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Great Plains planter review

44K views 95 replies 20 participants last post by  SC Man 
#1 ·
I have had a few people ask through messages about my Great Plains planter. I don't know if people are nervous to admit they are looking at something that seems shortline or what.

There is nothing to be afraid of, Great Plains makes some excellent products and this way everyone can see!

I have a YP2425a 48TR, YP=Yield Pro 2425=bar a=air pro 48=number of rows and TR=twin row

For those of you looking to do canola and you are not sure what your looking at while shopping online "a" is air pro and needed to get the canola meters

Don't quote me on this but I believe 13 models have the newer brushes and the 14 models have the newer seed tubes for the canola. The new ones are dark red/burgundy. Neither are hard to change or cost that much. I believe to do the whole package to seed canola with mine was right around 3000$ US

Prior to this planter I had a 1750 Deere witch was a great planter but covering 12-1400 acres a year was pushing the envelope

Mine is a 2012 making it one of the early air pros, I purchased it in 13 with just under 3000 acres, right now it is at 12,700.

Pro's
These planters sell cheap, I had 120k in mine with trucking from Indiana and the dealer tossed in a hydraulic hitch for me. It was well equipped for the year with Martin row cleaners, Great Plains turbo coulters and thier spider wheels (witch work very well) along with drag chains. It also was equipped with thier style of totally tubular and keeton seed firmers.
Disc life is amazing, I got 10,900 acres out of the first set of blades making them last almost 3 times as long as my Deere 1750. The new blades I installed are 4mm with a massive bearing. Looking forward to seeing how they last.
The disc blades also overlap each other witch seems to help them cut alot better. I had slightly over 50 bu average flax in 15. I stripped it and some did lay over and I had no problems cutting through it at all. But this could also be the sheer weight of it. Witch it also seems to perform better in high traffic areas.
It has relatively good floatation, you wouldn't think so by looking at it. Mine empty weighs 58,000 pounds.
They have a superior depth gauge wheel arm to get the wheel right where they need to be. Initial adjustment is a pain but when set they are easy to keep in adjustment, often going over 6-700 acres with no adjustment.
I like the depth adjustment (Deere style) if your currently running a White you could appreciate that.
They also have a tandem on the gauge wheel arms to keep good depth control.
Huge hopper capacity, have had no trouble dumping 2 pro boxes into one hopper!
The hoppers can be removed to run pro boxes, they come off with just two pins and a fork lift or good skidsteer.
Down pressure is easy to adjust
The overall opener is very well biult and very solid.
Parts have been very reasonably priced
I'm sure there is more to add.

Cons,
While twin row is definitely getting me better crops it isn't that easy to work between the units but it really isn't too bad, nothing else a guy could do to change that.
The seal system under the hopper for switching to pro boxes is somewhat failure prone and a prick to get into adjustment. I have replaced the seal twice.
The early air pros had a piss poor lid, there was updates done, somehow something wasn't done right and mine wasn't eligible, they had tried some other things with the first customer and he was happy but the recall expired while I didn't know anything different.
It does not pull easy, not at all, on a 500 quad in some conditions is 90-110% hp all day long. Our 865B challenger is in that 75-80%. Part of it is just the weight.
While reading with fertilizer and seed on board the inside tires on the main frame will heat up, fine on the highway but you don't want to drive more than 12mph on the gravel because the crown of the road places most of the load on the tires to the center.
Navigating through the Dicky John Intelliag is a pain, I have been told I should get updates that make things alot easier. I really hate there is "dealer screens" that you have to use a password to get into. You can't do squat without that password in there. I will enfisize some more on that, I hate that!
Getting the air pressure on the meter right is rather simple but... getting the fan speed correct to keep from plugging hoses has been a challenge for me. DO NOT be shy with talcum powder or you will pull your hair out.

I think I have a pretty fair review here, I am very happy with the planter and it has been affordable to maintain. I have put one weld on a bushing that has porosity in the weld but there is nothing scary about these things, I will be happy to buy dark green again
 
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#2 ·
Prior to this planter I had a 1750 Deere witch was a great planter but covering 12-1400 acres a year was pushing the envelope.
A JD 1750 is what? 6 or 8 row 30"? And here I think covering 300 oddish acres with the old 8 row 7000 was a slow pain in the a**!. Going to be going through the 12R 1760 pretty quick, should speed up planting a tad.


Don't see any GP planters around here for some reason, mostly JD, CIH, White, and maybe a Kinze here and there.
Wonder how hard a 24 row twin version would pull, as the current big tractor we have is a CIH 9150 (Around 280 hp, could tweak to ~300 - 330 as that is about the max the engine could put out if you turn up the smoke screw.) It at least has the bar style axle so can set wheel spacing to match 30" rows which it is currently. Doesn't have a PTO so I imagine it would need a hydraulic pump kit to run the fans...


I think they have had a GP planter at Farmfest almost every year, but not 100% certain, and they are usually the smaller models if they are.
 
#3 ·
The 1750 was an 8 row 30. I really had to push that thing when I was able to go, one year I got some good spread out jobs and did 2700 acres with it, I had to put new disc blades on it in season!

I have no doubt you could pull a 24 row twin, there would be so much less weight the 9150 would do well set stock.

The planter actually only has one large fan and it don't spin fast or take alot of hydraulic flow, if I had to guess I would say 12-14 gal on mine max so planter half the size would be cake, even for that tractor
 
#4 ·
We went from a 8 row 7200 JD that I did 650 acres with to a 12/24 1790 JD that I now cover 1500 acres with since I do soybeans now too. You should have no problem pulling 24 row, we pull it with 245 hp nicely. 280 should pull it with ease.

I also see great plains lists horsepower requirements on their website for the different planters.
 
#21 ·
I just bought a planter the same as SWFarmService. I don'y have much to add....yet!

What I would say is that the guys that I have talked to that ran them seem happy with the machines. Main concern is the dealer network and having good access to local parts. In my area this is going to be a concern for any type of a planter except Deere.
Is Mazer not handling the Great Plains line? I know they were a couple years ago but maybe that has changed.
 
#6 ·
Parts are easy, here when I first got a planter I had to carry my own parts anyways because planters are so rare here, especially 15 years ago.

You probably don't realize just how many parts match Deere

Like say the depth gauge wheel and closing wheel bearings match standard closing wheel bearings on deere planters. The disc blades I am certain interchangeable to Deere. The depth gauge wheel tires match Deere.

When you get your planter and I can see some pics of it I will relay you a list parts you want to stock the shelves with. The parts will be pretty generic for any planter.

The only down time I have had was electrical issues so when I get my planter in the shop I will get you pics of some wires that may need dome attention. Other than that I only keep about a 1000$ of parts on hand and so far life has been good.

Like I said in the other thread I love the dealer I have been working with has been great, parts come right to my door UPS in 2-3 days right from the factory
 
#8 ·
SWMan I farm just 45 min east of you and there are two larger farmers with Great Plains planters. One has had it for about 3 years and uses it for soybeans, some edible beans and canola. The other guy just bought his this winter too but plans to use it for soybeans and quite a bit of canola. Not that they would be too much help for you but if you pm me I'm sure I could pass along their contact info as a source if you have any questions. Especially the guy that's had it for 3 years. Just FYI.
 
#11 ·
I just thought of one more thing to add to the cons.

The drag chain apparatus is not real good for super ruff ground like I have, one day I need to change it but making 96 new arms sounds like a chore, I would have to drill close to 300 holes!

I have probably replaced 30? Of them, they are flat and shaped like a Y so when you drop the unit into a bad rut or washout sideways a few of them get bent, and you can only bend them back so many times and they will break off at one of the bolt holes. I think the are like 12$ a piece so it's not the end of the world and at the close to 13,000 acres it's not a big deal but annoying to be honest
 
#12 ·
Since there is interest in seeding canola I'll talk about it a little. I did it with the twins on one pass as I know some guys were doing two passes over each field.
The reason I set this planter up for it in the first place is somewhere along the line there was a miss understanding of a CRP contract that came up. So this land was pretty much straight western wheat grass and rye grass. With a very wet year prior this stuff was huge and good snow fall layed it flat. It had not been hayed in years.

So the only thing I felt confident in doing was planting canola, there was no way without burning or something to get into it with my seed master.

I was very happy with my stands and the canopy, I put very little into this crop because I just wanted to be able to attack grass and Canada Thistle.

By my suprise with very little fertility and very little seed cost I got a very good stand that canopied very well to fill in them wide rows. I probably had more weeds to contend with early on but given the circumstances i was very pleased with my weed control.

My original goal was 1200# witch I know is nothing special but the conditions were crap. We ended up with 1600# canola so I was more than pleased because we had a lot of wind so many people were between 1800-2200# that year. These things were like trees out there so I was kinda suprised wind didn't do much damage.

If your really pinching penny's I believe at the end of the day it's a pretty good method of planting canola.
 
#13 ·
One thing I was messaged about was sunflowers.

This thing does extremely well with sunnies, I plant at 30-34k and I think what makes it work so well is that at the paired row the plants are thick enough that they work together to break up compaction. Hopefully you don't see this in your fields but in mine is have seen where the ground in between the paired row has raised up 2"! I may have a compaction issue!

I have been breaking records in my area planting with this planter, this year one field had a 3500# yield this year.
I use to hope for a ton and that was an achievement along with oil in the area of 42-44%. Now 3000# has pretty much became a norm and oil ranging from 45% all the way to breaking a record at ADM Enderlin with 52% oil

I am pretty proud of this planter for sunnies
 
#14 ·
If your raising those types of flowers why botherdoing any soybeans? That's basically like growing 55 bushel beans on average. Pretty sure outside of Richland county in nd do guys routinely average yields like that.

We can raise pretty good crops up here we get more rain and in general our soils are much more productive but I can count one hand the 3000lb flower fields I've heard of.


Is twin row reason for your higher corn yields or something else? When corn canopies it starts to use more water so sooner you canopy the more total water you use. This is fact as when I researched going to 20" rows this was biggest reason to not do it
THIS was a good corn year. I had large areas of 200-220 dry on below average rainwith 79 day corn.
FOR any gp fans got an old air drill for sale! BEEN parked for a while but should still work great!
 
#17 ·
I have been ramping up my acres of sunnies alot, mainly wanted them to break up compaction on poorly rotated ground but the yields we have been getting are really changing my outlook on them.

I believe my higher corn yields are because of the twins, I still plant many of the same varieties of corn I was raising back when I had the Deere. I am in just the past couple years getting my ground rotated more properly making a big difference.

I believe all said and done the moisture use per bu is the same or less, one of the things a guy doesn't think about is like the first of July when the temps are high there is not nearly as much sun beating on the dark colored ground. But I believe your taking more water because since it is shaded a little more some varieties grow much taller than what would be normal.

There is definitely far more residue left using this style planter witch I like. But I have to say when it starts getting dry and I have noticed this since my first year with the planter my corn never shows the stress like it use to or the neighbors. I always get that gut wrench when I see a field of corn with its leaves all curled up so I hurry to see the condition of mine but I have always had a feeling of relief when I get to the first field.
 
#16 ·
Great Plains makes only one canola meter that I am aware of.
I did originally have some trouble getting seed through the tubes, not bad but I wasn't using enough talc. I can't stress that enough, dump it in there like someone else paid for it.
I believe I had them set on the middle setting.
The planter will not give you the most accurate reading unless conditions are perfect so I found the best thing to do and it's been a while but you set the monitor so it only checks for flow or your hair will turn grey.
What you are going to want to do is leave all the seed meter covers off until you have everything set right. Your going to want to go back there and check the cells on the disc to make sure they are full. Too many was never a problem for me, and getting enough in there was actually pretty easy.
One thing I forgot about, if it's windy up there like it is here there is a wind guard you can install under the meter, I haven't but when I was seeding wheat it looked to me like it would have been a good idea.

To get the meter full you won't need much air but you will want mess with the seed pool size to get it perfected.

If you really want to get it empty you can get down to about a bag and a half in the system but it's not easy, the meters start to loose thier seed pool and hoses will start to plug when you get below 2 or so bags in each hopper.

I know it sucks but it will pay for that seed you will have left over for next year
 
#18 ·
Actually with corn you want it to shade the ground quicker, if the sun shines on bare dirt you are loosing water to the air through evaporation... And it isn't going through a corn plant first. You make your yield with water going through the corn plant, if it isn't that is lost yield potential. With twin rows you may end up with it shading the ground better even if it was planted at the population of a single row, just my thoughts on the matter.


I would like to be using twin row 30" someday for corn, but twin row planters seem rare around here and still cost plenty, didn't have the money to go that route so I'll be using the one I got for a few years at the very least. All the stuff I have seen for northern regions says that twin rows yield better, but more southern areas its about the same or can even be less for some reason.
 
#19 ·
No till mulch protects ground from evaporation to thru shading. No different than a corn plant shading it. Canopy would be cooler at night to if rows are not canopied thereby using less water. So if you can shade ground and keep the field cooler at night you'd use less water I'd think.
This all goes back to circus 2007 for me and I can't remember much about it:(
 
#20 ·
I first became interested in narrower row corn when I read online from the guys in the US Midwest how the heavier canopy trapped more heat causing the plant to overheat and actually reduce overall yield. Anybody who has grown corn in Manitoba or anywhere in western Canada will know that there is no such thing as too much heat. After running three separate trials this past year of 30" single row vs 30" twin row corn there was no statistical yield advantage. However there was an advantage in both test weight and harvest moisture which would seem to fit with the heavier canopy more heat theory. We will run trials again this year. It would be interesting to see a comparison in a cooler season.
 
#23 ·
I am still looking for a drawbar hitch for it like I mentioned in the other thread. I checked with Schnell and it was nearly $6000, way more than from Great Plains($4650). I think they have that conversion priced more in line with JD and CaseIH.:rolleyes:
I wouldn't even consider another one, when it shows up and you see what is all there it is pretty fair priced. Every bit of hardware was in there to hose extensions.
I think if I remember right it didn't take more than 2 hours to install and since it ties into the ISO you won't need another hydraulic bank on your tractor.
Everything fit perfectly and if for some reason you ever wanted to go back to two point you could bolt on and go.
 
#27 ·
No large tractor with a 3pt. Not sure if there is any aftermarket 3pt stuff out there for an 865 or 965 Challenger? I could use it for my spin spreader and the planter then, but with a drawbar style hitch it could be hooked to any tractor if needed.
No you don't see many 8*5 Challengers with three points.
With bigger planter tractors and narrower row spacing becoming more common, are there any concerns/issues with planter units running in wheel tracks? I picture gauge wheels chattering hard over lug tracks all day. Maybe the trash whips prevent this?
 
#33 ·
In my opinion if you have to use talcum powder with a planter, especially as much as you're talking, then it's time for a different planter. There's a reason why we've stuck with White planters for years, among other reasons. A neighbor had a Great Plains for about ten years. And all they did was fight that thing. All a Great Plains is is just a knockoff of a White anyway. I'll take the original. But if you want twin row then that's an issue. White developed one but they never built it. They also developed a multi-hybrid planter years and years ago that never went into production I just found out recently. In central Nebraska twins rows just don't work for us quite yet anyway. But I understand if it does for you and you like it. If you're happy you're happy.
 
#36 ·
In my opinion if you have to use talcum powder with a planter, especially as much as you're talking, then it's time for a different planter.
It's not metering seed that talc is so important, well it's good but the problem is the abrasive seed treatments, like wheat or soys a couple cups work per fill, I could probably even get by without it with them two crops. But the seed treat on corn, sunflowers and canola is so abrasive that if you don't put it on well enough the seed gets plugged up in the tubes going to the meters when the hopper gets low. Air starts to blow the seed up in the hopper and air gets favored to the path of least resistance and won't push the seed well. Now canola makes it especially hard because it's moving so little product to the meters that without talc just vibration on the hose is trying to pack it in.
Some times if you just stop the tractor the seed will start flowing again, most times you can just hit the row fill button to divert air flow to the fill the seed pool and sometimes you have to get out and shake hoses.
If you pour in the talc like it's going out of style to get the half cup or what ever per unit things work great dealing with it.
For a guy that went from a box planter to one that holds around 90 bu per hopper it sure seems like a ship load of talc. For someone that has not had a planter it would be easy to ignore.

I think I would say a GP is more of the best of Deere and White, I've been around both and the GP actually is a very good all around planter.
 
#38 · (Edited)
For FYI anyone reading I have a 1225A Great Plains planter

What talc do you use SWfarmservice?
I used the CaseIH stuff this year and Larry Lee told me otherwise at the last ag show in minot. Had trouble with doubles all year. After talking to salesmen and Larry seems like I need to add more and switch to the GP brand stuff. This is seeding canola. All updates and brushes done.


The way it sounds (from the salesmen) the drag chains are a worthy addition, thoughts?

I did notice when I got the seeding rate down to ~3lb I didn't have any lodging vs. the air seeder at 4.6lb.

What in furrow fert did you use this year SW? Any trouble with germination with 10-34? I noticed on a couple of my drier fields my emergence was kinda patchy until a rain. Maybe could have seeded deeper. I was at ~.6 in but I think I could go deeper since the closing wheels don't pack over the seed. This was at 5 gal/ac 10-34.

I did a side by side this year planter vs morris maxim hoe drill with side band atom jets. Planter did better. I will look up the exact numbers before posting. Even with more net nutrients with the air seeder the planter did better. Keep in mind this was only one field. I will post back with my results.
 
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