plate planter. There are also finger planters in the 7000 model which is a different set up.

The Milton planters are nice for gardening and planting small seeds. Much more precise plates, etc but are more expensive.

The "type B" plates that fit the #71 fit just about every plate type planter Deere ever made. Only a few of their very first planters use anything different. 290/490. 494/495, 694/695, 246/247, 446/447, 25/25B, #51's used the B plate.

I'm trying to find out years of production for 70's and 71's. I believe the 70 started in the late '50's. Deere sold 71's up into the 90's.

Tritonman · Mar 9, 2008

The 71's are still made by Yetter, you can pick them up for about 850 per unit plus shipping.

Rara Avis · Mar 9, 2008

Lincoln Ag Products E-Commerce Site also has plates for this planter.

1586 · Mar 9, 2008

This is my planting rig. The tractor is a 1991 CIH 7120 and the planter is a 2005 CIH 1200. The planting system works similar to your plate planter but instead uses vacuum to hold the seed to a flat plastic disc with 48 holes about the size of a small dinner plate. Other manufacturers also use an air system for seen metering but this particular planter is about 15 years newer in design and performs flawlessly with any seed size.

The JD 7000 you mention was available as plate and plateless. I'm not sure on the plates being interchangeable but the plateless uses 12 stainless steel fingers that rotate and select individual seeds. The meter is used for corn mainly at least here but works with pumpkins and any seed that doesn't require high populations. Beans and other high population crops use a different meter. The early ones were just a feed cup that would dribble seed out but some of the newer ones have individual cells much like your plate unit that are more accurate.

One of the first plateless planter was the JD 1240. It was an old planter with the new meter. I had one here for sweetcorn and it worked OK but the units would not be anything as nice as the 7000.

The finger meter is still used by Kinze and JD. Kinze makes a near photocopy of the JD 7000 unit on their own bar. The design is 30+ years old. The Case IH row unit and meter is the most modern. Like mentioned above the JD meter has 12 fingers where the Case IH has 48 cells on the disk that allow it to turn slower at the same speed. This also allows the unit to be run at higher speeds with similar accuracy to a JD unit at lower speeds. The JD unit maxes out around 5.5 mph at a 32,000 population or thereabouts. The CIH unit I run can go to 7 mph easy in smooth planting conditions. The CIH units also pull the gauge wheels that that run next to the opener blades on the row units. The Kinze and JD push them from behind the opener blades. Both designs work but there are conditions when the pushed gauge wheels are at a a disadvantage. The also wear the pivot on the gauge wheels since there is a lot more pressure put on that area than if they were pulled.

There is a guy here that takes old JD 7000 planters and makes split row soybean planters out of them. Also makes 2 and 4 row planters for small farmers/plots/vegetables etc. He sells tons of them. I would like to have a 2 row for sweetcorn. I believe the 4 row sells for $2000 or so all redone. Let me know if any one of you is interested in one.