MattNWOH - 11/24/2024 23:30

Shoot me an email if you'd like to upgrade to xp units. Can get it done fairly cheap



Cross all the 7200s and some of the 1770s off your list that are not xp row units. 7200s have seen too many acres. The Max Emerge 2/Plus units are hot garbage. Don't be like us running that junk. I would probably do used units if I did it again, but we went from a 7000 to a 7200 8 years ago and just last year we finally put new xp units on it and lo and behold...we had our best corn ever. The old units get bent up so bad you can barely crank the closing wheels around to close the seed trench. Look at the closing wheels and see if they line up with the seed tube. Best yet if you can drop the planter and scratch it through the yard to see if the shanks are true on the Max Emerge 2/Plus.

I had to reshank 3 MaxEmerge 2 units on the 1780 this fall planting cover crops. Two rows the double disk openers fell right out of them. I'm still looking for one set in the field. I'll be dropping gauge wheels before spring to look for cracks to weld or replace shanks. What a bleepshow.

I'm mostly just complaining about my mistakes. Back to you! Get a planter that already has 2x2 setup. John Deere fertilizer coulters are fine. Make sure it has a nice piston pump with site gauges for flow. You want all the little site gauge balls at the same level. Have extra orifices for your check valves in case you drop one when you're cleaning a check valve.

Vac planters are nice. Even with a basic old Deere vac meter you can adjust your vacuum on the fly to get the best singulation you can achieve and it's pretty danged good. It will vary a lot based on the seed you're using. If you have odd fields row clutches pay. The seed savings plus yield saving not harvesting 50000 population corn on point rows is worth it. We have never touched an Ag Leader row clutch in 10 years. PP gen 2 Seedsense (or nonsense) monitors are nice.

If you're not doing in furrow I would skip the seed firmers but your planting conditions/soil might be different than ours. It's one less thing to worry about.

We are all no-till and usually plant into smaller rye or wheat. 10 gallons of 10-34-0, 2 gallons of ATS and 8 gallons of 28%, remainder of 28% side dressed starting whenever you can see to drive down the rows. It doesn't seem right but Becks shows their best return side dressing at V3.