I've been looking for a JD 71 Flex planter (2 row) to plant my corn next year. I put an add in the Farmers and Consumers Bulletin. I had a guy respond yesterday the he had JD 7100 planters that he would sell to me for $175.00 each. I could put 2 on a toolbar and have a two row planter.
Question is: Is this a good planter or should I hold out for a 71??? Also, How hard would it be to add a fertilize attachment to a 71 or 7100 planter. I would rather do dry fertilizer, but liquid would be o.k. I want to also use the planter to plant Silver Queen sweet corn that I would cultivate.
I'm supposed to go Saturday and look at the planters and a Wagon running gear that he has.
If they are finger-pickup units, they are better than the 71, no plates to mess with. Also, there are a lot of aftermarket improvement parts out there that can make 7100 units very good minimum or no-till planters, should you decide to go that route. As far fertilizer is concerned, you can get a 2-row bucket assembly off a 7000 series planter and mount it on you toolbar in front of the row units . . . might need to figure out a drive though, if the unit is on 3-point. There is a shop in PA that makes horsedrawn and tractor drawn 2-row planters out of recylced JD 7000 series machines this way. Pequea Planter is the name, but I don't have the phone number right now.
Unit one is a 4 row unit seed up for Soybeans. What would I have to do to convert it to corn. The guy wants $375.00 for the unit. The JD dealer told me $200.00 per row to convert to corn. Sounds kinda high to me.
Unit two is actually 6 individual planters. He told me he would sell me them for $175.00 each. I would probably buy two and put on a toolbar and make a two row planter. These planters are set up for corn.
I would rather have the 4 row planter already on a toolbar for the same price, if I could convert to corn w/o spending so much money.
Any advice???
Chris
-- Edited by firefighter9208 on Tuesday 1st of December 2009 10:25:32 AM
I'd buy the 4-row, then buy 4 of the corn units, and sell the soybean units to somebody else. Or, you can check out www.shoupparts.com or www.sloanex.com for aftermarket corn meter parts to convert the units to corn, probably a lot less than Deere wants. Around here, that 4-row if set up for corn would still get $1500 . . . . If you replace the meters, at least you know you've got all new parts in there.
