PRECISION PLANTING ▶▶▶


Planting speeds and accuracy leap forward


The term ‘precision planting’ has taken on new relevance as technologies enabling faster working speeds, flexible seed-rate control, individual row switching and maintaining seed rates on corners have come to row-crop drills. Future Farming takes a look at some of the recent advances


Amazone EDX9000 is one of a new generation of planters from European kit manufacturers BY PETER HILL I


magine a planter that can work up to 50% faster, achieves top-rate singulation and in-row spacing, works from prescription maps to vary plant population, and stops


and starts planting at headlands – even on an angle – with uncanny precision. Then imagine a planter that uses radar to


ensure seed spacings are maintained when going round corners and you have a picture in your head of the ultimate in precision planting seed placement technology. The catalyst for all these advances is the


switch from mechanical planter unit drives to neater and simpler electric motor drives – in combination with some radical thinking on seed metering and delivery mechanisms. Add global navigation satellite system-


based implement control, and the biggest advances in planter technology since the invention of the vacuum metering wheel are now available to growers of soya beans, corn, sunflowers and similar crops.


Faster working Being confined to a modest 6-8kph (4-5mph) working speed is no longer a restriction on the latest precision planters. With the ability to work at 12-15kph (7-9mph) and more in good conditions, growers can gain significantly increased capacity without having to go wider. It’s one way to buy greater seasonal capacity


to cope with a larger acreage or to save operating costs by reducing from, say, three planting outfits to just two. Alternatively, says Cory Muhlbauer, R&D


The Väderstad Tempo planter with its innovative Gilstring seed metering unit


agronomist at equipment manufacturer Precision Planting, the increased sowing capacity that comes from faster working speeds can be used strategically to hit optimum sowing conditions. “Our SpeedTube allows farmers to increase their planting speed to as much as 16kph (10mph) and use that 50% increase in productivity to take advantage of a planting window when conditions provide the best opportunity for germination,” he points out. The SpeedTube replaces simple gravity


delivery of seed into the furrow with a miniature flighted conveyor belt, so there is none of the ricochet that can occur within a vibrating tube. Moreover, the belt discharges the seed at a shallow angle and at a velocity that automatically matches the forward speed of the planter, minimising any risk of


▶ FUTURE FARMING | 9 November 2017


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