John Deere 71

[Owen555]

Anyone ever planted soybeans, sorghum, and sunflowers with one? Are parts and plates readily available?

 

[Brendon-KS]

If I'm remembering it all right I've used mine for field corn, Indian corn, sweet corn, milo (sorghum), soybeans, green beans, garden peas, cantaloupes, watermelon, pumpkins, zinnias, and onions. Maybe a few more I'm forgetting. They are one of the more versatile planters out there but you need the right seed plates and potentially filler plates to make it work. Fortunately these plates are easy to find on the used market and are still made new by Lincoln Ag Products. All Deere plate-style planters made since the 1950's use the same style of plate so there are lots of them out there. eBay always has dozens, maybe hundreds, of auctions going on for used plates. Deere sold the rights to the 71 to Yetter and they still make them new. I've never had to replace much on mine but have always been able to get what I needed at the Deere dealership.

 

[Leroy]

That plate goes back to first tractor planters in the 30's and by using drive for the tractor planters can be used in the horse drawn planters. Does Deere still sell the plates? They had hundreds of different size plates. You need the seed plate book. Gives cell count, cell shape and size with what the crop they were made for.

 

[Owen555]

Is the seed plate book available?

 

[Leroy]

I think it is in the on line parts book listing. I don't know where mine is but possibly some other poster will come up with the catalog number. I know it has been talked about in the past and that information is in the archives. You might put out a post asking for the part number for seed plate book. And then should be able to find it. I bought my book before computors.

 

[Owen555]

Thanks

 

[Owen555]

Anyone ever modified a 71 by installing a coulter wheel in front of the discs to convert it to more of a no til planter?

 

[Leroy]

I don't even know what one of those units look like as were not sold or used in my area. Just know all Deere planters used same plate.

 

[Brendon-KS]

For some reason the on-line seed plate catalog is missing a bunch of pages, at least it was at one point. I e-mailed Deere about it and promptly received a pdf copy of the entire catalog. Shoot me a private message (my e-mail is open) and I'll send you the file. A number of years ago I mentioned here on the forum that I had a complete copy of this catalog and numerous times since I've received emails from people requesting it. I suppose that internet searches related to this topic must bring up the old forum thread.

 

[Brendon-KS]

Was the "bar style" plate used only on the old horse-drawn planters? I always had the idea that all Deere planters used this older style up until some point but I could easily be mistaken.

 

[Leroy]

I think only horse drawn but could be put in the newer tractor planters without using the drive plate for the more modern planters and plates. The bar style was just the 2 parts made as one unit instead of having 2 pieces and would have been cheaper to make.

 

[rdandersom]

I believe 71 planters are now being made by Yetter.

 

[Dean Olson]

Parts and plates are readily available. I just bought a 4 row with 4-71 units for $1000. It spent it?s life planting milo and sunflowers and was pretty worn. I mixed and matched parts to make 2- 1 row planters to sell and spent $530.00 at the Deere dealer the recondition a 2 row planter for myself.
Very easy to work on. Operator & parts manuals are readily available.
It will now be used to plant sweet corn, purple hull peas, okra, cucumbers, and anything else I think it will.

 

[Dean Olson]

Yes, research Yetter no till planters.

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 23:05:54 07/31/19) Just know all Deere planters used same plate.

Leroy
JD rowcrop planters utilized 2 different type of plates(bar & open center) as shown by photo below. JD seed plate catalog is PC268

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 21:55:14 07/30/19) Anyone ever planted soybeans, sorghum, and sunflowers with one? Are parts and plates readily available?