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They Built Their Own 12-Row Soybean Planter
"My father and I converted a used Deere 7000 12-row, pull-type corn planter into a 12-row, 16-in. narrow row soybean planter. It works great and we saved a lot of money," says Scott Marbach, Decatur, Ind.
He paid $3,500 for the worn-out planter, which he bought from a local dealer. He stripped the planter down t
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They Built Their Own 12-Row Soybean Planter PLANTERS Planters 26-2-33 "My father and I converted a used Deere 7000 12-row, pull-type corn planter into a 12-row, 16-in. narrow row soybean planter. It works great and we saved a lot of money," says Scott Marbach, Decatur, Ind.
He paid $3,500 for the worn-out planter, which he bought from a local dealer. He stripped the planter down to the toolbar and moved the four lift wheels from behind the toolbar to the front. He bought new Deere soybean meters, installed row-mounted no-till coulters, and rebuilt and/or adjusted all worn-out components in the planter units, including the disc openers, depth gauge wheels, bearings, etc. Then he remounted the row units back on the toolbar, spacing them 16 in. apart. He left a 30-in. opening at the center of the planter to make room for the planter's transmission.
"We've used it for three years and are very happy with it," says Marbach. "Our total cost was only about $7,000, which included new bean meters, disc openers, no-till coulters, chains, and bearings. It would've cost $3,000 to $4,000 to rebuild our 15-ft. no-till drill, and we'd still have been left with a 12-year-old drill that had more than 12,000 acres on it. And trading in for a new drill would've cost $10,000 to $15,000.
"Another alternative would've been to buy a splitter for our 6-row planter, but that would've cost $7,000 for a used one and almost $12,000 for a new one."
Marbach says he spaced the row units 16 in. apart in order to make room on the toolbar for the brackets that support the lift wheels. The 16-in. row spacing also allows him to use the original seed box lids. "With 15-in. spacings, the boxes would've been too close together to use the lids," he says.
The planter hitch is long enough that even with the lift wheels relocated on front there's room for Marbach to use dual wheels on his tractor. "The front-mounted lift wheels took all the weight off the tongue so we added cast iron rear wheel tractor weights, and weights to the front part of the hitch," he says.
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