Row (Corn and Bean) Planters

201600329 1937

Video of Aimee explaining corn planting.

Video of a biggy going down road, unfolding, includes various closeups. Can see corn stalks left on ground.

Video of two horses pulling two row. Notice tanks for just seed, no fertilizer, no herbicide, and no pesticide.

Video of unfolding and backing into first two corners to get good coverage. Text indicates the GPS knows where the first swath ended and will turn off those rows until past the first swath.

Video starts with some secondary tillage, then the planting. Used a drone. At 2:04, they do have to reload fluids in the field. At 5:09, folds for transport then goes down roads. They do hog both lanes.

Video of a "seed tender."

Ramiro C. Salinas posted

Ramiro C. Salinas posted

Ramiro C. Salinas posted

CaseIH advertisement video.

Several pictures of a JD 999 2-row with a seat (horse drawn).

Dave Bakker posted
290 Planter

Dave Bakker posted two pictures of his restored J.D. 999. They started building it in 1928 and quit at some point in the late 40's.

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Drew Ireland posted

Drew's comment "Another nice planter with all the boxes." It looks like there are four boxes per row. I think the big boxes in front would be fertalizer. The round "boxes" would be for the seed. The two smaller boxes at the rear are for herbicide and insecticide.

Drew Ireland posted

Tony Clark posted a couple of pictures that include an unstyled M:

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Todd Moore posted three photos of what was a horse drawn 2-row planter converted to be pulled by a compact tractor.

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Drew Irland posted a couple of pictures:

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Video, including notill at 3:40 and 4:00. 10-mph planting. Video of a pivot planter. I have no idea what he was waiting for after he pulled in the drawbar. Also, something has a very high pitch. Is that the turbo? I never felt a need to wear ear protection while driving a tractor. But the high pitch all day long would drive me bonkers. The planter is way too big for the size of the field. My grandfather's fields were a half-mile long and could have made good use of the bigger equipment. At first I was concerned that the planter was so big for the field that a lot of the areas were being overlapped and seeded twice. I have learned that with GPS the tractor+planter can keep track of where it has been. The planter evidently has computer control of each seed drop and can individually turn off a seed drop if it is overlapping a previously planted area of the field. However, the field must be convoluted enough that he has to use the marker wheel instead of self-steering GPS. (Update: indeed, each row is computer controlled. Note only can it turn the seeding on and off to avoid overlapped seeding, it can vary the rate of the seed drop based on soil conditions that it senses such as organic matter content. And the computer can control the depth of the seed by sensing moisture content. Another article on "smart planting" in the same day.)

Kevin Kasowski posted
My Allis Chalmers CA with an Allis no till planter
[Given the Allis-Chalmers paint scheme, this no-till planter must be rather old. I thought no-till planting was a rather recent development.]

Screenshot from a video of planting soybeans 60-feet at a time with 620hp

An entire field in 15-min in case I can't find the previous posting. Make more sense if each row is computer controlled as to when to drop seed.

Normally, no-tillage means planting in the previous years corn stubble. But in this video they are planting in a cover crop.

PetCare
620 John Deere pulling a 490 John Deere
[This the first time I have seen the fertilizer boxes mounted longitudinally instead of transversely.]

Keith Bergstrom posted
Zach Van Westen I would say one of those circle squadron hitches
Zach Van Westen It's a 1971 or 1972 model year planter judging by the leaping Deere logo on the seed boxes.
Mike Aylward Two 1300 planters with individual seed boxes.
Kelly Hemrich This would have been a BIG deal!
Dennis DeBruler So the long boxes are fertilizer. Then seed boxes. What were the two little boxes? Herbicide and pesticide?
Keith Bergstrom According to my 1240 manual fert. then seed then insecticide then herbicide

We seem to be in a race for the size of the seed bin as well as the number of rows and the accuracy with which seeds are dropped at high speeds.

Combines Harvesters Threshers posted

Seed Hawk’s new air seeder cart, capable of holding 1,300 bushels of product, weighs 34,393 pounds. | Seed Hawk photo

I saw a planter being hauled down I-57 on a flatbed truck and realized they are pushing the envelope on what can be easily transported. And a video of that model in action. Notice he doesn't have any markers on the planter so he is GPS guided (auto steer).






This is the first time I've seen the bulk loader augur deployed for loading.


If you right-click to get the URL, you can put that URL in a new browser window. Then You Tube will give offer even more videos on air carts.

Screenshot    After explaining how an air planter works, she demonstrates automated steering.

Jerry Pearson posted two photos with the comment: "Dad planting corn late 1970's vs Middle 1950's." I'm surprised he didn't have an air conditioned cab given that it looks like he has a 16-row planter.

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Here is a video of a 72-row John Deere planter.

Zells claims to be the largest air seeder.  214ft. A comment says Hydros92. Does that mean 92 rows?


After watching this video of CaseIH spring tillage and planter equipment that had very little information, there was a link to a web page that did have some information. But the most interesting information was some of the comments on the video posting --- CaseIH doesn't care if it has bad dealers.

Grain Drill

Lewie Hoskinson posted

Find the pictures from the Farmall museum

Watch a big rig make a turn.

Screenshot from video

Don Buessing psoted
[The first planter is a drill, the other three are row planters.]

I was expecting modern drills to be much wider.

Brian Ovington posted
Drilling wheat with new holland tm 150

It sounds like the Dad of The Farmer's Wife owns a drone. Skip to about 2:56 for the more useful views. But he never did get a view from the side. That is what I was after because the other video said this one would have a side view.


76' and 90' John Deere planters:
Video of "76-foot 1870 Air Hoe Drill and 1910 Air Cart by John Deere." Evidently John Deere makes planters at least 90-feet wide because here is a video of using two tractors to pull out a big tractor that got stuck pulling a 90' planter and its cart. Imagine the ruts the sprayer and combine are going to hit. You can see some more ruts in the foreground. I would think a JD planter would allow you to remove some of the wings so that they could use a narrower planter for wet fields.

Combining Wheat and Baling Straw

9550 is not a rotor combine. They want the straw because they are a Black Angus feedlot operation and need the straw for bedding.

Find the greese jerks video


2016 wheat harvest with the John Deere 9550, the farmer and the farmer's wife work together:
downed wheat this is why the farmer's are under such pressure to get the wheat out of the field after it has ripened and is dry enough to combine.

In another video, she talks about how they test each field to determine the moisture, then start with the first field to reach 13%. When they are done with that field, another field should be down to 13%. And so on.

Bailing hay and combining wheat and going to drop the grain off, 2016:
The daughter narrates while combining. Later you hear her baby chime in. The baby is normally in a car seat, but I see she is inspecting the operation. To my surprise, it is the dad with the kids. That explains why there is no narration. He doesn't talk on The Farmer Life. The next highlight is when it gets to the end of a row and goes over to the wagons to unload. It sounds like the wife was in the cab also. The cab's of these big combines have an "instructor's chair" to the left of the driver's chair. A gravity wagon is unloaded. Evidently, they have three (or four?) kids, I've only seen two in the other videos.

Early mornings and late nights, baling straw and bringing in the bales:
They use a skid loader to stack the bales on a wagon pulled by a pickup truck. Skip to here for the unload. We learn they will then plant soybeans in the wheat field. The skid loader is near capacity with two bales, it rocks forward onto its front wheels quite a bit. They work long hours (10pm) during harvest season. During the hay bailing, you can hear the tractor "growl" every couple seconds when the plunger is pushing the hay into the bale being formed. Her comment about red not being their favorite color means they generally prefer John Deere. It looks like daddy takes the boy in the cab while the wife takes the girls. From the shadow, you can see the wife is in the pickup just to take the video.

Finishing up the 2016 wheet harvest, wait who's driving the combine?:
Evidently The Farmer trusts his wife to drive the combine but not the wagons. When he was combining, the wagons were parked and he would drive over to them to unload. I wonder who is flying the drone. You can see the daughter in the "instructor's chair." The first time I have seen a view of the fan and walkers working. They now use hydraulic lines rather than a bunch of shafts/chains/gears to drive the remote equipment. But not completely. This shaft is either driving the cycle bar, auger, and/or header. The bin filling up. Note how long wheat continues to go into the bin after the header is no longer cutting wheat. It gives you a feel for the "travel time" of wheat through the combine. Cleaning the equipment at the end of the season.

Video of New Holland CSX 7080 Buseman. It has a narrow head, probably because it is a walker considering the pile of straw coming out of the back. In one shot you can see the chaff coming off the separator under the straw coming off the walker. Shows "auto steer."

Screenshot from video
The reason you have about 10 days to get the wheat in after it is ripe because the straw is a dead stem. It can get blown down by wind and rain.

Another screenshot

Biggest combine in the world: Claas 780, flex header, good straw distribution. But later, Claas is leaving straw windrows, but it is a 580. Is that a walker model? They use three bailers to bale. Big square bales that use mechanized wagons to pick them up. I don't know what they are havesting near the end. Is the 795 even bigger? There is an incredible amount of straw in the bin! Not using full width because of the down wheat?

After the custom combiners come the custom balers.


Tribine, this is a new combine design. "worlds largest threshing and cleaning system" Two engines, no DEF.

Threshers/Separators

Three screenshots from a video showing a thresher that can handle two horse-drawn wagons at the same time. But note at -1:32 that a relatively modern looking truck is hauling the grain away.

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Screenshot, scale used to keep track of how much has been shelled

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Screenshot from video of Allis threshing machine

Jerry Harrel posted
From my grandfather near Moundridge, KS.
[Note the water tank. When done for real rather than at a steam show, the tractor needs a lot of water and you make a big pile of straw.]

Tom Miller posted
[This one not only has a water tank, but I assume the wagon is for the coal.]

Gene Niewoehner posted
McCormick Deering thresher. Manufactured in 1927 and was used until about 1957 when it was retired and left outside. 1927 was the first year the all steel was made I believe. The early feeder on it was a slightly different design than was used in later years. I put a long conveyor from a later machine on it. It is equipped with babbit bearings (except for the cylinder and blower) and grease cups. It runs very quiet. The hart elevator has wooden sides. In 1987 it was adopted by me repaired and restored. Spent the next 35 years demonstrating here on the farm and then at our antique equipment show. It again needed an overhaul in 2023  (not as extensive) and I finished it this last week.  It also received four new belts and other overdue repairs. It should be ready for the next 30 years. I suspect they will be more restful years than work. I set it by the barn, where I used to demonstrate it, for this photo opportunity.😉This will be my last thresher overhaul, as I have done five of them. I am keeping this one. 22 X 38

There is a Threshers, Binders, and early harvesting machinery Facebook group.

Andy Glines posted two photos with the comment: "Here is my 32X52 Keck Gonnerman "Indiana Special" threshing machine.  We have used it about half a dozen times.  The first few times I was really happy with how well it worked even if it did crack the grain a little more than I would like.  I did lower the concaves a notch to try and help.  Last summer, when we threshed, I started getting a lot of straw in the grain pans and I don't think that any straw at all should be down there.  Straw is even getting into the clean grain auger.  I can't figure out what has changed to cause this.  Any ideas?"

[The comments are interesting.]

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Posting of a couple of videos of an old gas tractor driving a thresher.

Combine: JD 9550 --- Modern (Big) "Walker" Combine

specs

(Update: May 2025, both videos are now unavailable. Bummer.)

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Combine Harvester

See also pull, first self-propelled, early self-propelled and fire hazard.

59:57 video @ 14:58

A huge booklet describing John Deere combines.

John Deere combine history

CaseIH combine history        A CaseIH video bragging about Axial-Flow

Screenshot

A slightly different version of the animation.

Screenshot, how a combine works, S680

Screenshot, another "how it works," 9600, a walker

Most wonderful time (harvest) video.

Tribine: overview (articulated with big grain bin, two engines and no DEF, big gas tank), description, in action

Screenshot

Combine tows grain cart It took me a while before I realized that the horrible buzzing sound was the drone. I could not figure out how it worked until the drone finally did a different angle. They added a hopper to the front of the cart to receive the output of the combine's auger and feed an auger they attached to the cart to shove the grain into the cart.

JD's 2016 features are more software than hardware. I wonder if their zerk count is still 40.

Need reaper, binder, and stationary threshers as well.

How they work video.

Animation of how a JD T670 (walker) works, but then it chops the straw.

Vintage video.

Manufacturing   35:30: 180 meters of flexible hydraulic tubing

Video: corn going into bin as fast as it can transfer to the wagon? And then a whoops.

1970's IHC video: full truck dumping at an elevator. crossmount concave cylinder and walker vs. axial flow (Moline, IL) testing started in 1965, built prototypes in 1975. Could handle wet crops soon after rains.

Jim Schwartz posted, screenshot from video
Got the 660 out and the new head on. Still runs just as good as it did when I put it away last year.
[This video is neat because it has closeups of the various belts and pulleys needed to make everything move. I used to spend a lot of time looking at my Grandfather's Massey-Harris pull combine trying to figure out how everything was moved from the PTO shaft. I remember the cylinder was driven rather directly from the shaft with a big belt. Some things had a rather long train of belts and shafts to drive them. One advantage of old equipment is that they didn't have today's safety rules that required everything to be covered up. So it was easy to study how it worked.]

Chase Andrews posted three pictures of two generations of combines working a field with the comment: "my 1972 john Deere 3300 and my grandfather in are 2015 john Deere s670. What a difference on the size and power of the machines these days!"

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Family Farmers of America posted

A video of a 1/3 model of a Case 65 and Avery without covers so you can see some of the guts working.

A video of a 1959 John Deere 95. That model old enough that you can see all the various pulleys on the side of the combine in motion.

A video of a JD 70 pulling a JD #42.

A video of an IH 80 doing oats.

posted, JD 45
Mark Heitzman Till I get a tank full the 9550 has over 400 bushel out of the field
The other picture is of the grain. The comments say it looks clean, but I see straw. Grampa's Massey-Harris didn't have any straw.

A video with the covers raised and closeups of the pulleys and belts of a John Deere 9550. (Although I wish she added lights to better see under the covers.) She did add lights when she discussed how to set the adjustments for the various walkers.

Video of remembering binders/steam tractors/cooking/etc. (shocks at -2:26)

Screenshot from video of how combines are made in Grand Island, NE
At -5:32 you can see a walker table (but we saw axle flows being built earlier) working to be inspected before they put the "top" on

Rob Hanson posted

Screenshot
[An indication of how much weight a combine is carrying at the end of its header feeder.]

Screenshot, at -:240
[To put in perspective how much the capacity of  combines has increased, I think this 16-row combine is putting grain into the bin faster than my Grandfather's pull Massey-Harris combine would empty the bin! 51,153 bushels in 10 hours. 5-6 truckloads per hour. Auto mode adjust speed according to ? ? and ?.]

The Farmer's Life wrote a page comparing his John Deere 1950s 45 and his 2010 9670 STS. The page has videos as well as photos. An image of particular interest:

The Farmer's Life

If I heard the commentary correctly, they got 200 combines in a field to break some record. It is a real shame the commentary was not more informative. For example, what exactly was the record? How big was the field that they were cramming that many combines into? Or maybe they did answer these questions. I had a hard time understanding the accent distorted by a PA system.