Is that one of the foreign made roto-tiller/seeder combos? I have been using food plots since the early 90's for both spring and fall.
Nice pictures stx! Yes, I imported the this planter from China a couple of years ago. I found it by searching the web when I was considering another planter that was already imported and sold by a distributor in the US (tillerman1972 on eBay).
To back up, I wanted a tiller based planting system, one that would do it all in one pass; till, fertilize, seed, and pack. Every complete US manufactured system is made for a prepared plot or is harrow based. You can harrow my fields until you run out of fuel but it won't adequately prep the soil, the harrow simply reshuffles the clods. The machine I found does everything.
It is a 2BFG-14 Planter from
Shijiazhuang Agricultural Machinery Co Ltd that is marketed for the hard soils of southwest Asia and Africa which makes it just about perfect for South Texas!
I've been real pleased with the planting results and it has cut down my time on a field considerably as I don't have to keep changing out implements during planting. If I could change anything it would be the size of the fertilizer box.
At the rate we typically use fertilizer, it should be about three times larger. The contact in China and I enjoy emailing each other frequently and he was shocked at the rate we apply fertilizers to the soil. With the conditions of our coastal waters I guess we should be concerned as well but when I get soil samples back I feel luck if the suggested rates are less than 200 to 300# of X-X-X an acre. They have helped me by changing the size and tooth count on the chain sprocket that drives the fertilizer box for the rate but at best you are looking at a capacity for 1/2 an acre. Still it isn't bad as most of my plots are not larger than that and I typically only load the boxes for was is needed for the specific field so that I ensure I'm not going long or short on product. I just load the bags on the catwalk behind the boxes.
Spare parts are easy. I ordered my first batch this past January. Honestly, I was sweating it but was really surprised. The parts are dirt cheap but the shipping high as it needs to go by air to avoid the Customs Port stuff. My order consisted of 33 different parts from sprockets to disc opener fenders to chains. The parts total was $34.50. Shipping was $79 for a total of $133.50 which my bank wires to their bank. I have Kubota, John Deere, and Brillion equipment and I would have expected to pay well over $550 for a similar mix of parts. The weird thing is that 2½ days later a DHL truck showed up and asked me where to unload the crate! I cannot order parts from MN and expect them here in less than 7 days for my other equipment. So, based on my experience, I don't think parts are a problem. I just emailed my contact about another order of spares, not that I'm consuming parts but when they are this cheap I will stockpile them, and my contact said it would be as quick and simple as before.
As far as the purchase, it was simple. Wire the money and they put it on a ship. It came into LA over Christmas which was poor timing on my part as the port is overwhelmed with ships waiting to unload. It didn't clear Customs there but the secure container is placed on a rail car to the Dallas Port. Dallas (at DFW) calls you when it arrives and you have 48 hours to pick it up or you start incurring storage fees. You use a broker to handle it through the ports. Shipping time was six week because of the delays in LA but it is pretty cool as you can track the shipment as it crosses the ocean via the shipping company's website. What was really a nice touch was that they sent me pictures and videos of the test run and packing just to help reassure me that everything was as expected. Their contact, Jerry Zhang was a straight up guy. Like I said, we keep in contact and share a lot of pictures of life on opposite sides of the world.
Cost? The planter was $3070, freight was $380, and broker & Customs bonds & fees $829 for a total of $4279. The fees could have been cut in half because I didn't understand the instructions as I arranged for a broker in LA and didn't need to, just DFW. It is not a total loss on that money as the LA guy did go personally go locate the container and ensure it got on a rail car. It might have sat there a month without a local guy. At the time, a 7' planter from the ebay guy was $3650 plus $587 for freight for a total of $4237. So I just broke even moneywise but I got the fertilizer application, complete seed metering, and disk openers for controlling seed depth and that is what I wanted to realize in the end.
I do have a 8' tiller from the tillerguy1792 and love it. Had he been importing this planter, I would have bought it from him even if it cost me a grand extra. When I bought the Chinese tiller all the old farmers around here scoffed and said it wouldn't last. Got news for them, it is going on 10 years and will chew through anything in it's path. It is what reassured me that this planter would be good to go.
They now have a larger planter-seeder and it does have me salivating!