ih cyclo planter ?

i didnt want to steal the tread below,
but, whats the story on ih cyclo planters? they seemed to make a lot of them ,and for a long time to
good ? bad? they had to be very impressive to all the other planters on the market at that time?
or, are they just old now and obselete?

were they the first air planter?
and i heard, that a farmer, not international invented it? any one know the story on that?
thank you

I dont know but I planted about 1000 acres of shag carpet with one a year until I got my 12 row max emerge

We had two. The biggest problem was getting the seed spacing to work at shallow depths that some need/want to plant at. Seed would bounce out of the trench. We had Accu plant? points on ours and planted sort of on the deep side, close to two inches. We had liquid fertilizer with a squeeze pump for starter. Didn't really need it on our ground but did it anyway. Put it right in with the seed. Did not burn at the level we used. Two 60 gallon tanks and under certain conditions could get over 25 acres planted in one fill. The planter could plant rocks if the were small enough as the planter did not care so seed grade was not important. Always had to make sure you were going forward or you could plug the opener up with the fertilizer. First one had a simple monitor, second had the whistles that would make noise above the planter noise. Planter had some noise from the blower. We kept ours out of the sunlight in storage as the seed tank would fail-had to hold enough air pressure to work. We pulled a 400 4 row wide with 120 gallons of fertilizer for many years with a 460 gas between two to three hundred acres a year. Needed more head land so the PTO would not chatter on turns because you did not want to shut it off. You need the PTO on all the time as when off the seed would fall off the drum and you would need to prime it again or you would have gaps. You needed to maintain lubrication and the gasket where the drum touches the body or you lost air pressure and possibly seed. We planted in third with the 460 at PTO speed rpms, so it was fairly fast. You also needed to maintain speed as changes would get different spacing. Seed hopper held a lot 9-10 bags if I remember and it was one fill spot. Easy to change spacing setting. Very little to do to switch from corn to beans Drum, and settings and tie the brush up if I remember correctly. The biggest thing was getting the seed to stay in the ground.

The 400 was the first air planter of that type, central hopper, tubes to the rows, etc. Im sure some other company had some components here and there like it.....

As a first design, it worked pretty good. But. It was a first design.

The Ford SoS was a first power shift.

Gleaner N5 was the first rotary combine.

None of those three had stellar reputations, tho all three have become standards of the industry across all colors. Sound concept, early model has some growing pains.

The 400 they forgot to test on hills. It didnt like leaning in one direction didnt seed as well.

It wasnt the best at seed depth in our sticky clay soils.

Seed spacing was terrible. This may or may not affect yield, but it looked like crap when they planted next to a JD 7000 planter. The 7000 had a picket row stand of uniform corn. The 400 looks like someone grabbed a handful of seed and dropped it randomly, too far, too close, a little uneven heights.

The JD 7000 was, and still is, one of the best corn planters made.

As I said below, the 500 and 600 models were band aid attempts but didnt fix much (Ive seen very few of those, no one was buying Red around here). The 800 was a lot better at uniform planting depth and hills didnt bother it. But the seed spacing was still poor, and it still wasnt up to the old 7000. The 900 had some improvements.

The 1200 is when I saw people buying Red in droves again. It had most of the bugs worked out, and adjusting to the soil for seed depth and type was easier, more forgiving that the 7000, they finally had an advantage to talk about again.

Of course the 1980s happened, and IHC went bankrupt in the middle of bringing out a new planter design. The 7000 was a proven design that flat out worked just before the 1980s.

No one bought much equipment there for a while, and the companies didnt have any funds to develop or improve their models. So poor timing is what made the development of the Red planter so much longer and drawn out.

New Holland released the TR70 twin rotor in 1974.
IH released the 1440 1460 rotary in 1977.
Gleaner released the N6 in 1979.

some of paul's facts might be a little off but he hits alot of them. Case/ih 800, 900, 950 and 955 plus 5400 and 5500 soybeans special drills have industry leading opening systems. if you want picket row stand, buy a JD, if you don't no-till. if you no till put up a shop that your planter fits in, cause you'll be working on it, a lot! keeping the seed Vee clean on a JD in no till is a fulltime job. (varies on soil type but about 100acres per row unit, give or take) but it can be done. The bottom of an IH planter was/is industry leading. the new JD planters that no one can afford have the same offset discs and are GREAT planter but you need to buy a new tractor to pull them. Takes 2 hyd pumps in the tractor. in my area, maybe not paul's, even emergence has a much greater affect on yield. IH and now new JD have the same openers. I farm dryland in nebraska where mother nature controls my yields not picket row planters. No upgrades needed on a cyclo planters, to no till. Set the factory down pressure to max and go plant. 30 years since my soil has been tilled, my renter uses an older JD and it plants fine into the green rye. But he rebuilds his 16row every year. JD, knows they have a problem, now offers a complete row unit that bolts right onto your old planter tool bar complete, much easier to do and almost as cheap as rebuilding everything by hand. And yes, Gleaner wasn't close to first on rotary combines!

The biggest single advantage was that an air planter was the only planter that could plant both flat and round seed. Plate planters needed flat seed only, and this made the seed corn more costly taking out the round and oversized/underside seeds. Every seed has the same genetic potential. Big or small, round or flat , they will all grow the same plant.

Wow! Did you run a 400 cyclo? A lot of your points are off and don't even make sense. Won't plant on side hills, really? I pulled one for 25 years and never went broke because of poor stands or no stand on side hills. Not the planter a 800 or 900 are but will do a good job. Still have a couple smaller neighbors that still use a 400.

I do not want to spend the time to type all the details.
I won the Mi corn growers contest in 1982 with a cyclo 400. Highest yield in the state.
Had the highest yield of all non irrigated ground in the nation in 1982 with the cyclo 400.

Can't be all bad!!

Thought I would clear up that National yield was also mine.

On most plate type planters, rounds could be sown with their specific plate. My dad had an old AC planter with dozens of different plates for all shapes and sizes of corn....except sweet corn.

Ben

New Holland Tr (TWIN ROTOR) the earliest/oldest/first rotary combine. Probably helped to develop from Ford motor company in that era, I bet. Not IH, Not Gleaner, Not john deere, I have ran the first rotary, a tr70, and set them up, 3208 cat and 6 rows of corn. Not a bad machine at all. hydrostat, pretty straight forward to set them up, but 2 rotors, 2 rotor drive gear boxes, quick attach feeder house, and good to go. that old cat was not short power. Please don't post untrue comments.

My biggest gripe was on the hills. It didn't weigh much and would drift down the slope and the rows would be crooked. That could be corrected by planting from the bottom up. And you had to carefully regulate the air pressure so as not to blow the seed out of the furrow.