Newer VS Older JD Seed Drills - Worth It?

Hello there,

I'm in the market for a seed drill to plant crops that I'll later turn into hay. Mainly sudan grass, oats, and rye. I'm looking around but I don't know very much about seed drills, so I wanted to ask for you all's help on this. There are many older John Deere Van Brundt drills for sale in the $1000-$1600 range which look perfectly serviceable, and there are 8200 and 8300 / 8350 / even some newer looking 450 drills for $3000 to $5000. Which is best? I realize that's a very open ended question, but I was hoping that someone who knows a lot about seed drills could share what some of the improvements would be on the newer ones.

Do you think they'd be worth it, for what I'm trying to do? I'm happy to spend the extra money if its worthwhile to do so, and/or if parts are easier to find for the newer stuff, but without these reasons I'd rather not. What do you think?

The older JD/VanBrunt drills in good shape are perfectly acceptable. They will still do as good job as the newer ones.However,these days I no longer use a drill. don't even own a drill anymore. I broadcast and roller harrow it in.

We have owned an 8300 since 1977 and thought it was a pretty good drill. The older series drills were good as well but the 8300 to my knowledge offers a larger seed box than what was with the older series. I bought a 450 several years ago for soybeans as my 8300 lacked double disk openers and press wheels. 8000 series drills are in the price range here that you show for the older series drills if equipped with single disk openers. Maybe 2,000-2,500 for double disk with press wheels. If only planting small grains the single disk drills should be fine. I will say that single disk drills like a clean seedbed and dislike any surface residue.

Okay, thanks. What would be best for planting into disked up sod? Everything I plant seems to be reclaimed pasture/old hay field and even after the disk goes through twice, theres still plenty of clumps

Double disk will do much better if the disks are close to new in spec meaning that they have good contact with one another. If fairly worn they may allow root balls to lodge between disks. You might get lucky at an auction in terms of price as end wheel drills are not as popular as they were a couple decades ago as many farms have gone to no-till drills.

First off what are you considering an plder drill? the ones with the Van Brunt series would likely be an FB series or a press wheel that I am not familuar with. For that FB series just drop off the last 0 in your dollar figure. The ones like the 8000 series I donlt think they would even reach a $1,500 price around here. And that is in the area you grew up in.

I have an 8350, don?t like the small seed box in front, seed tubes are too long and tend to plug. Should be on the back like my old Massey 33. Easier to fill when in back too.

One big advantage, I think, with the 8000 series drills over the older Van Brunt is that they have the press wheels that lift when you pick up the openers and the press wheels are rubber which don't pick up wet soil like the old steel ones do. Especially if you have to road the drill much. Rarely ever see a drill in this area without press wheels.

Press wheels were fairly uncommon here until the 1990's when soybeans became popular.

The 8300 seed tubes only plugged with trashy bin run wheat or oats. A neighboring farmer had an issue with narrow seed tubes with clean seed on his Great Plains drill. Had to go slow or the cup would overtake the seed tube.

In my opinion, grain drills are OK for drilling grain (wheat, oats, etc.). But if planting grass such as brome, I prefer to use a grass seeder. And if planting really fine seed such as alfalfa, I like to use an alfalfa seeder. I don't like running grass and alfalfa seed through a grain drill. My 2 cents.

I?m talking about the grass seed box.

Brillion seeders are nice but I have had good luck with the grass seed attachment on the 8300 drill. Some guys mix grass seed and small grain for the main seed box and have it work. Never have done that myself. Years ago a lot of guys locally put down hay seed with a broadcast type seeder.

I drill alfalfa seed through the big grain box on a John Deere drill also plant any kind of brome grass or pasture land mixture I?ve planted mixes with ten different seed variety before and it does a good job





Alfalfa I frost seeded last December




Looks as good or better than any spring seeding it will thicken up a lot and make an nice crop

I also pull a chisel plow with 14 inch wheat land sweeps in front a 16 foot set of lz1010 hoe drills I like the hoe drill in trashy conditions because the hoe drill will work through rough trashy ground and get the seed in contact with the soil . I pull it with a 60 drawbar horsepower tractor with duals and we have everything from white clay to clay loam soil

This was a fall planting triticale this spring after all the snow and rain all the clods are gone and the field is smooth as glass .

Your disk could still be an option

Lanse; The main options to look for would be double disk openers, grass seed box and press wheels. Those options would be hard to find together on an older Van Brundt drill. They can be found on JD 8000 series drills. The different models numbers on the 8000 drills mean different base machines. The 8200 would just have a single top door and smaller grain box than the JD 8300. The 8300 has a double top doors so it has a larger seed box. The JD 8350 drill has the same double door setup but is split into a fertilizer hopper and seed hopper. The 450 drills really where about the same as the JD 8300 just with a single top door. Also the JD 8300 seed rate setting on the flute feed was one for each side. So sometimes getting each side of the box to empty evenly took some fiddling. The JD 450 had one adjustment for the entire drill.

The JD 8300 drills and JD 450 drill could be sold with many different options. So you need to look at a specific drill so we can comment on the options. I would suggest for your type of seeding that flute feed, double disk openers, grass seed box and press wheels would be the options you would get the most good out of. In the south you should be able to find a JD 8300 optioned this way for $2000-3500 depending on condition. The further north the more valuable a drill setup like this would be.

I would tend to stay away from a drill that has fertilizer. It is darn rare that the prior owners kept it clean and oiled when stored. So the majority of them are rusted and or stuck.

are you still using the small offset disc you had in a video. you need get a tandem finish disc with harrow on it and you will have much better seedbed, you are using an off set disc this is not for seed bed prep. I use tandem disc and fuerst harrow in tandem behind. good luck at selling hay did that over 15 years ago, no way would do that again. now small bales clean rye straw to grocery stores yea that paid. i have all farms rented out now and making money every year now. so far this year cause of rain crops are not in yet. other two businesses are for sale now trying to slow down some and enjoy life more. i always just broad cast seeding with p&k and rolled or feurst harrow in. would be better if you cropped for year then came back with seeding. hay into old hay is not the best








































7k

Lanse, I used to help with the spring planting of 100-200 acres of oats for a number of years. We were using an 8300 series drill bought used. Besides some drop tubes and miscellaneous parts the first season we used it, it performed well, we had some nice stands of oats in these years. I don't recall any serious problems with it, we set it for about 3 bushels per acre if I recall.
It's in the below photo, I was running the auger off the gravity wagon, my long time friend and farmer was filling the fertilizer compartment. He passed away in '14, but I sure enjoyed working with him every chance I could. We did well with the yields, grain and straw.

a drill is nothing more than barely controlled chaos anyway, dont over think it. location is everything when buying one. my area, if you gave more than 1500 for any 8000 series drill you gave to much, hand over fist. anymore if i was gonna do a small seed, i think i have just about the same effect broadcasting and covering vs trying to drill....those ol van brunts did a good enough job for longer than the 8000 series were ever built so they couldnt be all that bad when only trying to get some seed on/in the ground. if your dividing line is van brunt or 8000 series, your not covering 3000 acres.

keep it simple....know your equipment, keep your input expense low, and have fun being on a tractor...enjoy life, its more fun that way....

let us know what you bought and how to dial it in to enjoy it

I never could afford a new one. Mine is a '60's era, galvanized hopper, double coulter, no platform on the rear, no fertilizer attachment, 7" spacing, seed chart on inside of one of the 2 lids for setting width of dispenser opening, works great, had maybe $200 worth of parts added in the 30+ years I've had it....maybe a Van Brundt.

Two passes with the disk with attached . I put 14 ply truck tires on the disk I pulled it 70 miles last year to and from a job it roads nice at 45 mph

Don?t be afraid of an international drill either the 620 and earlier drills did a nice job the hitch on the 620 is built light but nothing that can be redone better . I pulled the old ihc for 30 years my grandpa bought it another one just like it and a tandem hitch brand new it finally wore out about 10 years ago . That?s when I bought the two sets of John Deere drills