Seed Drilling Oats - John Deere 4640 & 750 Seed Drill

Seed drills are more appropriate for planting crops such as oats or soybeans, however most farmers use planters to plant soybeans due to the increased accuracy of planters. Seed drills are more of a 'controlled spill'. Their spacing is usually more appropriate for soybeans, but some planters have interplanters between to rows to give 15" spacing.
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[@jrsouth9253]

Great video. Brings back memories. Still have a 4640. Don't use it much now, but use to be the main tractor. It has 11000 hours. Used to seed direct into standing stubble using the same unit.

[@dairyboy5106]

Your Camera shots are amazing! There are no other farm videos as good as yours : )

[@jbmbanter]

I think it is so neat that you two young farmers are using a tractor that is nearly 40 years old. I guess one of my favorites would be a 4020 and there are many of them still around. Keep on farming and we'll keep on watching.

[@PietschFarms]

I totally agree! Usually young farmers start off with fairly older tractors and work there way up.... That's just what I've learned.

[@eianmerino190]

+Pietsch Farms I miss farming. grew up working with a 67 farmall 1466. loved that tractor. I wish I could get back into it.

[@jbmbanter]

I'm just proud that they are using tractors and equipment that's available on the farm. They are smart enough to be satisfied with stuff that works and are not dumb enough to go buy/put money down on new tractors, etc. and have tremendous debt.

[@billcarver6539]

I know a farmer that runs about 1500 acres and still has old equipment. Why spend millions on new when the old runs just as good?

[@Rdrake1413]

Really like those drone shots, Man that thing is pretty stable in the air.

[@tx_mountaineer8203]

Another great video. The mix of cameras, shooting angles, and commentary are amazing. Keep up the good work!

[@DaveCx]

great video! thanks for taking the time to put together some good, long form shots of your operation.

[@waterskiingfool]

Great drone shots of the work

[@farmallskittle]

that pink color on the alfalfa is an innouclant

[@deepdarkblue4370]

Thanx for posting & sharing such a nice videos. Greetings from the far Middle East.

[@iowadairyboys]

We planted half of our oats March 21st and it is already headed out the seeds. It will be ready to combine by mid July for us.

[@lewisholstegge4131]

I work on a farm in Australia and we use a 40ft air seeder with the same discs units on it, she has 48 units and we sow at about 12kmh its an awsome bit of gear and even at that high speed the seed placement it always spot.on

[@bryang9095]

Love the different camera views!

[@joshuatoro8977]

This video was amazing

[@marcth37]

My farmer friend has 3 JD 750 drills like this one and 2 of the drills are pulled with a special frame so they could seed one beside the other!

[@randymaylowski2485]

that is a nice looking planter, and yeah that's what farmers have to do. to grow plants:)

[@Yacob-yl1hv]

That drone is awesome!!!! More drone videosplease

[@wyattpahl8421]

Hello. I have been following you guys for a while. Just came across this video and have a question. Would the JD455 make for a great no-till drill?

[@howardyounger5456]

How many pounds per acre do plant the alfalfa seed .here in colorado i plant about 12# per . i also have to have my ground layed down perfect or it wont even sprout . i dont plant a nurse crop .

[@tombradbury6608]

Good video, did you apply metaldehyde pellets for the slugs?

[@JohnWilson-xi2wu]

Great video,as usual.Thank you

[@lukestrawwalker]

How'd this field do?? Looks awfully rough and cloddy for small-seeded crops that need to be planted very shallow like alfalfa... I know that seed you showed in the video, when it dropped off the side of that clod it must have dropped in an inch deep before it stopped... probably never came up. Most guys I've seen planting alfalfa will disk the field and harrow or cultipack the heck out of it so it's basically as flat and smooth as a pool table before seeding the alfalfa, and like you said the alfalfa boxes just drop the seed on top of the ground, and the drill openers and closing wheels move the soil just enough to lightly cover it... or else they just cultipack it again after seeding. I saw a Mennonite guy in Indiana running a Deere 620 on steel wheels, he was pulling a disk to loosen the soil, with a cultipacker hitched behind it to crumble the clods and firm the ground up, with a drill hitched behind the cultipacker to plant the seed, with a Brillion roller packer behind the drill to press the seed in and firm the soil up... it was quite the rig to see in operation! You guys REALLY should look at maybe getting one of those rolling baskets to go behind your disk... they REALLY leave a nice seedbed behind the disk-- crumble up the clods and firm up the soil lightly, press the residue down and leave a little bit of loose crumbled soil on top of the firmer soil underneath, so the moisture can come back up, while still being protected from the sun/wind by a thin layer of loose crumbled small clods, soil, and residue. It also does a wonderful job of smoothing out the ridges from the center of the disk if it isn't quite level or you get an overlapped area when disking, and the trenches left by the outside "leveling blades" on the rear gangs of the disk-- especially if your rolling basket is a couple feet wider than the disk, since it doesn't matter if the basket overlaps its own last pass somewhat. In addition to saving a lot of wear and tear on your planter or drill, it does a better job and helps with faster, easier emergence... the soil is firm but mellow with a little bit of loose soil on top, which "cushions" the planter since it's rolling over this slightly loose soil on top and pressing it down, while an inch or so deep the ground is firm but mellow, easy for the openers to penetrate and place the seed, easy for the closing wheels to firm up, and the soil is moist and warm so the seeds can quickly imbibe water and germinate and the sprouts can emerge easily. I think for the job they do, they're WELL worth the money! OL J R :)

[@Ridg.e]

Did you have to change the bearings in the closing wheels about every time y'all refilled the seeder, we had a 750 and we had to replace about 4 or 5 closing wheel bearings every refill

[@Larry342516]

Where is the marker for the rows? Is it all done by eyeballing where the tractor tires last were? Dumb question but I am learning. Usually you have a marker arm hanging out there to see the rows. Neat video. Thank you

[@HowFarmsWork]

Larry342516 Indeed, it is all done visually. You can get pretty accurate by line of sight. It doesn't have to be spot on compared to corn or beans due to what we will be using it for.

[@xenophilius4184]

Wouldn't the alfalfa be the parent crop and the oats be the nurse crop?

[@rylex6956]

We have the same drill but pull it with a 4955.

[@lluisbruguerajuscafresa1108]

how big is that field? that seems really big...

[@craftelite1]

Can you even take those duals off the 4640

[@Kllrkrtt309]

Yep. Just I think, 10 bolts? Just bolts on to a bolted on hub that's clamp bolted to the axle.

[@kadenwatt2033]

Yes, but it's much more work than its worth doing, especially if you're just using the tractor for a few days for stuff like this.

[@trevorhorvath2112]

What's the drone u use

[@Kllrkrtt309]

Do you run 38's or 42's on the rear? I run 42's on mine.

[@joescheller5920]

It takes a lot of tractor to pull one of them drills. very heavy and will bog down very easy in wet ground. take good hydraulics also

[@billwhitman1529]

How many pounds per acre on the alfalfa seed? Do you guys practice overseeding?

[@JimmyTolle]

what drone are you using?

[@cody28h]

Hey Ryan how many lbs per acre grass seed ?

[@muddysprings9746]

How many acres a year do you do with that seedrill

[@westleyrudd5500]

how do you tell where to start the next row? is it pretty visible from where it planted? or do you just run in the previous tire tracks form the last row?

[@pdb7110]

You can see the rows you planted and line the seeder next the the last rows side

[@Wyomingfarmer]

If the front and back units are spaced 24 in then its 12 in spacing

[@HowFarmsWork]

Wyomingfarmer Yeah, I fudged up. Good catch.

[@chrisatkins9760]

+How Farms Work why was he riding on the drill

[@nellsonstout7001]

Chris Atkins I'm obviously not who you were asking but I'd say to keep an eye on the seed. My buddy who farmhands rides on the drill with bags of seed and when it get low instead of stopping and waiting to get refilled he does it while the tractor is in motion. Saves time and get more acreage done in a day

[@Bobo-gu9ni]

Great video. Is it normal in U.S. Not to use markers when seeding?

[@dylandietmeier4660]

Philip Terkelsen No, most planters over here have them I don't know why that one does not it might be because it is so small they don't need them.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Most guys nowdays are using GPS autosteer, if they're big enough and have new enough equipment. Otherwise they're using row markers on their planters, since most planters are pretty darn wide and you want the row spacing between passes as close as possible to being straight and even. With a 15 foot drill like this and a tractor with straddle duals like this, there's really no point to having row markers on the drill, because the drill isn't but a foot or two wider than the tractor itself, so it's easy to "get your bearings" and run the drill with the outside opener close enough "within reason" to the last pass to keep from overlapping too much or leaving wide unplanted strips between passes. When I was running a Case IH coulter cart/drill combo planting soybeans for my brother in law in Indiana, I was pulling this 15 foot drill combo behind a Case 2290 tractor-- no markers or anything were required because basically I just lined up the corner of the window with the last drill opener trench from the last pass, and the end opener on the drill would be within a few inches of it, so it was "close enough" without needing GPS or row markers... sometimes it'd overlap the last opener or get maybe a foot away, but that's not enough to worry about on a drill, really... and it was usually on rolling ground or if I had my attention diverted a few seconds and I drifted out of position when it happened, so it was infrequent and easy to correct... Later! OL J R :)

[@markdean672]

If a wheel controls the seed going in when you turn around is the wheel lifted?

[@HowFarmsWork]

Mark Dean The drive automatically disengages when you lift the disks off the gorund.

[@powerram92]

Can you turn a regular seed drill into a no till drill?

[@Kllrkrtt309]

Yep. Pretty sure drills just need no till coulters and trash wheels.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Usually by mounting it on a coulter cart... the coulter cart is usually very heavy so that the coulter blades actually cut into the hard no-till ground to slice through residue and create a cut/slightly worked area (with wavy coulters) for the drill's seed disk openers to carve into as they pass over, following in the same tracks. Most double-disk drills simply don't have the weight or cutting capacity to no-till on their own-- the disk openers will ride up out of the soil or have very irregular and shallow seeding depth, hampering the new crop's timely emergence. I ran a Case IH coulter cart with a 5200 IH drill mounted on it to plant soybeans for my brother in law. It worked really well no-tilling soybeans into corn stubble-- the coulter cart would slice right through the corn stalk residue and loosen the soil ahead of the double-disk openers of the drill and allow it to place the seed in mellow soil, and the single press wheels pressed it in and closed the trench pretty well. Problem was, at only 15 feet wide, it took a lot of time to cover a lot of ground, and the whole "controlled spill" metering of the drill feed cups meant you spewed a lot more seed than necessary, with some ending up on top of the ground and some buried too deep, because a regular double-disk drill doesn't have very accurate seeding depth because there's no gauge wheels to control the depth of the seed disk openers, and the press wheels follow behind, so the openers might be cutting through a high spot or going through a low spot compared to the press wheel behind, which puts the seed in too deep or too shallow, respectively-- or the press wheel goes over a bump and lifts the opener out of the ground and puts seed on the surface or very shallow, or the press wheel drops into a low spot which allows the seed disks to cut in too deep and put the seed too deep. That's why he sold the no-till drill and went to a Deere 1780 air planter with the 15 inch interplant row units... the gauge wheels on either side of the disk openers ensure the seed is always at the same planting depth, regardless of whether the closing wheels behind ride up over a bump or down into a hole. The vacuum seed plates also meter the seed out extremely accurately, reducing the amount of seed needed compared to a drill. Plus, the 1780 is twice as wide at 30 feet as the drill was at 15 feet, so you're covering twice as much ground with every pass as you did with the drill, so twice the acres per day (roughly, since you run the planter at a slower ground speed usually than the drill, and fill-ups are more time consuming on the planter than the drill). The 15 inch row spacing versus the 7.5 inch spacing on the drill also helps with molds and fungal diseases in soybeans, as it allows greater airflow between the rows, while still being close enough for the beans to "canopy" fast to suppress late-germinating weeds. Later! OL J R :)

[@donmann8400]

Are you using GMO alfalfa?

[@HowFarmsWork]

Don Mann The variety is Croplan MP1000. I assume most alfalfa varieties these days have been selected for desirable traits such as winterhardiness. I don't believe this variety is roundup ready, however.

[@jaredklug3502]

Looks like you worked ground when it was to wet

[@billwhitman1529]

By the way, that's a lotta tractor pulling that drill isn't it?

[@HowFarmsWork]

Bill Whitman There is a lot of weight balancing on the rear hitch, which made the front end pretty light. We wouldn't have been able to pull it through that field without duals.

[@billwhitman1529]

How Farms Work Have you seen Onelonleyfarmer pulling his JD 750 no-till drill with a JD730?

[@HowFarmsWork]

Nope, bear in mind we have different soil types out here. In this particular field we would have sat and spun without the duals and the weight.

[@billwhitman1529]

He did it as an experiment not an application. I agree that you need a bigger footprint, just wondered about the horse-power.

[@brittfarms2018]

How Farms Work I noticed yall applyied a 3 point hitch and a pintle system to that draw bar, is that so yall could turn with the duals? I haven't seen anyone doing that? but I see where the weight distribution would have a factor with it

[@bryang9095]

That tractor is just right for that drill, u fill that drill an drop it in on a notill field you will notice it behind u

[@22video11]

Didn't read all the post, but is that your dad on the drill?

[@MrJmblmb]

Why is there a person riding on the drill????

[@Kllrkrtt309]

Why not? Has a play form.

[@Kllrkrtt309]

Platform*

[@joe5007]

last time i went on the back of the drill i got covered in dust xD

[@joe5007]

last time i went on the back of the drill i got covered in dust xD

[@joe5007]

Oops

[@matthewmurphy7311]

That soil prep doesn't look very good. Too chunky.

[@Kllrkrtt309]

You're just too picky. Lol

[@lukestrawwalker]

Yeah, that's what I thought too. OL J R :)

[@margaretarates7111]

hy Rayan i want to work in farm and driving a tractor you need a hand worker în your dad farm and traine me tu drive tractor

[@lucasmakk9279]

use the drill to soybeans

[@madisonelectronic]

Are they wild oats? Where are the women?

[@1macgeorge]

nice lol

[@andythorson7532]

Help must be cheap in sw Wisconsin lol. You need a tractor operator, understandable you need to have a camera operator, but what on earth does a person need to ride on the drill for?? I can see for a round or two to make sure things are working but it appears the whole time? You need dairy cows again. No extra bodies then. Also add I'm sure you know, oats is quicker growing and provides protection for newly germinated alfalfa plants against soil erosion and wind damage. Here in MN, we will harvest oatlage first and depending on timing cut it again twice more in the first season. A minimum of once more after oats is harvested. No need to baby it. Better soils I suppose. Flat and black. Good luck.

[@HowFarmsWork]

Andy Thorson That'd be my dad and he's in charge of doing what he wants. Sometimes its nice to sit back and enjoy the farming life, such as riding along on the drill.

[@andythorson7532]

How Farms Work well said with your dad "being in charge of what he wants. LOL. I like that. I am sure he has earned that right. I probably came across a little harsh with the comment, It just don't seem like the most comfortable spot to enjoy the day, but to each there own. I enjoy you videos.