Farming for Beginners - equipment questions

[Dr_Zinj]

If the sod's a problem, you might consider hitting it with Roundup to kill it back, and then a couple weeks later do the plowing. Disregard if you're going organic.

You could also mow it, plow & disc and then plant with alfalfa to boost the nitrogen content before planting row crops next year.

Sounds like you should be able to pull just about any 2 blade plow with that tractor.

 

[Jsheds]

Does anyone have experience with the 'Howse' brand 2-bottom plows that TSC used to sell? I've found one nearly new at a local dealer for about half of new price.

I've been reading a lot of the planter threads. I'll probably start out with corn, but might want to plant pumpkins, peas, sunflowers, pocorn or who knows what in the future. It sounds like the JD Flex 71 planters and the Cole MX 12 are very popular adn would plant any of these seeds. I'd like to be able to place fertilizer with the seed and the 71's don't have that option. For the few acres I'm going to plant, would a 1-row planter (like the Cole) be a good option? I'm finding that used planters I see locally are in rough condition and expensive. For less than the cost of a used 2-row planter I could buy a new Cole one row.

 

[Jsheds]

I'm making progess with my equipment search and picked up a 2-14" Ford 101 plow with trip beams and coulters. I've got it all set up and plowed a few furrows with it and it worked pretty well. The 1910 doesn't have draft control. The Ford manual says a gauge wheel needs to be used with tractors that don't have draft control. Does anyone have experience with a plow and gauge wheel? I found a wheel at everything attachments.com for a Leinbach plow that looks like it would work, but it's looks much smaller than the one in the Ford manual. Does anyone know what size this wheel should be?

I've also found a John Deere 2-row 24b planter locally, in pretty good shape. It has fertilizer boxes that aren't rusted out, original manuals and some plates. A web search doesn't find much on these planters, are they good units? When looking at plates, they're always listed as 'John Deere' plates, but never listed for a particlar planter model. Are all JD plates the same? Do the plastic plates fron Lincoln Ag fit the 24B? I haven't called them yet. I'd like to be able to plant corn, beans, pumpkins and sunflowers with this for now but want to make sure it'll work with those seeds before I spend any money.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[SSdoxie]

Jim,
The guage wheel(s) listed in Everything Attachments should work fine. Personally I would go for the one used on the 81 models rather than that light duty used on the model 19. That one looks pretty chincy.

It has been more than 40 years since I was around planters growing on the farm. Dad had a JD planter, no idea what model. If memory serves correct JD planters used a different plate mount or drive that was not interchangeable with other brands. When Dad needed a different plate for special seed he often borrowed plates from the seed company, they had plates for other brands and JD. I am pretty sure JDs were all the same fit.