4 Row Corn Planter Suggestions

cm9

Member
Looking for suggestions on a good four row planter. We currently use an old McCormick 245 2 row planter with shoes openers. The ground here is pretty rocky and we plant 4-6 acres a year for food plots and some sweet corn. We also use bag fertilizer. Any suggestions for a good planter for rocky ground would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Anything with a disk opener would be good. A 7000 is expencive,especially for a food plot.IMHO,a finger pickup type such as a 7000 is a high maintenance(nightmare),not something a small foodplotter would want to deal with.A plate type will be fine for that purpose.JohnDeere or IH are the most common,and the easiest to get plates for.I use JD #70 and 71 'unit'planter.Normally plant 80 to 100 acres yearly.Find something in good shape and affordable for your budget.Whatever you buy,be sure to get a manual.
 

i use a IH 449a plate type, ground driven with disk openers. still can get plates for it. have no problems with it. real simple 4row planter. old school though.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I forgot to add the widest I can go is four rows. I have some tight openings to fields and do not want to take stonewalls apart.
 
I'd go with an IH 800. Cheaper than the 7000 Deere and has a better opener. Seed spacing isn't critical with food plots and if you drive a bit slower, that isn't a big issue anyway.
AaronSEIA
 
I would go with a 7000. Good 4 row machines can be bought for $2000 or less. I bought a decent one for $1400 two years ago with fertlizer and the newer moniter. As far as maintenance on the meters have them checked by a dealer and they are good for 500 acres. If your budget is less than $1000 find a good 494a or 495 Deere. Disc openers are better than runners.Plenty of plates are available. Tom
 

The John Deere 494s were as common as dirt around here. Even if most of your other machinery was NOT green, you probably owned a 494.
 

We have an old 4 row Allis no-til plate planter, it does fine for the small 6-10 acres of corn we raise. We pick it on the ear and grind for cattle feed.

If I replace it it'll probably be with a IH or White air planter, finger pick up machines are to high maintenance for my small acreage
 
I find it amazing that there are fellows that think the most popular planter of all time, is costly to maintain. That would be the JD 7000 finger pickup unit. Even if you have to replace the belt, backing plate, finger assembly, and brush you would not have much over $75 per unit, using after market parts that you can everywhere. Then after season dump the seed out of the unit and wash it in warm soapy water,put the units inside so they do not see huge temperature swings. That unit will last for 10-15 years. Even then with his use he MIGHT have to replace a belt 10-15 years down the road. That belt costs $12-14.

The biggest sales job I have ever seen is the companies selling "IMPROVED" parts for a JD finger pickup unit. Also telling guys that they HAVE to run them on a "TEST" stand to be adjusted is all horse hockey!!!! A JD 7000 finger pickup unit, with all original parts, can be set on a work bench with your fingers and will plant at a 98-99 percent of drop. The only adjustment is the finger unit tension to the backing plate. Set it to lightly drag when turned by your fingers. It will plant great.

I know I have done hundreds of them and maybe thousands of them. They are one of the most neglected items on may livestock farms. Put away in the shed after setting out for weeks after planting. Seed still in the boxes/units, Half sprouted. The next spring old seed dumped/washed out then dump new seed in and plant. Even with all of that abuse the unit will work. Not a 90+ percent but it will plant. Try that with any other planted and see what you get.

You can find JD 7000 4 row wide planters for $700-1500 all over the place. I buy them all summer and fall. I then sell them to a fellow that takes them to Mexico and rebuilds them into narrow row planters.

Things you need to consider:

1) Parts availability. Some of these old planters have parts that are getting just about impossible to find at any price.

2) Sized seed. Many companies no longer have size sorted seed. Some thing plate planters have to have to work very well. The plateless seed is by far the most common.

3) Opener type. If your ground is not going to be worked into a really good seed bed your going to want a double disk opener unit over an older shoe planter. If you have very many sod chunks you will drag them up into piles with a shoe planter. Been there, done that, for years.

4) Some planters I would stay away from. Any old Air planter. The older White planters used electric motors to pressurize the unit. Took a heck of a charging system to keep up. The later ones used a hydraulic driven air fan. Much better but you will more than likely need a PTO pump to run it on most older tractors. IH Cyclone planters have similar issues.
Units to look for if JD 7000 is out of your budget: The Allis Chalmers unit planters. Dead simple plate planters mounted on a tool bar. JD 70/71 tool bar units. IH 56 planters, good simple planter. JD 1240 planter, can be double disk, would stay away from the plateless units on this series. Some parts are really pricy for them. Ford had a fairly good plate style double disk planter in the mid 1970s. Do not know the model.

Look at prices. Many of these older planters will bring pretty high prices to food plot guys. Go to auctions and forget buying from any dealers. The type of planter your looking for will not be prices any way reasonable at any dealership. There are guys "making/rebuilding" these planters just for food plot guys. They are getting CRAZY high money for them when compared to what the same units are bring at farm auctions.
 

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