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great plains vs JD750
Post At
11/ 4/2011 - 11:29 am
reply from
preston hutson
I'm a small farmer in Northwest LA. I run 100 acres of wheat or beans on heavy clay, 80 acres of quality Bermuda grass hay fields, and share 350 acres with my father’s cattle operation – sandy/silt loam. I want to expand my row-crop operation in the years to come. I struggle with cost so I am looking into two used drills at this time. Here is what I will use the drill for:
- No till grain sorgrum and jap millet in duck lease
- No till drill wheat on clay soil
- No till beans after wheat on clay soil;
- No till rye grass into Bermuda grass fields heavy soil;
I am leaning towards a Great Plains 15’ solid-stand drill with coulter caddy. I have read and discussed where some have had good success & others not. Do you feel this drill will work for my needs? What will it not do well or have poor stand? Does it disturb the soil like in the expanda photos? Would the success rate be better to disc prior to planting wheat and then no till beans? Will it disturb the rye grass too much for cutting hay ( I plan on fertilizing the ryegrass on april 15 at boot high height and no till hay grazer into so that when I cut the rye grass for hay in may, the root system will be established in the hay grazer). Some state that with this drill you need a rain to follow planting – is this because the soil disturbance versus the JD750 single opener?
Thanks for your time. Please give me your opinions and comments on choosing either the Great Plans 15-foot no-till or John Deere 750.
- No till grain sorgrum and jap millet in duck lease
- No till drill wheat on clay soil
- No till beans after wheat on clay soil;
- No till rye grass into Bermuda grass fields heavy soil;
I am leaning towards a Great Plains 15’ solid-stand drill with coulter caddy. I have read and discussed where some have had good success & others not. Do you feel this drill will work for my needs? What will it not do well or have poor stand? Does it disturb the soil like in the expanda photos? Would the success rate be better to disc prior to planting wheat and then no till beans? Will it disturb the rye grass too much for cutting hay ( I plan on fertilizing the ryegrass on april 15 at boot high height and no till hay grazer into so that when I cut the rye grass for hay in may, the root system will be established in the hay grazer). Some state that with this drill you need a rain to follow planting – is this because the soil disturbance versus the JD750 single opener?
Thanks for your time. Please give me your opinions and comments on choosing either the Great Plans 15-foot no-till or John Deere 750.
Reply at
11/ 5/2011 - 7:40 pm
reply from
Grant Corley
Preston, I would take the JD 750 drill in a heartbeat & run w/ it. It will work far better in the high clay content soils than a coulter cart & seperate drill opener. I am in the seed business as well as farm high clay content soils in Eastern Ks. I have had 3 customers that bought the Great Plains drill w/ coulter carts & w/in 3-4 years have traded them off for JD 750 drills. Problem in high clay content soils when it gets a little dry is, to get coulter penetration, you must have more wt. on the coulters & thus cannot get drill openers in the ground. If you increase the wt. on the drill, then you lose coulter penetration. Coulters on a seperate cart are very difficult to maintain uniform depth control in relation to the drill openers. John Deere @ one time also had a drill & seperate coulter cart & they had the same problems. Your comment about needing a rain to get a stand is well put & very true. When used to drill after wheat beans in this country in most years & having to have a rain to get a stand is a high risk venture. We had a contract grower @ one time that had the GP drill w/ a coulter cart & in good conditions, He got as good of stand as anyone else, but when it got a little dry, or in more difficult soils, He had continual problems getting a good stand in relation to the amount of seed planted. He fought it for about 3 years & finally gave up & traded it in for the first piece of John Deere equipment that He had ever owned & was very happy w/ the diffence in stand establishment..!! I believe a lot of that was because of the better seed to soil contact in the single blade opener on the JD drill. I will also have to say that coulters can be made to work, if you can keep them @ the same depth as the seed openers. I get a much better stand with coulters mounted to the units of my John Deere planter, rather than to the planter main frame. There is no substitute for having the coulter & opener very close to each other & on the same framework as the opener is or as in a 750 drill, one & the same. I have had frame mounted coulters as well as unit mounted coulters on row crop planters & there is no comparasion in depth control of the coulter. Mounted to the planter unit, it will float over ridges & thru depressions as a unit whereas a frame mounted coulter will go deeper over the ridges & shallower in the depressions. If the coulter runs too deep, the seed will often go to the bottom of the coulter slot, rather than to the bottom of the drill opener furrow. If the coulter is too shallow, then seed will not be adequately covered. We have had 2 - 750 drills & now have an 1850 air seeder & commodity cart & have ourselves never owned a Great Plains Drill & cart. Great Plains as a company makes very good equiptment. The drill itself is a very good drill w/ a very good seed metering system. The seperate cart for the coulters is the problem. I really do not think you will have a serious problem cutting hay after using either one of the two designs. I do have a question w/ your idea of planting sorghum sudan grass into a well fertilized established stand of ryegrass & getting much survival of the sudan type haygrazers. Seedling sorghums do not tolerate competition from well established stands of rye, brome, or fescue grasses. Comparable to putting a small calf in a pen w/ much larger calves. Try that & see who wins.!!! Hope I have given you some food for thought in your drill decision. Just trying to share some of my opinions & experience, as we started no-tilling in 1971. You make the final decision. Grant
Reply at
11/ 7/2011 - 2:20 am
reply from
John Hicks
Preston,
We farm in a 14-inch-rainfall area in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Getting crops to germinate at the end of a hot dry summer is always a problem. We find that there is always more moisture in the old crop furrow plus easier penetration. This can be enhanced with soil wetter dribled directly into the surface of the furrow while planting the previous crop. The wetting/moisture accumulating effects carry over for twelve months in our soils. If showers are expected soil wetter when sowing the grasses will help germination if none was used before.
To seed into the old furrow, precision guidance is required, 10 cm (4 in.) auto-steer plus auto side shift, such as sold by Seed Hawk or Seed Master in Canada.
Any liquid fertilizer system does just nicely for the soil wetter, but position is everything. John.
We farm in a 14-inch-rainfall area in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Getting crops to germinate at the end of a hot dry summer is always a problem. We find that there is always more moisture in the old crop furrow plus easier penetration. This can be enhanced with soil wetter dribled directly into the surface of the furrow while planting the previous crop. The wetting/moisture accumulating effects carry over for twelve months in our soils. If showers are expected soil wetter when sowing the grasses will help germination if none was used before.
To seed into the old furrow, precision guidance is required, 10 cm (4 in.) auto-steer plus auto side shift, such as sold by Seed Hawk or Seed Master in Canada.
Any liquid fertilizer system does just nicely for the soil wetter, but position is everything. John.
Reply at
11/ 7/2011 - 5:18 pm
reply from
preston hutson
Thanks for your quick replies. One other question came to mind this weekend as i was broadcasting 164 acres of rye grass was if you can plant ryegrass with a JD750 drill? I was concerned over the light, fluffy seed packing in the drill and cloggin without an agitator.
Reply at
11/ 8/2011 - 1:02 pm
reply from
Grant Corley
Preston, I am sure you can as I just looked in my notes in my owners manual & I had written in that Notch 20 - 25 planted 20 # per acre of Ryegrass. They show Crested Wheat grass in the rate charts in the owners Manual & I used that as a starting point. I had half speed gears in mine & liked them very well as they allowed you to drill soybeans w/o cracking many of them as it allowed you to open up the flow control more & did not pinch them thru a small place that caused seed damage. I have a neighbor that drills ryegrass w/ his & I drilled both Ryegrass & Fescue grass seed w/ both of mine that I had & I got along very well. I might not fill the box clear full so there would be less chance of segregation & packing. They willl not drill Bromegrass as it is too fluffy.
Grant
Grant
Reply at
11/14/2011 - 1:10 pm
reply from
preston hutson
Thanks Grant - that is great news. So when I'm looking at a used JD 750, what should I look for on the drill? What usually goes wrong with them, etc.?
Reply at
11/15/2011 - 7:36 am
reply from
norman nelson
Preston, We rent out 3 1590 JD drills and 2 1991CCS air seeders. The bolt at the top of the seed boot wears, and the seed boot when in the ground pivots too far back, mounting holes actually get somewhat egg-shaped. New bolts help, or even the next size bigger metric bolts take the looseness out. We put (welded) a strip of nickel welding rod on the wear surface of the seed boot and get more life, this is why the mounting holes wear out, we do not replace the seed boots that often, 10,000 acres, and we trade machines.
The gauge wheels with one plastic type side are bad, they wear out and the bearing fits loose, bearing is okay, but the plastic frame of the wheel needs replacing, look for a gauge wheel with both sides are metal, we switched to this last year on a new 1990, and I'm happy so far.
Side play on the closing wheel arm, bushings are worn out at the top pivot, no big deal, just hammer out old ones and install new, really a messily, grease job, give it to your favorite hired help!! The drill can plant anything, anytime and in very harsh conditions, we have been doing this for 20 years and never thought of switching, except to a newer model, look for a 1560 or 1590, better depth control adjustment arms, less grease jerks, better drill. Also get one with a small grass seeder box in front, then you can truely plant everything easily. Norm
The gauge wheels with one plastic type side are bad, they wear out and the bearing fits loose, bearing is okay, but the plastic frame of the wheel needs replacing, look for a gauge wheel with both sides are metal, we switched to this last year on a new 1990, and I'm happy so far.
Side play on the closing wheel arm, bushings are worn out at the top pivot, no big deal, just hammer out old ones and install new, really a messily, grease job, give it to your favorite hired help!! The drill can plant anything, anytime and in very harsh conditions, we have been doing this for 20 years and never thought of switching, except to a newer model, look for a 1560 or 1590, better depth control adjustment arms, less grease jerks, better drill. Also get one with a small grass seeder box in front, then you can truely plant everything easily. Norm
Reply at
11/15/2011 - 9:30 am
reply from
Lance Fortney
Preston,
Check out Phil Needham's Web site (just Google Phil Needham Ag). He has some really good info on the JD 750 drills that includes some videos.
Check out Phil Needham's Web site (just Google Phil Needham Ag). He has some really good info on the JD 750 drills that includes some videos.
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