At Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR), the team set out to do something farmers are always curious about but rarely get to see in a side-by-side format: a true planter showdown. John Deere, Fendt, and Case IH each brought their best planter and tractor combinations, and Beck’s staff designed a head-to-head trial to compare performance across multiple crops, conditions, and speeds. While a recent Farm Progress article provides more detailed information about the tests, we’ll summarize the methodology and results for you here.

How the Test Was Run

The goal wasn’t to crown a single winner but to create a fair, unbiased comparison of how the latest planter technology performs in real-world conditions. Each company supplied a 40-foot planter paired with a high-horsepower tractor of their choosing. Operators were free to use whatever attachments and setups they felt represented their best system, with only a few excluded technologies to keep the playing field level.

The Beck’s team tested across three fields and measured:

• Corn and soybean emergence at different planting speeds (5 and 10 mph)
• Performance with different corn seed sizes
• Singulation accuracy (the planter’s ability to drop one seed at a time)
• Spacing consistency between plants

They also added a few practical timed challenges, including crop changeover, folding and unfolding, and planter cleanout.

What the Results Showed

While numbers varied slightly across categories, one of the strongest takeaways was just how well all three brands performed.

• Corn emergence and spacing: John Deere stood out for the highest emergence in the first 48 hours and delivered the most consistent spacing, which was the only statistically significant difference in the study.
• Soybean planting: At lower speeds, Deere had the edge in stand counts, but at 10 mph Fendt surged ahead, showing its strength in higher-speed planting.
• Singulation: All three brands performed exceptionally well, with Deere slightly ahead, but Case IH and Fendt close behind. Achieving 96 percent and above across the board is considered excellent by industry standards.
• Timed challenges: Deere was fastest in crop changeover, Fendt led in folding and unfolding, and Case IH showed off efficient cleanout thanks to its planter box design.

Even where one brand led, the margins were narrow. Final stand counts in corn, for example, were all within 700 plants per acre of each other — hardly a gap that would make or break a season.

Why It Matters

Jason Gahimer, who led the study, emphasized that the trial wasn’t meant to recommend one planter over another. Instead, it was designed to give farmers transparent insights into how today’s top machines stack up under similar conditions. Yield results at harvest will provide more information, but even now, the message is clear: Deere, Fendt, and Case IH all produce elite planters that can deliver excellent results.

Every farm is different, with unique soils, conditions, and management styles. What this research reinforces is that growers have excellent choices no matter which color they prefer to run.