PRECISION PLANTING ▶▶▶


Horsch ContourFarming regulates the metering system of each unit to ensure consistent seed spacing and plant population when wide versions of the Maestro planter work through a curve


provide manual variable seed rates or auto control from a prescription map, individual electric drive of the planter’s metering mechanism has many more possibilities. Peter Bixel, a grower and SciMax Solutions


agronomy leader at the MaxYield co-operative in northern Iowa, US, is an advocate of seed rate tuning.


Corn seed rate With corn, seed rate is typically trimmed on less productive land to give individual plants more space to perform and gain yield, while increasing plant population exploits the greater yield-supporting potential of better soils. “The opposite is true for soya beans because


on better soils we don’t need as much seed to achieve a good final stand and yield, while increasing seed rate on lighter land achieves greater foliage cover to help conserve moisture and raise seed yield,” says Mr Bixel. Kverneland was among the first


manufacturers to take variable rate software a step further by controlling the vacuum metering units individually on its Optima planter. Using a GNSS location input and GEOcontrol mapping software, oversowing of areas already planted is automatically avoided by stopping and starting the metering units as necessary. Even on angled approaches, crop rows in the main body of the field neatly stop where they meet the headland rows, which can be planted last. Apart from looking neat, this technique saves seed; field size and shape determines how much, but Kverneland says


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Staggered DeltaRow planting from the Lemken Azurit increases the space allocated to each plant by about 70%, but rows can still be harvested by conventional ‘torpedo’ combine headers


2-8% is not uncommon. Moreover, the GEOseed feature will align the planter’s metering discs to sow in conventional rows or in a narrow row diamond pattern that gives each plant an equal amount of growing space. Kverneland cites trials showing 30-45cm (12-17in) row spacing can result in yield increases of up to 10%, compared with traditional 75cm (29in) rows. Lemken has opted for a fixed staggered row


pattern for the Azurit planter, with individual seeds isolated on two electrically-driven perforated discs offset from each other inside the pressurised metering unit. Each row is spaced 75cm (29in) apart, with


the sub-row centres at 12.5cm (5in); fertiliser can be placed between the sub-rows. This layout results in a 70% increase in the area available to each plant, with the potential to more effectively utilise available light and moisture, while greater surface coverage and enhanced root development help combat erosion on susceptible soils. Manufacturers have also exploited electric


metering drive to maintain the correct seed rate as a wide drill sweeps around a curve and


▶ FUTURE FARMING | 9 November 2017


over contours by individually adjusting metering system output in relation to ground speed for each row. Kinze’s curve compensating system requires


sub-10cm (4in) level GNSS guidance, while Horsch employs radar on the Maestro drill frame for its ContourFarming feature. Among others, speed-related control is also


available on Agco White 9000VE and Case IH Early Riser planters equipped with Precision Planting vSet seed meters.


Plant population Without curve compensation, says Kinze, pulling a 24-row, 76cm (30in) planter set for a plant population of 35,000/acre through a tight curve will result in the 15cm (6in) plant spacing dropping to 7.6cm (3in) along the inside row and increasing to almost 23cm (9in) in the outermost row. Resulting seed populations are some way


above and below the target at either end of the planter across an area that may be relatively small as a proportion of a large field, but still compromises a grower’s efforts to produce the best possible crop.


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