Grain Drills?

[modirt]

Am beginning to foresee a need for a grain drill someday and have begun exploring options. My first thought was to look for a JD Van Brunt B like I used to drag around.....mostly out of familiarity and knowing it would work for what I want it to. Want it to have a grass seeder.....don't want or need the fert. box.

But so far, most of the JD VB's I've seen locally and on CL are iffy. What does pup up often in the midwest markets are IH 510.

Never seen a 510 in person, let alone run one. Of the two, which is better?

Seeding cover crops (forage oats and rye) with grass and legume seeds for hay, along with food plots for a neighbor. Ideal size would be a 10' drill and 6" or 7" spacing.

 

[NY 986]

The 510 is a good drill just like the JD. It comes down to features desired and condition of the specific drill that you are looking at. The JD is nice in that the opening of
the feed cups face the front so the tractor operator can readily observe for plugging.

 

[Tx Jim]

JD model B were good drills back a few yrs ago but similar to me they're getting old because IIRC JD ceased building them in the mid 60's. 1 drawback to model B is seed box is small compared to later drills such as JD 8000 series & IHC 510/5100

 

[Hay maker2]

I have seeded a lot of acres with an IH 510. It did the job, but I would inspect the cover disc and make sure that the bearings are good, also measure the diameter of the cover disc as most likely they are worn out and will not cover the large seeds. The IH 510 has a lot of small moving parts in the fertilizer unit that tend to freeze up if you do not properly clean them up, once again, I bet these are also worn out. I always had a problem with the grass seed tubes plugging up. I would take my JD 8350 over an IH 510 any day as there are less moving parts and larger grass seed tubes.

 

[modirt]

Yes, I remember that small box. Kept having to stop and fill up. Seemed like it took forever to plant 15 acres. If the heat houser wasn't on the JD 620 yet, that could make for a long day.

But for what I'm doing, which could be a lot of small acre fields, that would be an advantage.

Humorous option I'm seeing is some of these old JD drills....ones with mechanical lifts.......have been bought up by guys with nice farm shops to work in,.......drills cut in half......an axle and wheel added on the end, hitches fitted and after a quick paint job, are being sold on CL and Ebay to guys for planting small food plots. Being pulled by 4 wheelers and such. Being offered for $2,000 and up.

Would hope to get the whole drill for half that. :roll:

 

[shaun wallace]

J D 8300 series are good drill. They now have some age and are not like the 40 ft ones they use here.

 

[RogerinIowa]

8' JD with grass seed on Southeast Iowa
craigslist, $500. Not mine, know
nothing else.

 

[tom upton]

I wouldn't recommend a 510 for grass seed. The grass seed box is on the front and you have seed tubes that run back thru drill and out back. Two things wrong with this PIA to fill seed box, and tubes plug easily. I use mine now just to plant straight grain. Works great for that.

 

[SVcummins]

I drill all types of grass seed with John Deere drills grass seed
you drill out of the big box and no problems . Sometimes have
to mix cracked corn or rice hulls with the seed to make it feed
depending on seed . I also drill Alfalfa through the big box a
lot easier than trying use the small box

 

[Bud Sather in MT]

Try a 10 foot morris mh 310 7.5 inch spacing. Bud

 

[Texasmark1]

SV,
I was out drilling the summer hay crop a couple of days ago and I wound up with a goodly amount of seed left in my drill, a 1960's JD Van Buren maybe, 7" spacing, 10' (to keep this legal and inline with the posting). My fields stay wet in the spring and it's hard to plant a summer crop with my wet springs. I see you planting with snow on the ground.

I had thought about doing a fall soil prep and instead of drilling a winter crop, drill my summer hay crop seed. Seed is said to germinate when soil average temp runs around 60-65F and waiting till late in the year, when temps would remain well below that I will have the seed in the ground for spring germination when the soil gets warmed up.

Your thoughts, if you please.

 

[rrlund]

Everybody's gonna use their bias when giving you advice. Don't pay them any mind. Condition,not brand,is all you need to be looking at. If any brand of drill was total junk,they would have all been crushed by now and you wouldn't be able to buy one anyway.

 

[Leroy]

The grain drill in JD that you are looking foe is what 20-30 years older than that IHC you are asking about. Big difference in those years, Seed box size plus parts avaibility, parts IHC I would guess yes, JD no.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

The 510 IH drills are about as common here as
freckles on a red haired kid, and don?t bring much at
auction. Tom Upton is correct about putting grass
seed in the IH seed box being a real nuisance, but it
will hold two bags of seed. I don?t know how many
acres you intend to plant, but it isn?t a overwhelming
problem unless you are poor physical condition. I
usually put half dozen or more bags of hay seed
through my drill each year. Cost, ability and
availability are determining factors. I bought my IH
drill for $700.00 8 years ago, and often plant 50-60
acres each year. Not enough for me to buy a nice
drill, though I wanted bad to buy a JD drill that had
only planted a few hundred acres, and look like
new, but $9500.00 wasn?t in my price range

 

[modirt]

Yup......I'm aware of the difference in age, etc.

Having used an old JD B back when, I know how they work and what they can do, and for my use, a good one in working condition is exactly what I need. Key words being "good one in working condition".

The reason for asking about the IH 510......when I do a search on my local CL for "grain drills".......about 20 or so may show up. About 6 of them will be a JD of the type I"m looking for. Most look pretty rough. About 2 or so will be a newer JD 8000 series. About 8 of them will be an IH 510, 5100, etc. They seem to be the most available drill out there. That information alone translates to back when they were being made and sold, those two drills would seem to have been the most widely purchased and used. And as compared to some of the others, like Allis, Oliver, Ford, Massey, etc, being the most popular means they are most likely to still have parts available for them.

So looks like my best bet is to keep my powder dry and keep an eye out for a good JD B and be ready to pull the trigger when one shows up.

 

[SVcummins]

I drill after thanksgiving through Christmas and it works good especially on dry land

 

[SVcummins]

The small box on the front is for alfalfa and a few variety of small grass seed and that?s why you drill out of the big box

 

[SVcummins]

The feed and metering system on drills 50s through the 90s
are nearly identical . I grew up using ih drills when it wore out I
found a John Deere that wasn?t and bought it . This is my ihc
620 drill and the only difference between it and this Case ih
air drill is the size of the feeds and metering cups ran the air
drill for two different farms drilling a thousand acres a year .
But I don?t know anything it?s just my bias 😂

 

[centash]

My dad bought a new 510 in 1977. It's sowed about 100 acres per year between my
brother and I for most of its life. Good solid drill, drop the fertilizer bottom to
clean and oil it every year. I do agree the grass seeder is a pain, and we have
found removing the tubes completely and pulling a small harrow behind the drill
still covers grass seed quite well.

Ben

 

[SVcummins]

A red drill is pretty tough to beat

 

[ztrmowers]

I bought 5100 last YEAR and it does fine yea the small seed box in on front but I have no issues with that , the hoses off the box I made only foot long so it just drops it out the front. no issues. 510 is just earlier in years. they wanted more for those than what I paid for the 5100. I also just use a 3pt broadcast seeder for that seed the does not like go thru the hoses, native stuff especially.

 

[SHALER]

Surprised no one mentioned IH#10 drill. Seems like that would be a good candidate too. Again, used but not abused.

 

[rrlund]

Ya,I've got one of those that'll be for sale as soon as I make sure the Oliver that I bought is gonna work out and do the job. I don't know if there's much difference between them and the 510 other than the color of the box.

 

[Hay maker2]

(quoted from post at 17:24:54 03/30/20) I bought 5100 last YEAR and it does fine yea the small seed box in on front but I have no issues with that , the hoses off the box I made only foot long so it just drops it out the front. no issues. 510 is just earlier in years. they wanted more for those than what I paid for the 5100. I also just use a 3pt broadcast seeder for that seed the does not like go thru the hoses, native stuff especially.

There is a reason why the hoses go to the rear of the machine. When you drop the small seed in front of the discs, the seed gets buried too deep and it will not come up. Yes some will, but your wasting a lot of it. Small seed such as alfalfa, timothy, clover, etc lays on top of the surface with just a little coverage and large seed like oats, wheat, rye, etc gets buried by the discs.

 

[Leroy]

When new our drill just had short hoses on front side and they would plug. Put new hoses on to back and no more trouble. And also no problem filling that box in front.

 

[Texasmark1]

It's in for this year. Just might do what I said for next spring.....nothing ventured nothing gained.....or lost. Thanks