New ProSeries opener for John Deere 750A drill

Location
Lichfield
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New ProSeries opener for John Deere 750A drill


Seen for the first time in public at the AEA’s Tillage-Live 2018 event in September, John Deere’s new ProSeries opener for the 750A All-Till drill will be available from January 2019 and can be retrofitted to existing machines. This replaces the 90 Series opener that has been a feature of the drill since its introduction in the mid-1990s, with global sales of over two million units.


The new opener is designed to provide even less soil disturbance, more consistent seeding depth, better seed to soil contact and improved slot closure, and features only one grease point for minimal annual maintenance. In addition for 2019, John Deere will have new, fully ISOBUS compliant software available for both the 750A All-Till and 740A Min-Till drills.

New John Deere ProSeries drill opener_field.jpg


A key benefit of the 750A is the extremely low soil disturbance created at the point of drilling, which fits well with cultural methods for controlling grass weeds, particularly blackgrass. The ProSeries opener further reduces soil movement by utilising a narrower seed boot that fits tighter to the disc, creating less soil throw and providing 40 per cent more consistent seeding depth. Wear life is increased, as the seed boot is hidden more behind the opener disc and subjected to less soil contact.


The flexible press wheel is both narrower and larger in diameter, so it fits in the seed trench better, and now features a double-row bearing for twice the service life. This redesign helps to improve seed to soil contact and keeps each seed at a consistent depth, for more even crop emergence and potentially higher yields. Better emergence is also provided by a more aggressive serrated closing wheel, which has improved the closing function by 50 per cent.


The seed boot mounting bolt is now replaced by a flag pin which keeps the boot from moving, to increase accuracy and reduce wear. The seed tab, which prevents seeds bouncing out of the trench, has been redesigned to better fit the trench and provides twice the wear life of the previous version. Discs can be changed 45 per cent more quickly to further reduce time spent on maintenance.

New John Deere ProSeries drill opener_studio.jpg


The new, fully ISOBUS compliant software works with both John Deere and third party displays. As well as managing features such as section control, the software prevents overdosing in tramlines and provides a predosing function.


Previously when drilling with tramlines the system simply divided the same amount of seed to fewer openers, which led to slight overdosing in the drilled rows. This latest software reduces the total amount of seed to maintain the correct seed rate across the whole field.


In addition, the predosing function prevents gaps in the field when setting off from a standing start. The operator presses a button on the display and the metering system starts immediately, filling the system with seed and preventing any areas being missed.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Nice to see they are investing in them and bringing it up to date a bit more. Bet there’s quite a price home to go with it though.

It’s interesting the “new” software features have been standard on other brands of drills for 15+years.
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
Nice to see they are investing in them and bringing it up to date a bit more. Bet there’s quite a price home to go with it though.

It’s interesting the “new” software features have been standard on other brands of drills for 15+years.

Interestingly the first JD green star drills had some of these features that got dropped when they moved to Kv isobus software. Actually I preferred the old LH Agro/ brown box software as it had useful features such as displaying the seed remaining, the option to switch off the low level alarm and set a alarm at your determined amount of seed remaining and also the ability to run the drill and guidance on the same page.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Interestingly the first JD green star drills had some of these features that got dropped when they moved to Kv isobus software. Actually I preferred the old LH Agro/ brown box software as it had useful features such as displaying the seed remaining, the option to switch off the low level alarm and set a alarm at your determined amount of seed remaining and also the ability to run the drill and guidance on the same page.

I can see why!

I still remember an article in FW or somewhere about a contractor that had a 750A. He claimed it was so accurate on seed when he drilled a field and the farmer asked if he had much left he tipped it out in the farmer’s ashtray.

Made for a good story if rather unlikely in most real life scenarios. Always wondered if that was you.....and your above comments make me think that even more likely.
 

AF Salers

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
York, UK
It’s only software as far as I can see so could it not be updated ?

Possibly Clive, though i guess they would have to plug a laptop into the ECU on the drill to do it. When my ECU burn't out in spring the new ECU came with updated JD software on it instead of the KV software that they had previously been using.
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
I can see why!

I still remember an article in FW or somewhere about a contractor that had a 750A. He claimed it was so accurate on seed when he drilled a field and the farmer asked if he had much left he tipped it out in the farmer’s ashtray.

Made for a good story if rather unlikely in most real life scenarios. Always wondered if that was you.....and your above comments make me think that even more likely.

Blimey, you’ve got a good memory. That must have been about 16 years ago.
The farmer told me to use all the seed on the field, he didn’t want any left. When I’d finished drilling I went up to him and apologised for having a bit left over and asked him where to put it. When he told me I gave him the seed in a bag that I produced from my back trouser pocket. He kept that seed in his ash tray in his office until he died.

To be fair you have to be precise to get that level of accuracy. If I need to I calibrate with scales accurate to within 1 gram and it obviously takes time. However the newer software is just as capable of matching this level, it’s just harder to achieve. For example with the old software you could see that you were using 20 kg of seed per run. If you had 30 more tacks left in the field you could see that the 610 kg left in the hopper was going to be enough.
Now I have to multiply the area I’ve already drilled by the seed rate and subtract it from the amount of seed I’ve used on the job to find that I’ve 610 kg left. I then have to work out the area of each run, I do this by noting the area drilled and subtracting it from the area drilled 4 runs later, I then take the average of those 4 runs to make the area per run of 0.108 ha and multiply it by the seed rate ( 185 kg/ha) to get 19.98 kg of seed per run. It’s a good job I’ve got full auto steer.
 
Last edited:

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
Blimey, you’ve got a good memory. That must have been about 16 years ago.
The farmer told me to use all the seed on the field, he didn’t want any left. When I’d finished drilling I went up to him and apologised for having a bit left over and asked him where to put it. When he told me I gave him the seed in a back that I produced from my back trouser pocket. He kept that seed in his ash tray in his office until he died.

To be fair you have to be precise to get that level of accuracy. If I need to I calibrate with scales accurate to within 1 gram and it obviously takes time. However the newer software is just as capable of matching this level, it’s just harder to achieve. For example with the old software you could see that you were using 20 kg of seed per run. If you had 30 more tacks left in the field you could see that the 610 kg left in the hopper was going to be enough.
Now I have to multiply the area I’ve already drilled by the seed rate and subtract it from the amount of seed I’ve used on the job to find that I’ve 610 kg left. I then have to work out the area of each run, I do this by noting the area drilled and subtracting it from the area drilled 4 runs later, I then take the average of those 4 runs to make the area per run of 0.108 ha and multiply it by the seed rate ( 185 kg/ha) to get 19.98 kg of seed per run. It’s a good job I’ve got full auto steer.
I'm impressed. If a little frightened...
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Not necessarily true, you can buy an older drill with 60 series openers and upgrade to the pro series boots, firming wheel and gauge wheels.
Tried pricing the parts though. I asked about the closing wheel........not available in Australia. If you want it we can ship it from the states.....they were more than double the 90 series ones and I would have had to pay freight on top.......no thanks:stop:
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
Tried pricing the parts though. I asked about the closing wheel........not available in Australia. If you want it we can ship it from the states.....they were more than double the 90 series ones and I would have had to pay freight on top.......no thanks:stop:

Firstly you should try contacting Geoffrey Wox at Woxagri Services for a price on the Guttlers, superior to the new closing wheels although I can’t guarantee that they’ll be cheaper.
Secondly I have been assured that you will be able to get conversion kits for the older drills. JD kits are normally much cheaper options than buying the components individually.
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
Firstly you should try contacting Geoffrey Wox at Woxagri Services for a price on the Guttlers, superior to the new closing wheels although I can’t guarantee that they’ll be cheaper.
Secondly I have been assured that you will be able to get conversion kits for the older drills. JD kits are normally much cheaper options than buying the components individually.
Yeah nah. BPR do everything that is on the new one anyway........and cheaper........just think the JD closing wheels might have been a better option.....they will be available here eventually after they have sold all their existing stock of 90 series stuff here. When I asked for a price on the new closing wheels, no one knew a thing about them in the dealership.....at all.....and nothing showed up on their parts lists.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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