My how times change. Just 20 years ago, the highest auction price I saw all year on a planter was $77,000.
It was a 1999 John Deere 1780 24-row, 20", and it sold at a farm auction in Frankfort, S.D. The specifications included: 24R-20, vacuum, 3-bu. hoppers, trash coulters, plumbing for liquid fertilizer and a 500-gal. tank.
The old days sure were quaint, weren’t they? Of course, the price of good used planters has gone up over the past two decades. I saw the first planter sell for north of $250,000 at auction back in June.
But even more eye opening than rising used planter prices has been the revolution with rebuilt and retrofit used planters loaded up with all manners of precision equipment.
Specs for Days
Now the specs on a rebuilt or retrofit planter can go on for days — weeks even. For example, a Kinze 3500 eight-row retrofit planter sold for a record-high price of $70,000 on March 27 via an online farm auction in Norwalk, Ohio.
Details of the Deal:
“Eight-row corn planter, floating Martin row cleaners with depth treaders, no-till coulters, Precision Planting DeltaForce hydraulic down pressure, soybean/corn/specialty seed disks, WaveVision seed sensors, FurrowJet with on-row and wing fertilizer, two 150-gal. poly starters with double 12-volt SureFire pump, 150-gal. poly pop-up tank with 12-volt double SureFire pump, two vApplyHD flex meters per row, Precision Planting mini SmartFirmer on four rows, Copperhead Furrow Cruiser closing wheels, drag chain, Precision Planting VAC fan, hydraulic drive alternator, markers, twin lift cylinders, LED lights and Precision Planting Gen 3 20/20.“
Whew. The final price was no surprise. Demand for the right specs on a retrofit/rebuilt used planter is high.
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