The John Deere DB120

Have some spring planting to do? Need to put in your field of open-pollinated corn? Got 40 acres that you need to get planted quickly? Do you need to get that 40 acres in quickly? Why not try out the new John Deere DB120 planter. It is a 48 row planting machine that is 120 feet wide (30 inch rows) and that 40 acre field you need to plant ... well, that should take about thirty minutes and you might even have some time to spare when it is all said and done. On the flip side of this whole planter deal, I was recently give a one row garden planter (similar to this one). And, I was pretty excited about it.

I actually don't mind this huge planter on one level because it is made by an Iowa company (not John Deere), and I don't really want to go on about other things related to the fact that it exists. I'm sure John Deere is making it because there is a need and I hope things go well for them with the sales. But, what is mind boggling to me is this...

The cost (that I was able to find online) is $345,000. I saw that and then I really started to think ... $345,000 ... Wow, I could buy 80 acres of pasture with a house and buildings, some livestock, some equipment, and other things I need to build a small farm. In fact if I diversified that small farm and did some market gardening along with livestock through direct marketing I could also probably make a living for my family.

Imagine the 10,000 acres of land that many of the farmers buying this planter are farming split up into 200 acre small and diverse family farms providing food for their communities. That would be 50 family farms ... I think that would be pretty cool, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there more intelligent that I am that could show me how it just wouldn't work...